The Foundation Works

Of all the companies I approached to perform the obligatory inspection in order to assess the scope of work to be done on my foundation (which is extensive), Foundation Works is THE ONLY company that charges a fee. Consumer beware - it does not state this anywhere here on Angie's List nor on Foudation Works' own website. You will only discover this only AFTER speaking to a representative on the phone trying to schedule this inspection. A fee of $215 to inspect a foundation requiring approximately $50K of work had the effect of immediately removing this company from further consideration for the job.

About a year ago we had our frame braced and bolted to the foundation (seismic retrofit) . The Foundation Works did a top notch job with a professional crew at every step. Their price was similar to other bids and they worked with us through the Earthquake Brace and Bolt program. They also stuck to their time lines. We were very happy with them, but here's the cherry on top. We had copper pipes installed recently. When the county inspector was out to inspect that job, he looked at the work under the house. He asked us who did our brace and bolt job. We told him and asked why. He said he could see that they did a really great job.

They were good. Matt was our inspector. We needed to get an inspection done on a new home and they came out with little notice and gave us a great breakdown and report. We are looking to hire them for the foundation repairs so I will let you know how the service goes beyond the inspection!

Great. Very professional. Received LA city permits promptly.

Excellent Professional, courteous and thorough.

Second time I used this company. When I wanted to have foundation work done I knew this was the company I wanted to use. They repaired and retrofitted my mother’s foundation and everything went well. Had to reschedule once but arrived on time each day and cleaned up after the days work. Passed inspection. Very happy with this company. Thanks again.

I found cracks all around the inside and outside of my home. The inspectors came and checked the went under my house and found no issues with the house just normal settling. Glad they were honest, a shady company would of tried to sell me things I did not need. The inspectors Kent and Matt were professional and very honest! Will highly recommend this company to all my friends and family.

Superb—diligent, high-quality work with fair pricing and a practical approach to addressing the needs of an old home.

Our house was built 1938 and did not meet current guidelines for earthquake protection. We had an excellent experience with The Foundation Works. The crew arrived on time, set up their equipment, and promptly started work. The job was completed in less than 1½ working days with absolutely no inconvenience to me. The City of Los Angeles inspector was called, and arrived just as the job was being completed. He signed-off on the job with no changes requested. The crew packed up their equipment and cleaned up everything perfectly. The entire crew was friendly and polite. I couldn't have asked for a better experience.

Showed up on time. All work was done on a timely basis. Communication with home office was very good.

great, they where always on time and where easy to talk to. left the place clean!

Customer service was excellent and the guys who performed the work were as professional as they come. After the work was performed there was a huge difference in the floor and they were able to level it out in the areas were it needed reinforcement. I was extremely satisfied with there work and would recommend them to amylne needing this type of work.

Ken was awesome. He showed up on time, was knowledgeable and honest. It's our foundation, and our interior has cracks from the settling of all the rain, Ken could have told us anything and we would have probably believed him. But he was so honest, and we really appreciated that. He told us that there is some rotting wood in the frame that needs to be replaced asap, to stop the settling, that would cost about $800 including parts and labor. He then said that our foundation looks good, but could probably do with some seismic retrofitting at some point, but not urgent or necessary at this time. We had Foundation Works do the work. The team that did the work was prompt, courteous, cleaned up after themselves and showed us in detail the work that was done. We would definitely hire them again and have referred them to our neighbors.

Pricing was competitive and the assessment was free, PLUS they made time to see my home and do the work really fast. Mainly though, everyone I dealt with, from Sean the engineer who did the assessment, to Jose and his team who did the work, to Roselyn who handles scheduling, to Marie who manages billing, were AMAZING. Super professional, organized, friendly and pleasant from start to finish. I cannot say enough good things about this company honestly. The guys who did the work were also tidy and efficient and so nice. Everyone in this company made a very stressful situation better and were kind and reassuring throughout. THANK YOU!

It went very smoothly. They were quite professional and easy to deal with. The city inspector told us that they were very impressed with their work.

They promptly returned my call to come out for an inspection and quote. They were able to get out to start repairs within a week of first contact. Everyone was courteous, from the office support, to the inspector, to the workers and foreman. They were always on time and the work was done quickly. Great experience!!!

Excellent work and thorough inspection

I crawl under my house every 5 years or so just to observe the condition of whats down there and I noticed some piers that needed adjustment so I called a foundation contractor to come out and give me an inspection of my foundation and adjust and strap the piers to the post. Believe it or not the current building code does not require strapping on even new construction but it's not a bad idea to do it anyway as and extra precaution against earthquake damage. I went under the house with the first contractor who was very professional and he found three small cracks that he felt needed to be attended too and he gave me a short and concise bid proposal. I called the next contractor and went under the house with him and he found the same three cracks. He spent a lot of time with me which I appreciated but he was three months out and couldn't give me a precise date for the work. His contract under work to be done just stated "Fix cracks in foundation". Next I called "'The Foundation Works". I called Friday and they had an inspector out on Monday. Kent Romero showed up on time and after walking the around the outside of the house we went under the house together. Kent was the only inspector to take a clipboard with him and took notes as we crawled around checking the foundation and the post and piers. I asked a lot of questions and he explained what he felt needed to be done at this time which were remedial repairs on the five small cracks( He found two that the other inspectors missed) He also explained what needed to be improved with the post and piers. I've been a homeowner for 40 years and I do most of my own repairs so I know a little bit about house construction and dealing with contractors or trade professionals when needed. I was extremely impressed with Kent. He spent a lot of time with me and every question I asked he was able to answer to my satisfaction. You would be hard pressed to find another foundation inspector as professional and impressive as Kent. I'm not easily impressed either!!!. Kent was the only inspector to send me a very detailed proposal which was 5 pages long. He not only detailed the work to be done but also explained about the importance of drainage in regards to protecting the foundation because moisture is the chief cause of foundation settlement. He explained about contraction and expansion of soil in regards to the foundation and that this is an ongoing process every home owner should be award of in regards to home maintenance. A week after a follow up call to Kent with a few minor question I received an email from the founder and owner of "The Foundation Works" with her personal cell number inviting me to call if I had any questions or concerns regarding the work to be performed. I called Tom and he spent over an hour on the phone with me and even asked me to send pictures in regards to some other issues in the inside and outside the house that concerned me. Again, I was extremely impressed that the owner of this large company would spend time with me answering every question I had and this was the New Years Eve weekend. Did I mention that this whole job was only 2500.00 dollars not 50,000 dollars?. Impressed is an understatement!!!. I accepted the proposal on the phone and Tom scheduled the work for the next week. He didn't even ask for a 10% down payment. The crew showed up on time after a confirmation call the night before and was very professional led by the foreman on the job, Jose Zepeda. Jose was fantastic and also spent a lot of time explaining how the day would go and about the work being performed. Nicest guy in the world and very professional as was the whole crew. It was a one day job and they finished on time and after they cleaned up my yard, garage and driveway were cleaner than when they started. My thanks to the owner of The Foundation Works, Tom Pelletier, Jose Zepeda the foreman. Christian Sturba, the roving quality control person(they have a roving quality control person who can show up unannounced), Eddie Garcia, Richard Johnson and Luis Baltonado. You guys were all fantastic. Also Maria and Roselyn who handle the office and were also fantastic to deal with. If anyone is looking for foundation work or just an inspection at no cost, this is the first company you should call. Also check out their website, you'll be extremely impressed even if you're just looking for informative information. Thanks again to everyone at "The Foundation Works". Bob Budworth

We were very pleased with the results on this job. The contractor's foreman and workers were punctual, courteous and professional at all times. Given that we were adjusting the level of the floor, we were concerned about the impact on adjacent windows and doors, and we found that the contractor was very sensitive to this concern, with excellent results. In addition, the contractor performed a full foundation inspection and recommended several modest repairs to strengthen sections that had had some wear and tear. These additional repairs were inexpensive and worthwhile.

From start to finish our experience with Foundation Works was top notch. We did contract them to bolt the foundation on our 1921 Spanish Bungalow home and repair some minor foundation cracks in a 1950's addition. Prior to calling Foundation Works we had two other estimates for work, one was in line with the quote provided by Foundation Works and one was higher with a few additions to the work. So I would say their price was in parity with others. Myron did our initial inspection and spent a lot of time crawling around under our home and doing a very detailed inspection. He spent a long time sitting with us afterwards discussing what he discovered and what he recommended. He was very patient with our many questions. When we tried to add some additional work reinforcing what looked like some long term slippage on the peers under the house he carefully informed us of the history of how houses like ours were built and why we did not need to spend more money doing this repair as it wasn't slippage but rather just how it was built. Once we accepted the bid FW was able to start work quickly. They worked cleanly and while they don't clean up every day before going home they also don't leave a bad mess and the work was all in the backyard so a few piles of tools was not a big deal at all and was painless. The team that did our work was professional, friendly, and efficient. When we had questions they were always there to answer. When we had one (very small) issue related to the nails originally used in the 1920s to hold the corner floorboards in which had jumped up a bit due to the installation of blocks needed to support the bolting in a few places, they stopped work, immediately fixed the issue and adjusted how they worked so it didn't happen again. When the work was done you wouldn't even have known they were here. The yard and all entry points to the crawl space were spotless. The Burbank city inspection was a few days later, they handled it completely and we never needed to worry about a thing until they handed us approvals. The back office and payment process was professional, pleasant, and very low touch. I can't recommend this company more highly.

Excellent company. Free estimate and very informative proposal. Completed job and passed inspection. Cleaned up afterwards. Had accident with sprinklers but had it fixed the next day. Thank you to everyone at The Foundation Works.

I can't say enough praise about The Foundation Works or their people. Their sales team was super efficient, punctual, communicative. The workers who performed the job went very far above and beyond. They were clean around the space and great to have around. Specifically the foreman running the job was really great. He even called and text on weekends/after hours to communicate with me about small things and make sure I was taken care of. And even though the job took a little longer than they budgeted they didn't cut a single corner and stuck around until it was all done perfect. The city inspector was impressed. This was a big project and not a cheap expense for a home owner. But if I had to do it again I would hire these guys back 10/10. Feel very confident in the their work. Can't overstate how good they were. Thanks!

The Foundation Works is a very professionally run company. I couldn't be more satisfied with my experience. It began with a 7-page report by Kent Romero that summarized the findings of his inspection of my property. It detailed the repairs and retrofit upgrades, the city permitting process, the cost and payment schedule. It also included recommendations for work that were outside the scope of their services. The cost included the services of a structural engineer to oversee the prescription for my particular building. Kent answered all my questions and explained everything in a way that I could understand. I was having other work done to my property at the same time so Foundation Works was very flexible in scheduling the work to coordinate with my needs. I really liked the way the company handled all the permit and inspection aspects, as well as the guaranteed sign-off from the city prior to the final payment. Anthony, the work foreman, was a very polite and responsible guy. The crew arrived on time every day, left the work site super clean, and completed the job on schedule. The office staff also were very friendly and responsive. This was the most painless experience I've ever had working with a contractor.

The Foundation Works was one of the contractors that bid for this work. Their initial inspection of the crawl space and the foundation was much more thorough than the other contractor. They also identified an area of the foundation that needed repair and included that work in their original estimate. Due to our travel we had to delay the work for several months after the original inspection and bid. We explained that to them and they had no problem with our scheduling issue. When we finally scheduled the work to be done they were very responsive and scheduled the work to our needs. Once the work began their team worked hard and diligently for both the bolting of the house as well as the repair work. The team finished in 3 days and kept us informed all along the way as to how things we going. Once finished they scheduled the Building Inspector who responded within a week. The Foundation Works foreman was there when the inspector arrived and went over the completed work. Between the finish of the work and the inspection I personally crawled the perimeter of the house and inspected the work and repair to reassure myself and the home owner that everything was completed. It was a dusty slow trip but I was not surprised to find everything in good order and all work satisfactorily completed. I was more than pleased with the quality of the Foundation Works job and their collaboration with us was terrific. I have already recommended them to a friend and wouldn't hesitate to give them as high a rating as I can. This is a well-run business!

After surveying the underneath, they came out and spent the time necessary to fix the problem with the front entrance and back door to level out so we could close the doors.