AFS Foundation & Waterproofing Specialists

We're still waiting on an estimate from AFS - Alabama Foundation Specialists, and we don't even need it anymore. We were going to get some foundation work done on a property we were thinking of buying, but we never bought it. We got an estimate from them for similar work before, and they were prompt that time, but the second time, they were not.

They are extremely professional. Have excellent information brochures. And seem very knowledgable. I would have hired them if not for the price. They do somewhat match pricing but were not able to in this case. The difference was quite a bit. It was for the exact services with the same guarantee. I would highly recommend them and wish price was not such an importance in my situation.

The salesman was great at explaining everything and the men that did the actual work were on time and polite and cleaned up everything. Nothing was left for me to clean up. The man that came to inspect there work was friendly.

First guy came out and took notes and said he'd send an estimate. Never did. I called about it and they sent another guy. He took notes too and his analysis was different than the first. He said he was the supervisor and no one knows more than he. He did send an estimate. I called a few months later and scheduled the start date. No one ever showed up. I gave up.

IT WENT AS WELL AS I WOULD HAVE EXPECTED.

We have a full, unfinished basement, approximately 30 x 40, concrete floor and concrete block walls, with an air handler. We have had occasional flooding problems when heavy rains occur, up to a maximum of 18". It would always eventually drain out, but at the expense of ruining the household goods we stored there and the accompanying mold and mildew. I was very pleased with the overall results. They completed the job in 2 days, less than the estimated three. The cost was high, I thought, but I guess I paid for the expertise and reputation as the best. The crew they sent were professional, hard workers, used my outside basement access to minimize traffic in the house, and cleaned up after their work, although I have quite a bit of dust on the floor from the excavation that still needs to be mopped up before I can use the space. The pump and dehumidifier seem to be high quality equipment with no problems so far. The salesman and home office provided good, courteous service, answered all of my questions. We had some problems scheduling the salesman's first visit to provide the estimate; I had two callbacks from the home office to re-schedule due to conflicts, but finally scheduled him on the third attempt. It would be better if they were able to confirm the appointment with the salesman up front, before committing my time to an appointment.

Awesome job!! AFS exceeded my expectations in every way possible. I want to be sure that several of your team members are recognized for their hard work while repairing my property. First, I was extremely impressed with Reid Cox who performed the inspection of my property. From his first introduction all the way through the end of the appointment, Reid was prepared, informative and very courteous. He made it a point to leave his cell phone in the truck (which you rarely see a contractor do!) so that he could completely focus on answering all of my questions. He went into as much detail as I needed to understand what was happening on my property, and he made it a point to show me how he arrived at took his measurements. I have to admit, when installation day arrived, I wasn?t sure what to expect. However, I want to recognize AJ and his entire crew ? Luis, Damian and Francisco?for a great job. AJ introduced himself and told me about his schedule for the day. The entire crew worked so efficiently, but what I appreciated the most was their attention to detail. As they prepared the piers and Jacks for installation, they asked me about my goals so that they could make the right adjustments. I felt completely comfortable having them work on my property. Foundation repair is heavy-duty construction work, but I felt that your crews were more professional, courteous and polite than most of the plumbers or electricians I?ve had inside my home. Please be sure to recognize Reid, AJ, Luis, Damian and Francisco; I?m truly impressed with their work. I?m happy to provide a reference to any other homeowners considering repair. I don?t ?wonder if the bounce in the floors? is OK, or if the crack in the wall will get bigger? I know my house is on solid ground. While at our property, the team even performed work for one of our neighbors that needed a smart support installed. They were also very happy with the floor support.

The salesman, Jason, was late the day he came to my house to give the initial bid for the job. He didn't return any of my phone calls after that when I had a question. When I asked for a quote on additional work he did send me a price via email but didn't follow up with any details when I asked. When Jason was in my house he made a comment that most women didn't understand anything about structural issues, a comment I found to be inappropriate and unprofessional. No one from the Huntsville office ever called me to confirm my appointment. I had given this company a $2,000 deposit check (which they were quick to cash) so I had to go with them because the deposit was not refundable. Every time I called to confirm my appointment I was sent to Sherry's voicemail but she never returned any of my calls. I finally got a confirmation from the receptionist, who was very nice and helpful (I had to insist that I not be sent to Sherry?s voicemail. The day of the work, the technicians were late. I called the office to find out when they would be here and was told they should be on their way. They showed up an hour late. The technicians who did show up were very professional and friendly. Before the team left the first day, Rashad told me they would be onsite early the next morning. The second day they, again, failed to show up on time. At 1000 I called the office to find out if the technicians were on their way. I was told that they would be onsite soon. I waited until 2pm that day and they still hadn?t shown up to finish the work. (I had to leave to run errands).When I came home I had to crawl around in the crawl space to determine if the work had been completed. They didn?t leave a note to indicate that they had been there or completed the work. They also left a mess of concrete in my yard outside the crawl space access that I now have to clean up because I can?t mow over the concrete. Really??!! Use a tarp. I needed this work to be done in a timely manner for two reasons: 1, I needed the support beam installed as soon as possible in order to prevent any further damage to the house and 2, my husband was returning from Afghanistan and I didn't want him to be burdened with having to deal with this. They may do good work but customer service is not their forte. I won't use this company again for any additional work. There are too many other companies in Huntsville.

They waterproofed the basement, they put the drain around the inside. They were willing to work with me and they came out and talked to me. The workers were actually like very neat and had explained stuff to me and seem to know what was going on. The guy that did the estimate down to the head of the workmen, they knew what was going on.

Sales representative arrived promptly on 8/28/2013. He did a thorough review and analysis and proposed to do the work for the amount of $10,567.53 which included a 10% preferred customer discount. AFS offers a 6 months same as cash option. I called AFS and used my VISA to place the 30% deposit, $3170.26. The 6 month same as cash offer is through MoreHouse Finance Company. I called MoreHouse and they wanted an account and routing number. I said I would use my credit card, and they would not accept this manner of payment. I was insistent with AFS that I would only pay on a credit card, one-sixth of the balance per month. I made 8 calls to the salesman and other AFS personnel. and told them if I could not pay with my credit card I would cancel. I am nun-plussed that in the 21st century a company that takes a credit card deposit cannot also take monthly payments with the same method. On 30 August the owner called me. He said AFS was not flexible to my conditions. He was extremely abusive. He said I am a sorry individual, must not have anything to do and he would not want my business. I stated I would contact the Better Business Bureau since the company has an A+ rating. He told me to shove it. At all times I was courteous and reserved and did not deserve this treatment. At 11:50 the company representative called me to get my credit card information to return the deposit.

They left a bit of a mess in the yard, but they did a good job in all other respects. I haven't had to follow up with them about any other issues with the foundation.

Estimate was provided quickly. Workers were punctual. The work order was missing the sump pump I had requested but was fit into schedule and corrected right away. I hope the sump pump is low enough but am satisfied with the work. The space needing the sump pump has limited accessibility. I requested the smartjacks since the builder, Tommy Walker, used maximum length code would allow on floor joists and in 2 places the double joists were a foot or more displaced from the walls. A wall started to crack and a few doors would not stay open.

It went well, the price was in line with other estimates and was finished on time and at the price we agreed on. I did use the angie list coupon, and was told that I needed to present that before the final price. I told them I did not see that listed on the angies list coupon, but I did see it listed on the coupons that came in the mail. Reguardless I told them if they didn't want to honor it I would just cancel the order, and I did. A few minutes later the owner called an said they would honor the coupon.

Reid Cox of AFS did a thorough inspection of our crawlspaces, gave me the estimate and worked with me to get what we needed within our budget. Of all the contractors that came to give us estimates for the work, he is the only one that went into our crawlspace and checked out what was actually going on. The CleanSpace is probably the most expensive crawlspace encapsulation system available. However, from the research I've done, it's also the best. The work took about three days to complete. The musty smell in our basement and crawlspaces has abated. I highly recommend AFS and the CleanSpace system.

Install went very smoothly. They were here on time the day of install and worked quickly. They were very professional throughout the entire process.

Listened to what I said and wanted. Provided solutions and did not try to press higher priced solutions and use scare tatics as other companies had done. Very professional, great company

AFS was very responsive to see what work needed to be done to remedy the repair needed; fit us into their schedule; cleaned up the work site and made sure the work was completed. They were very responsive.

A few months ago I noticed a musty smell coming from my crawl space and was not sure what was going on. I did some research on the internet and decided that I might have a water issue in my crawl space. I then used the internet to find a few companies to come out for an inspection. After making several calls, I was able to get two estimates. One company came out and looked in my crawl space for a few minutes and then told me what the problem was and gave me an est. of about how much it would be to fix. He told me he would mail a quote to me within a few days. Three days later AFS showed up to inspect my crawl space. The tech took right at an hour crawling my entire crawl space ( which is full of insects and is gross ) and took 20 plus pictures so I could see what the inspector saw. Needless to say, there was no way I was ever going into the crawl space so I appreciated being able to see the condition of the crawl space rather than just trusting what the other company told me. After reviewing with me what was causing the musty smells, the tech had a nice presentation that showed me exactly what needed to be done to get it fixed. I know little about crawl spaces other than the fact that they are nasty, but after the presentation I felt pretty confident about the water issues in my crawl space as well as the solution. To make a long story short, I decided to have AFS fix the water issue I was having as well as encapsulate my crawl space. Two things made me decide to chose AFS. 1) The tech was very professional and did not talk down to me just because I am a female who knows nothing about crawl spaces and 2) They provided almost five pages of customers in my area that had similar work done and I knew several of the people on the list. That being said, I felt comfortable having AFS fix the water issue. A few days after I scheduled to have the work done, I received the quote from the first company and could not figure out what they were proposing and was very confused. I did not bother having them come back out because as a working mother, I simply don't have time to waste going back and forth a million times trying to sort out how they were going to fix my crawl space. I appreciate how AFS treated me from the initial phone call all the way down to having the work done.

Prior to committing to the work, my wife and I researched several companies, got references, and talked to people who had used this company. Their reputation compared favorably with other companies and everyone who had used them were well satisfied with their work. One of those who recommended this company was a highly-regarded architect. Our foundation needed extensive repair since we are on a significant slope and the house was moving a bit down the mountain. We also were concerned about water coming into our garage frequently after rainstorms.The person who initially contacted us from AFS-Huntsville was very friendly and professional. He visited us several times prior to providing a plan and an estimate. One of the visits included the head of the company. They were careful to show us photographs of the areas that indicated a need for repair and to provide us with information about the type of work they would do. When I expressed skepticism about the strength of the piling system they planned to use, they provided me with a Technical Manual that showed the testing that was done on their piling system with very impressive results.They presented us with a plan and a cost estimate that originally included putting in 54 pilings plus the other work described above. Although the cost was higher than other estimates we received, the planned work was more extensive, and we were impressed with the professionalism of the personnel we dealt with.We approved the plan and the work began about a week later. It took about 5 weeks to complete the work. As the work progressed the operations manager in charge was frequently present and reported on progress and issues. One issue was the large amount of rock in the ground which led them to use push pilings instead of helical pilings. They found several unexpected problems that prevented the installation of 7 of the planned pilings. In each case, the operations manager explained the problem and the work-around solution for fixing it.All members of the work crew appeared to be proficient in their skills and were very friendly. The work was completed in 5 weeks, a bit longer than planned due to the issues discovered and rain.At the end we were expecting to be asked for additional funds because of the additional work due to issues that were found. However, there was no such request, and we paid the original agreed-to cost. They left the house and yard in a clean and well repaired condition, however, we lost some of our bushes and flowers due to the digging required.

My overall experience with them was an A. I thought they were a little expensive, but I would use them again if I needed to.

Also told us we had Brown Recluse Spiders but they would get rid of them when they did the basement. We learned from our pest control company the next day and research on the internet how hard it is to get rid of these spiders. When we called AFS back they told not to talk to the pest control company that they would take care of it. Our normal pest control man came out and did an inspection of the house and determined we did not have brown recluse spiders. AFS caused us a lot of worry - no money but my Mom and I were very upset there for a few days thinking we had these spiders in our house. I can not prove it but believe that AFS only said that to get us to go ahead and get their system. We did not go with them.

Everything went okay. They were professional and did what they said.

Representative was outstanding. Decision made to go with another company.

Call, quote process, scheduling (they have a scheduling coorindator). Work performed as quoted. Would use this group again and would recommend this work crew.

Told they could handle this job with 6 supports .After job was completed, the following problems were present: 1) Failure to fix crack. After job was completed was told they did not guarantee crack to be pushed together. This was the primary reason and request before job was completed. 2) New cracks now inside house from ramming of crane against the house. 3) Doors still don't close which originally occurred when house settled. This should have been rectified when house was to moved back to position. 4) Walking plank to patio needs to be rebuild. Left collapsed after dirt placed back in ground. 5) Garden destroyed. This was planned, however afterward support could not be placed in this location and only 5 supports were placed. 6) Telephone line was cut by equipment and I had to organize for phone company to repair. 7) Mud on driveway after workers left which took some time for me to clean. I should note they did bring out someone to do masonry work to close crack. Had I known the outcome of this project in advance, I would have just had the masonry work done at a fraction of the cost particularly since the house had not had additional movement in a few years.