I have a 1974 ranch with a walkout basement in which the back corner had settled. The unfinished basement floor had cracked almost in half and sunk over an inch at that back corner. This also caused the first two support poles holding the floor joists to sink. I believe this settling also caused the front foundation wall to crack as it was being pulled back.
I called Foundation Systems of Michigan for an estimate on re-leveling that back corner, as I was preparing to finish off the basement. The salesman wanted to sell me a system that would pull the front foundation wall towards the front of the house, rather than talk about leveling the sunken back corner. I told him I'd think about it and never intended to contact them again.
Unfortunately, I contacted this same company a few years later and requested an estimate on mud jacking my basement floor. It wasn't until the same salesman showed up that I realized I made the mistake of calling the same idiot company. This time, rather than talking about mud jacking the basement floor, he talked me into $10,000.00 worth of piers to level the house. I was also giving the choice of declining a permit which would have cost me more money than I already didn't have, as I'm disabled and on social security, so I naturally declined. The install was set for June of 2014.
It was pouring rain on the day of the install and I figured the crew was going to stop but they continued working. I was called out only once to look at a fifteen foot hole at the corner of my house as the foreman explained to me that the foundation was too thick and they weren't going to be able to lift the house, but they would be able to install all seven piers to stabilize it.
I wasn't outside watching like I should have, but did manage to look out the window a few of times and noticed their equipment was having a hard time reaching under my deck. In fact, there is no way they could have installed the piers that the salesman sold me because of the deck being in the way. They also finished much quicker than I had expected and I signed off on the walk-through mainly because of the pouring rain. The foreman never took pictures of the piers before backfilling the holes and never took any benchmarks of the house before or after the job was complete.
A few months later a huge sinkhole appeared at the spot of the one hole I saw them dig and as I was repairing it, I notice they broke the drainage pipe for my gutters and never told me about it. I also noticed the siding around the window at that corner was starting to buckle away from the caulking. I called Foundation Systems of Michigan to tell them that the house was still shifting so they sent out two guys and a laser to benchmark the house with a thick black crayon and would return to compare the markings to determine if the foundation was sinking or not. The failed to return the second time and now I've noticed gaps between the floors and walls.
I'm now getting cracks in the drywall around my windows and doorways and constantly hearing banging and popping all over the house. The foundation was never the problem, it was the basement floor that sunk bringing the support poles down with it and pulling down the beam that the floor joists are resting on. This is why I now have gaps between the walls and floor and why I needed mud jacking and not piers.
I'm still paying on a loan for this job and have no more money to get my house repaired. Foundation Systems of Michigan has ripped me off $10,000.00 and has destroyed my house in the process.
Foundation Systems of Michigan Reviews
I have a 1974 ranch with a walkout basement in which the back corner had settled. The unfinished basement floor had cracked almost in half and sunk over an inch at that back corner. This also caused the first two support poles holding the floor joists to sink. I believe this settling also caused the front foundation wall to crack as it was being pulled back.
I called Foundation Systems of Michigan for an estimate on re-leveling that back corner, as I was preparing to finish off the basement. The salesman wanted to sell me a system that would pull the front foundation wall towards the front of the house, rather than talk about leveling the sunken back corner. I told him I'd think about it and never intended to contact them again.
Unfortunately, I contacted this same company a few years later and requested an estimate on mud jacking my basement floor. It wasn't until the same salesman showed up that I realized I made the mistake of calling the same idiot company. This time, rather than talking about mud jacking the basement floor, he talked me into $10,000.00 worth of piers to level the house. I was also giving the choice of declining a permit which would have cost me more money than I already didn't have, as I'm disabled and on social security, so I naturally declined. The install was set for June of 2014.
It was pouring rain on the day of the install and I figured the crew was going to stop but they continued working. I was called out only once to look at a fifteen foot hole at the corner of my house as the foreman explained to me that the foundation was too thick and they weren't going to be able to lift the house, but they would be able to install all seven piers to stabilize it.
I wasn't outside watching like I should have, but did manage to look out the window a few of times and noticed their equipment was having a hard time reaching under my deck. In fact, there is no way they could have installed the piers that the salesman sold me because of the deck being in the way. They also finished much quicker than I had expected and I signed off on the walk-through mainly because of the pouring rain. The foreman never took pictures of the piers before backfilling the holes and never took any benchmarks of the house before or after the job was complete.
A few months later a huge sinkhole appeared at the spot of the one hole I saw them dig and as I was repairing it, I notice they broke the drainage pipe for my gutters and never told me about it. I also noticed the siding around the window at that corner was starting to buckle away from the caulking. I called Foundation Systems of Michigan to tell them that the house was still shifting so they sent out two guys and a laser to benchmark the house with a thick black crayon and would return to compare the markings to determine if the foundation was sinking or not. The failed to return the second time and now I've noticed gaps between the floors and walls.
I'm now getting cracks in the drywall around my windows and doorways and constantly hearing banging and popping all over the house. The foundation was never the problem, it was the basement floor that sunk bringing the support poles down with it and pulling down the beam that the floor joists are resting on. This is why I now have gaps between the walls and floor and why I needed mud jacking and not piers.
I'm still paying on a loan for this job and have no more money to get my house repaired. Foundation Systems of Michigan has ripped me off $10,000.00 and has destroyed my house in the process.