Bedrock Foundation: Make That a Big, Fat, Yabba, Dabba, Don’t

So here’s the deal: We live in an adorable 1950’s bungalow, on a pier-and-beam foundation sitting on clay soil. Not the most ideal situation, but up until April, the house shifted minimally. We went years between visits for minor adjustments, even.

But then we noticed that I could drop something and it would roll away, as if going downhill. So we decided that, before the wedding in June, we would go ahead and have the foundation looked at. We called the company that had done the work before – Bedrock Foundation.

That was in March – late March. The owner, Dennis, came out and said the center was sinking. No problem, he said – he’d have some guys come out and adjust the center the next day. Only, the next day, the hubster pointed out that, uh, the back of the house was dipping, too. Oh yeah, they agreed, and then drew up plans to fix everything for $2,100. Not bad, we thought, and agreed to the work.

They spent two days in April jackhammering, murdering shrubbery, dismantling our deck, and moving piles of dirt around. When they were done, the house seemed pretty darn level. So we happily paid.

But then we started noticing large cracks. Large, ugly cracks. The hallway closet doesn’t shut – or if  you do shut it, you need to really eat your Wheaties to open it back up. The deck is sinking. The shower fixture is coming loose. The granite countertop is coming loose.  Door facings are coming up off the floor.

In other words, the house is more jacked than it was before the work. So we call them. They send an engineer out – Steve – who doesn’t even have any information about the work previously done. We had to find our copies so he could look them over. He put his level on the ground, and then shined a flash light in the crawl space. That’s it. He wasn’t even interested in looking at the damage. Then he told us the center was sinking, and it wasn’t covered by the warranty, so we’d have to pay another $1,800.

That’s uh, a lot of clams.

So we wrote an e-mail on September 4, 2010, asking if they could just send someone out to do a more thorough investigation, and maybe actually explain a little better how something that was determined to be a problem in March wasn’t covered in the warranty for the work done in April. No response. A week later, I called, and left a message for Dennis. No call back. On Sept. 16,  I sent another e-mail. No response. On Sept. 22, we mailed a letter – via certified mail. They received it on Sept. 23,  and M. Gallemore signed for it. As of today, nothing.

So I think it’s pretty clear: They have no intention of honoring the warranty. And they probably tried to gouge us for repairs we already paid for. Let me make it clear – all we asked for in the communications was a little more attention and an explanation, given that we had just spent over $2,000 with this company, and they wanted us to spend nearly $2,000 more. All we wanted was a guarantee that if indeed we paid this money, the entire foundation would finally be covered under a warranty.

That’s it.

So I tell you all – if you need foundation work done, this is the last company you should hire. And I haven’t been shy on giving a review on every single site that asks for reviews of companies. There’s also been a Better Business Bureau complaint and one filed with the attorney general’s office.

Because besides it being bad customer service, refusing to honor a warranty is illegal.