Avalin Seismic Construction Co Inc

Very well. I recommended Avalin to Angie's List. That should say it all.

Inspector spent more than an hour under my house checking out a number of loose post and pier supports and foundation cracks. Then the boss never called with an estimate. He never would return my calls and the phone number was just to a machine. Very strange action. Very rude, very unprofessional. If they didn't want to do the job for some reason, he should have at least told me why. Still have not heard from him.

Spoke with the contractor via phone very honest about his license and the scope of work he could preform. Would use again for the scope he preforms.

I had a different company stop by who told me I needed foundation work and it would cost $15,000.00. Avalin came out and took a look at everything and said that retrofitting would be good and he didn't see anything wrong with the foundation. Avalin's quote was only $3,000.00 for this work. He mailed out a nice binder filled with printed information for me too. I will be calling them back when I am ready for the work.

I got an estimate from Fred. His team performed the work. THe inspector came and approved the work.

The project was handled very professionally from start to finish. Fred came out, checked out everything under the house, explained what he would do and got back to me promptly with a quote. I e-mailed Fred some questions regarding his quote compared to other quotes I had received and Fred got back to me right away each time with thorough explanations. I chose Avalin because of their excellent reviews on Angie's List, their length of time in business, their competitively priced quote, and Fred's knowledge and expertise, plus they were licensed and insured. Fred took care of getting the permit and the work was done on schedule and passed the inspection with flying colors. I requested photos of the completed job and Fred e-mailed me several so I could see the work that was done under the house. I would not hesitate to recommend Fred to anyone needing earthquake retrofitting.

The work was done quickly and professionally and with Burbank inspection. The contract is very thorough, so there aren't any worries about what you're getting or how much to pay when. Payments were $500 down, then all remaining less $500, then the $500 after inspection. Work site was kept clean and safe each day of the job. Other contractors for different jobs have noticed the retrofitting and been surprised at how little it cost me for quality work.

Owner (Fred) is extremely professional and pleasant to work with. He is very respectful and knowledgeable. He does a throrough assessment of house and provides pictures of his inspection for your review. The proposal he furnished within a week of inspection was timely and easy to understand. He also provides with his proposal a full reference list and educational materials(from the City of L.A. Dept. of Building and Safety) to help you understand what he is going to do and why. (Also this is a way to educate yourself in the event some other company might short change the work to be done). His team showed up to work on time and completed the job in two days, including clean up. On the thrid day the Site Mgr. showed up to meet the City Inspector to get the permit approved..

We had 3 contractors from Angies List give bids. Fred Cohen, owner of Avalin, did the initial inspection. We chose him because of his quiet, knowledgeable demeanor. He also had the lowest bid although all three were close. His 2 workers seemed to know what they were doing. We were not inclined to crawl under the house to check. It did pass inspection. The workers were quiet and cleaned up each day. No criticisms.

My home was built in the last 1930s and was bolted to the foundation. But codes have evolved since that time and decided to bring the house up to current code in order to have a fighting chance of making it through the "Big One." After seeing the positive reviews, I contacted Avalin. The experience was wonderful from start to finish. Fred did a thorough inspection and in no way shape or form tried to up sell me. He was very honest about what my home needed and provided a very reasonable quote. (I was expecting to pay much more, but fortunately, I don't have cripple walls, which requires more work and materials.) The work was completed in two days (as promised). No complaints from the neighbors and they did a wonderful job of cleaning-up. The City's inspection went without a hitch. Overall, a very positive experience with Fred and his team.

I used them to look at the foundation and they were really good and thorough and they got all their equipment and went under there and they told me that somebody had taken out one of the beams from under the bedroom and that it was sinking and that it wasn’t retrofitted properly. They would have fixed it for 10,000 dollar, but I didn’t buy that house, but I did have to pay them for coming out. I rate them highly and I would use them again in the future if needed.

After about ten years of owning our home, we noticed that the kitchen floor was starting to sag. The refrigerator was visibly leaning to the left, and the stove would rattle just from someone walking by. We banned our children from jumping up and down and/or dancing in the kitchen (which they tend to do a lot for some reason). The biggest concern was that the entire room would shake during the spin cycle of the washing machine... the vibrations could be felt in adjacent rooms as well. I called Avalin in for an estimate... they were very professional and thorough in their assessment. I feared that we would need to get a hydraulic pump or something to jack up the floor joist, but their proposal turned out to be less drastic. They recommended that we not try to level out the floor, because that would cause more harm than good (and the sag was still within acceptable limits). They patiently answered some of my additional questions (as I have an interest in architecture). They explained the inherent problems with the joist's span... I asked if a similar second joist under the kitchen should also be addressed, but they felt that wasn't necessary. (I appreciate that they had the integrity to not increase the scope of work and taking advantage of my worries.) I wasn't originally planning to do the seismic retrofit at the same time... However, it's their specialty, and they gently suggested that our house (built in 1951) could use some shoring up. They didn't pressure me or anything like that... I could have taken a pass on it, but earthquakes have in fact been a nagging concern for me and the kitchen floor was going to cost me less than I had anticipated, so I decided to get that work done as well. They provided ample detail in their Statement of Work, and included "Before" and "After" photographs. (The "After" photographs were from similar projects that they worked on in the past... just to give an idea of what to expect.) The work took two days (as planned): Day 1: Retrofit Day 2: Kitchen floor support We arranged for the inspection on a third day (10/19). My presence was not required on any of the three days. However, I decided to work from home on the first day. The workers were pleasant and we even kicked back for a few minutes to marvel at a large praying mantis that decided to visit our yard. I had some work-related conference calls that I had to take from my den in the morning... at my request, the workers altered their plans and tackled the far side of the house first. (The retrofit work is unavoidably noisy.) They worked under my den in the afternoon, when I had less need for quiet. Upon request, Fred e-mailed seven photographs of the completed work to me for my records. In my dealings with Fred on the phone and via e-mail, he was very professional and had a friendly demeanor. I was delighted by the work and the overall experience. I can once again walk across my kitchen or do my laundry without fear of my floor suddenly collapsing and plunging into the abyss.

They came out and did a very thorough estimate, providing pictures of our foundation and problem areas. They explained the particular challenges, but planned ways to deal with them to minimize cost and potentially intrusive work. The workers were very punctual, nice and cleaned the site well. They handled the entire permit process and kept me informed of the status. Excellent work!

Fred Cohen is very knowledgeable on foundation design practices and was effective in addressing the specific requests made by our architect and structural engineer. His foreman was on the job site every day and took pride in his work. He was very careful to replace any of the floor structure that showed evidence of termite or water damage. Avalin uses a clever technique in the method used to pump the concrete into the foundation forms that produces a foundation wall with a smooth finish over the full height of the wall. On the finished project the fit of the doors are true and the floors are level. I think Avalin provided excellent value.

Fred was very responsive. I felt like I was in good hands. His staff arrived on time and were pleasant to deal with. I highly recommend them.

We purchased a 1913 Craftsman bungalow built on a concrete perimeter foundation with cripple walls that raise the house above grade. These short walls are vulnerable to twisting and collapse (shear) in a strong earthquake. The taller they are, the more they can deform because there is very little shear protection other than the exterior sheathing. If the exterior is horizontal siding or large paneling, there is some strength, but shingle, or worse yet, shake siding is virtually worthless. (The main living floors of even older dwellings have lath or button board and plaster on the inside, which provides decent shear protection.) Our house had tall (2 1/2 ft) cripple walls and cedar shake siding - not very solid for a big quake. There was no question that we needed to have a seismic retrofit. We had two nearby seismic retrofit companies that had good Angie's list ratings come to look at the job. Fred Cohen from Avalin came, on time, and personally looked at the foundation. Both providers verbally proposed the same service, but one gave us an on-the-spot ballpark estimate and responded the next day with a written proposal and some supporting materials. The amount was not cheap, but didn't seem overly expensive. We didn't hear from Avalin right away. As we were so busy with other house projects, we didn't follow up with Avalin, expecting that if they wanted the job, they would be in touch. Finally, we made a decision to accept the first bid, as we had to move forward. We signed a contract with the company and sent off a deposit. Just then we received a complete bid from Avalin via email. Not only was it very well put together, but it was over $2000 less than the other bid! We decided that even if we lost our deposit to the other company, it would be cheaper to hire Avalin. We called the other provider and told them of the large difference in pricing. They made a good faith effort and reduced their bid by $800, but that still didn't close the gap. Fortunately, we were able to cancel the first contract and the company immediately sent our deposit back (maintaining their Angie's list "A" rating!). Fred sent two installers, Mickey and Jose, who spent the next four days under our house installing the bolts and the shear wall panels. They were both very pleasant and diligent, worked long days and cleaned up their tools and materials daily. They even brought out a bunch of debris from the crawl space and repaired some outside vents. Fred came back and inspected the job and agreed that there was one place that had been "missed" (the house foundation was a little confusing at that location) and he sent Mickey and Jose back to make it right. We're still waiting for the final city inspection, but from all appearances we made the right decision, both economically and functionally, to choose Avalin Seismic Construction. We gave "Responsiveness" a "B" grade, as it would have been much easier from the beginning if we'd had a ballpark estimate (even conservatively high) to work with. Fred almost lost the job because we were under the gun to get the job done before moving in and we hadn't heard from him. Once started, however, everything went very smoothly and we highly recommend the company.

Everything as far as the work was good. I think that communications was not as good. I was left wondering what was going on a few times between me and the owner. The workers needed to better communicate also. I would have liked better communication instead of me wondering status of work and me having to call the owner to find out certain aspects of the process.

I called Avalin and spoke to Mr. Fred Cohen. He set up an appointment to come and inspect our home and foundation. His assistant arrived at the appointed time. Mr. Cohen phoned and said he would be a few minutes late. This was no problem for us. Mr. Cohen was very professional in his communications with us. When Mr. Cohen arrived, his assistant went under the house and took several pictures of the problem. Mr. Cohen took readings inside the house and inspected the perimeter for signs of damage. The cost of the inspection and estimate was $175.00, which we felt was a very fair price, and we learned quite a bit from Mr. Cohen, who has extensive knowledge in this field. In about a week we received a detailed report and estimate from Mr. Cohen via email. This report was also very informative. We had had another company come and give us an estimate. Their bid for the same work was somewhat lower that that of Avalin, so we decided to go with that company.

Fred came out to give an estimate. He was knowledgeable and informative. We agreed on a time and how long the work would take. The team came out and worked very h****** the job which took one extra day. I had been under the house before so I can appreciate what they do and I think they did a very good job.

Fred was very professional; his estimate was reasonable and included more. He didn't recommend the bare minimum earthquake retrofitting, but was very thorough. He took care of permits, and his crew was prompt and worked hard. The work seems to be professional and high quality.

We set a time; the workers showed up; they worked all day, made no excess noise, cleaned up and the inspector checked off on it. What else could you ask for?

Excellent job. Fred did a thorough review of our property and provided a very professional estimate. Although the price was a little higher than the other bid, Fred held the bid price for several months even with a material cost increase and I believe we received good value for our money. His crew was friendly, on time, hard-working and also professional. Avalin handled the permitting process quickly and efficiently. The "B" on price is based on the slightly higher price but if the question were "value", the grade would have been "A". With all of the earthquake activity around the world, we now feel better prepared knowing that Fred and his crew did a quality job on the retrofitting for our home.

Fred Cohen made this experience go very easily. He was responsive throughout the entire process, from setting up the initial meeting, getting me the estimate, completing the work and arranging for the city inspector. He put my mind completely at ease. And the men who did the actual work were a dream. I know it's a little thing, but I really appreciated that they were not only kind to me, but to my dog Lily! I was a little anxious about this project. Avalin exceeded my expectations! And, the work they did went beyond what was required by code (and at the same cost that was quoted by another company)! I highly recommend Avalin and would absolutely use them again!

It went well as I expected. No complaints or problems.

The entire process was relatively painless. The company, and all its representatives, were very friendly and professional. My only frustration was what appeared to be a reactive communication mode. I initiated calls and/or emails to the company to find out the next step and anticipated date. They were very responsive to my requests but I would have liked them to be more proactive. It does make me wonder how long I would have waited for them to contact me had I not contacted them.