Foundation Systems of Michigan

Very well!

great job!

Better than expected

Great! Professional and courtesy!

A great company to work with.

It went well.

Very. Well

None at this time.

The services were Great!!

Fine. Guys did a nice job

No problems.

Excellent!

Very good, just needs tweeking

Great wonderful outstanding

Great job would recommend them

This is the second time I have used Foundation Systems of Michigan and have been extremely happy with their products and services. The previous time I contracted them to repair a crack in my basement wall in my prior home. After having experienced extensive damage to my finished basement in my prior home due to cracks in my basement walls leaking, when I recently moved to a new home, I knew I wanted a full basement water-proofing system installed. I did not want to have to deal with repairing water leaks, and the resulting damage, after my new basement was finished. I was driven to take action when I returned home one day to find water covering my basement floor due to the builders-grade sump pump failing after the float got caught on the side of the crock. I immediately called FSM to have an inspector come out to discuss my options. After discussing the situation and inspecting my basement, and the fact that I was planning to finish my basement soon, he recommended the WaterGuard perimeter drainage system, a Triple Safe Sump Pump, and a 90 mil thick vapor barrier for my walls to keep any moisture from reaching my basement. I took all of their recommendations and am so glad I did. The sump pump gives me complete peace of mind that my basement is protected from water. I love that it has a sealed lid so any smells/moisture is kept from entering my basement area, and that there are 3 pumps protecting my home, including a battery backed up pump that will pump up to 10,000 gallons of water on a single charge. The Water Guard perimeter draigage system they installed will direct any water that may enter thru my walls to the sump pump, which will pump it away from my house. FSM scheduled my job according to my needs, and the workers showed up in a professional marked truck, in uniform, and were very professional. They worked fast and efficiently and were very respectful to my home by laying down plastic where they worked, and they removed all materials and cleaned up great. I was very impressed with the installation crew and their professionalism. I also like how they warranty their products and have a service department to service me should any issues arise, although none have. Overall I had a great experience with FSM and would highly recommend them to anyone considering basement waterproofing or foundation repair. They are a very professional operation. There are a lot of jack-of-all trades companies out there that do waterproofing, but when they also do windows, roofing, gutters, etc.....how could they be experts for the type of service I need? I trusted FSM since they specialize in this business and carry some unique products.

Not very well. Due to an incompetetent sub contractor, I experienced a lot of out of pocket expenses. I was just about to let it go and chalk it up to experience until I had an oil spill in my basement. The spill was caused by the incompetent sub contractor that improperly moved my oil drum. So I posted on Angie's List and 2 days later I was contacted by Foundation Systems of Michigan. I agreed to let them address the problems and fix the problems I had with them. UPDATE:Foundation Systems of Michigan came over and addressed all the problems I had with them. They finished the work within a week and half. Thank you to Jeff Plumb and his crew, for listening to me and completing the work timely. Foundation Systems of Michigan have agreed to reimburse me for my out of pocket expenses due to the incompetent sub contractor. (who no longer works for them). They have also agreed to come back in the fall and level out my oil drum that was improperly moved (by the same incompetent sub contractor). My experience with Foundation Systems of Michigan has been mixed. I was dissatisfied at first with the job they did and all the extra costs and repairs due to their choice in the sub contractor. But after talking with them on 05/23/12 and their subsequence additional work on my basement project...I am now satisfied.

The whole experience, beginning with the sales rep. Jeff, who was very informative honest and who I felt was going to be completely reliable, to the work crew who was very professional and courteous was completely satisfying. Jeff explained everything in detail as to how the job was to be completed and the benefits it would yield. We received a packet in the mail detailing the service that we were interested in. The packet was very informative and provided many examples of before and after projects. Upon agreeing with FSM to complete the crawl space encapsulation we completed a simple contract and a date and time was set for them to do the job. We received a call 2 or 3 days prior to the date to confirm the time and date. When FSM came to my home they arrived on time and in a very professional manner. Nice vehicle, tradesman wearing uniforms and very clean.....very impressive. The crew leader did a walk through and explained what he and his crew was going to do. It looked as though they worked together very well as a team because each others safety was of utmost importance to each of them. One of the crew members covered the flooring area where they would be traveling completely. As they were working a crew member would clean up trash and remove it from the basement so as to not get in their way and cause any safety issues. Upon completion of the job everything was cleaned up . I inspected the job along with the crew leader and was completely satisfied.

They came out when they said they were going to. They followed up and had a very nice video presentation of what they were offering and what they would do. We checked a few other companies and they provided the lowest price.

Some problems were that the opening for crawl space access in laundry room floor was enlarged so the crawl space cover is smaller than the opening, leaving a gap in the floor. There was no floor support installed to replace the foundation where the cinder block hole was made in the foundation wall for access to the crawl space under the family room. Clothes dryer was left in center of laundry room floor. Fan installed under floor runs continuously and is noisy and can be a distraction to sleep at night. These items were satisfactorily corrected by FMS Foundation Systems of Michigan. The fan was switched to a single breaker position so it can be turned off at the main breaker panel. It was expensive but the problem of the house feeling damp was corrected. The house feels drier now and there are no more musty smells. Sealing the foundation vents and the added crawl space insulation reduced home heating cost.

I requested an evaluation of our basement online from this company. They responded via email with a phone number; when we called the number, they for whatever reason did not have our information in their system even though it was all submitted electronically. An appointment was made for the inspection at 12:30pm, which was later rescheduled BY THE COMPANY to 2:30pm. My husband received a call on his cell phone at 12:15pm on the scheduled day of the inspection which was missed because the vacuum happened to be on. The inspector left a message saying the address he was given was wrong. My husband called him back 35 minutes later and was told the following by the very rude and unprofessional inspector: - He, "Dale", the inspector, was not going to come to do the evaluation because we didn't return his phone call on time and he was already at his home. - It didn't matter that the actual appointment was for 2:30pm, and it wasn't even 1:00pm yet. - Since we only had one crack in our basement, he was DEFINITELY not going to come since he never came for jobs under $3,000. We called the company's main line back and found out that they had spelled our street name wrong: "Jabrielle" instead of "Gabrielle". With this much incompetence, disrespect and unprofessionalism before even getting to the repair job, it's no surprise that we will not be doing business with this company.

Joe Z from The Carpet Guys recommended us to Foundation Systems of Michigan because our basement was having some water issues. We actually thought we had it fixed when we called Joe to do our carpet, but he explained that in fact that our way of fixing it only would have lasted a few months and our new carpet would more than likely get destroyed and he recommended that we call FSM to repair our foundation before they lay the new carpet. We called FSM and even though we really didn't want to spend money on the repairs, they were very necessary and we realize that if we would have taken any shortcuts it could have cost us a fortune later on down the road by not doing the job right the first time. We are overall very happy that we decided to take Joe's advice and call Foundation Systems of Michigan. We did price out a few other companies that did waterproofing and foundation repair work, but over all we felt that FSM was the best value and they really knew what they were talking about. the crews that did our work were very neat and professional and we could not be happier. They finished the work in one day and cleaned up after themselves too. Joe's company then came in and did our carpet a few weeks after and now our basement feels like another huge family room. Dry and comfortable. We highly recommend FSM to anyone in need of foundation work or that may need a leaky basement repaired.

The work crew didn't cover some of the appliances in the basement to prevent dust from getting onto and into them. They finished the job and the next morning I found half the basement flooded because they had let silt or gravel stop up the drainpipe and the sump pump was working constantly. (Addendum: A plumber from another company discovered that the blockage was caused by hardened spray foam which FSM had squirted into the system to repair damage they had done and did not disclose. See below).They cleaned out the stoppage with a rake handle and hosed it out. I spoke to a plumber from another company afterwards and he pointed out that using small gravel to cover the perimeter pipe can cause the stoppage in the main pipe. Also he pointed out that using the grey softer drain pipe may be a mistake because it can collapse under pressure--as contrasted with the hard pipe other systems use. In addition, the salesman who arranged the job convinced me to buy a battery back-up for the sump pump. They ripped out a two-month old sump pump I had had installed recently and put in their sump and battery system. The plumber I talked to later told me that the battery back-up has only 4 hours of running time, so, if there is a loss of electric power that last two or more days, I'm in trouble. There is a water-pressure-powered system that is preferable. All in all, I feel I paid to much for an inadequate result. I'd never recommend this company and I don't understand why the WJR home repair program promotes it, except that they are a sponsor. Addendum: Since I wrote the original report I discovered sewer gas leaking into my basement. Nelson Brothers Plumbing, whom I trust, opened the floor and discovered that FSM had broken a drain pipe, sloppily sprayed foam in the opening to try to repair it, but left a hole for sewer gas to leak into the house, then covered up their mistake with concrete. Also, FSM connected the drain system to the main drain without sealing the connection, so there was a second place for gas to leak into the house. I had the owner of Nelson Brothers call FSM to report what was discovered and he indicated that the FSM representative understood what he was saying and indicated that the person responsible was fired, but when I called and asked for at least a partial refund, this same person only offered $200 and said he had no way of knowing who did the damage (suggesting that I and Nelson Brothers were lying). This is BP-scale avoidance of responsibility. I wouldn't wish this kind of nightmare on anyone. Don't hire this company.

The initial meeting with the Sales Rep (Steve) went very well. He was very friendly, knowledgable, and explained the whole process. After meeting with two other contractors, we felt most comfortable with Steve and FSM. Their pricing was middle of the road, and their wall anchor system was more robust than their competitors. The day before the scheduled installation, the office called to confirm the installers would be at our house around noon as they had a job to finish up in the morning. They would be complete by 5pm. You can imagine our surprise when the installers were knocking on our door at 8am! Things did not get off to a great start. During the initial meeting, we were told that the crews would protect our stairway carpeting and make sure to clean up after themselves. The crew did not have the carpet protectors on the truck as promised. Luckily I had some paint tarps that I draped on the carpeting to protect it. The foreman layed out the anchor placement, and the crew began digging the corresponding holes in the yard. The foreman left the three remaining crew members and we did not see him again. The three remainign crew had been hand digging holes for several hours when the owner (Bob) showed up. Bob noticed the foreman had layed out the anchors incorrectly. This wasn't a big deal to us, as no work had been done inside the house yet, but it meant that the holes the crew had been digging for the past several hours were in the wrong locations. The crew began to dig more holes in the corrected locations. None of the crew appeared to bring lunch with them, and the foreman had left with the truck, so feeling bad we fed the crew lunch. As the afternoon wore on, we began to worry they might not finish on time. More crews were brough in to help dig, and the owner came back to assist. The job FINALLY wrapped up around 6pm. They were obviously hindered by the foreman goofing up the initial layout, and the lack of excavation machinery. At one point, they had a mini-excavator on a trailer in front of our house. I asked the owner why not use it to speed things along and he said it would destroy my lawn. I wanted to tell him that my lawn WAS ALREADY destroyed from having 9 guys trampling it and throwing the excavated spoils all over. During the initial meeting, we were told the crew would carefully cut out the existing sod and return the yard to its original condition after completion. Not the case at all. I was left with a trench about 4' wide and 25' long. The soil was mounded up over the trench and they placed the tiny pieces of sod back on top. It looked rediculous! I had to re-sod the entire area. After work was completed, we noticed some scratches and grease splatter on our washing machine. This was irritating because we specifically asked if we should move it out of their way. Further, the stairway walls to the basement were scuffed up requiring me to re-paint.

Over all I feel that they did fair work but didn't live up to much of their sales persons promises. They came to put in one system and found the basement needed a lesser and cheaper system. However, this conclusion wasn't reached until they had tore out the bottom 28" of drywall all the way around our basement and then tore into the footings with jackhammers for a few hours. They didn't do any testing or probing to figure out what I'd needed until making a mess that cost me another $1500 to have another contractor repair. The sump pump piping then came apart and broke off my wall the first time it rained because it was improperly installed. When I followed up with them based on their promise that customer service was their number one priority they sent me up the chain of command having me make 4 phone calls to 4 people. I was then told the boss would call, this was over 2 months ago and still no call. My biggest problem is that we paid for a patented and warrantied drain system which at $5800 quote was not unreasonable. We got something any contractor with some quickcrete and a jackhammer could of done for 1/2 the price and it wasn't even done well. They did knock $1000 off the price initially but that didn't even cover the cost of the repairs to their mistakes rather than justify the lesser material costs that they had. Then the VERY POOR customer service follow up was just disappointing. EDIT 06 JULY 2010: Initial repair did not go as planned; it didn't go very well but once they were aware of the issues, they went out of their way to make everything okay. The final cost was higher than the original estimate, but it was lower than what would've been quoted if they knew exactly what was going on. There were 12 inches of rain accumulated during one night and my basement was dry.