Michael Montgomery w/ Buyers Protection Group

Although Mr Montgomery did visit my residence and share some thoughts about other solutions, I am glad that I didn’t prepay the service because the opinions rendered were totally not worth the charge, and not even close to approximating the online advertisement… I was looking to have some exterior excavation performed (for waterproofing), and it was suggested that a structural engineer examine and evaluate the foundation conditions first, so that is why I called them… But, an inspection that I am going to pay for needs to consist of more than a conversation, the use of tools other than a measuring tape, and that the evaluation and/or assessment finally generated rely on more than a passive visual interaction… Even a rep from Aero-seal was here almost 2x longer and did actual HVAC testing to determine IF they could do their process, and at no charge... Montgomery / BPG is a way overpriced service in my opinion.

March 2020 I hired Mike Montgomery of BPG to inspect cracks in my basement wall and make recommendations of how to fix it. The inspection and report went fine. Mike found another wall that needed to be attached to the ceiling joist. He offered to do a design for $420. I accepted with the thought that the design would be representative in value to what I was paying. Mike provided a stock drawing where he changed three dimensions based on calculations that he made. This work probably took him about 15 minutes to complete. I felt the design was worth no more than $100. Mike and BPG disagreed with me and thought that the design was worth the $420. Mike did take the time to discuss this with me. The BPG claims manager did not take the time to call me, but sent me an email instead. Since I agreed to pay this amount up front, I went ahead and paid the bill. Be wary before asking them to provide you with a design, although the inspection and report were very good. June 2020 Even though I wrote a negative review, Mike answered addition questions that I had on multiple occasions as I fully exposed the walls and learned the extent of the damage. The fee to perform the inspection and write the report was well worth the money. Mike knows what he is doing and is very professional. He even recommended the contractor who I found to be the lowest cost and most knowledgeable.

Mr. Montgomery crawled through the crawl space, walk our house, He sent us our inspection report within 7 days. I would trust this Engineer he's knowledgeable, he's evaluated many structures and easy to get a long with.

Mr. Montgomery we very knowledgeable and easy to talk to.

He was on time and professional. Did a thorough assessment of the garage, driveway, foundation inspection walk around the house, and the basement. Finally, provided the scope of the garage work and a ballpark figure of the garage's floor slab total cost. Final report was available online within hours of finishing the inspection. He noted that once the garage floor slab was removed he could provide a structural slab drawing if required (for an extra fee). He is priced parity with other structural engineers.

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Michael Montgomery got to the house on a very stormy day and immediately checked the foundation where there were a few hairline cracks. He then when outside to check the cracks in the brick and immediately noticed by feeling under the bottom row of bricks that the foundation sunk in about 1/2". He then went back into the basement to find out why. Upon inspection he found that the house was not anchored to the foundation. He told us the repairs would be in the 5 to 6 thousand dollar range. He sent a report that evening or the next morning and when the seller agreed to pay for the repairs, Michael sent me a sketch of what needed to be done along with a list of contractors he recommended. Mr Montgomery is a pro and I would recommend him to anybody.

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He was the third guy I called. He was good. I don't have anything to benchmark against. We were just getting a second opinion on some cracks that we had in our foundation. No leaking. And then we have some water, some sinking concrete and I was wondering if that was in anyway impacting our foundation and causing the cracks. That's why we had him come out. He came out and looked at it. Came out as planned when he said he would. The price, he let me know ahead what the price was going to be. He was the third guy I called because the other 2, I guess they are out in the field but it took them multiple days to call me back. They all called me back but he'd already been out by then. I called him on a Thursday or a Friday and he was out on that Monday. He was a very nice guy. Easy to speak with and he took his time with us. I was overall pleased. Overall, it was what I expected and for the price that I expected. He took the time and we achieved our desired goal.

Mike was on time did provide recommendations. He followed up.

Terrific... he was on time and provided an immediate evaluation with a follow-up email.

Engineer Mike Montgomery did a detailed analysis & prepared corrective measures plan and sketches.

The service went well. They were timely, and did all as advertized. They did what they said they would.

Michael's team provided documentation and confirmations beforehand He arrived on-time and listened to our interests and purpose of the visit After physically walking through the structure and taking notes, he provided a quick review of what he found answering questions About 2 days later, the written report arrived backing up his initial analysis and giving us documentation from a pro

We have had two vertical cracks in our basement foundation since we purchased our house in 1997. The large crack had been repaired by a company, I guess I will not name, when my in laws owned the house. We had it repaired again by the same company about a year ago. At that time the foreman on the job explained that sooner or later we would have to have one side of the house piered at a cost of approximately $13,000 - $15,000. He tried hard to get me to commit to having the repairs scheduled. We had another company tell us we had to do the same thing for about the same price. I saw an article written by Mike suggesting having your foundation inspected by a structural engineer before calling a contractor, and I had also spoke with him at the home and garden show about the same issue. I decided to call Mike to have him inspect our house. I phoned Mike on a Friday and made an appointment with BPG for the following Monday. Mike responded at the time scheduled. He inspected the issues we were having and made recommendations for fixing the problems. None of which involved digging up around half my foundation and jacking up the house costing thousands of dollars. The recommendations were pretty simple and one of them I could do myself with a little time and effort. I would recommend Mike's services to anyone. He was professional, responded in a timely manner and I had the engineering designs in two days. Hiring a structural engineer is the way to go before contacting a contractor. I would have been out thousands of dollars and my foundation problems would not have been fixed.

We are buying a 19th century house that had a questionable repair in the attic. Michael came to look at the repair and tell us what needed to be done to repair it correctly. He was quick, efficient, and personable. He explained what needs to be done and wrote out a detailed report. I feel confident when we move in and have the work done it will be completed correctly thanks to Michael's report. Before hiring Michael I didn't realize the importance of getting an engineer to write out a plan for building/repair projects before hiring a contractor. I will definitely do that for future projects as well.

Overall impression of them was not that great. Anything that he saw, I already knew about or with something that was pretty easy to figure out. He didn't really do anything that ended up helping us or take care of the problems that we had. I actually figured out what was wrong and fixed it myself. The money that you charge wasn't worth the services that you provided. The thing that I don't need most about him was that he seems like he was trying to sell services that I wouldn't need.

The cost of the verbal report was $285. The written report was $260. The written report was eight (8) pages long with details of everything that needed to be fixed, set up into three different projects, each project with minimum repair requirements, followed by next possible repairs if first repairs don't resolve issue. I chose a written report so that when I contract for repairs, I can get what I want without having to haggle with a contractor.

Michael was very helpful. We did not have any problems with him. I think that his pricing was comparable with everybody else. We would recommend and use his services again the future.

The provider arrived on time. The provider inspected the areas of concern according to the home inspection report. The provider gave a thorough estimation of repairs needed. The report was completed in a timely manner, within 24hrs. The report does not include plans for how to complete the work needed. That's extra.

He came out, he was on time, and did exactly what he was supposed to do. He gave us a report within 4 hours. It was wonderful. We actually had Michael come out. You have to request him but he will come out. He personally has over 20 years of experience. That is one reason we used him. He was very thorough. He walked around with us and answered any questions that we had as well as wrote out the information. Afterwards he sat down and put some of the information in and about 4 hours later we got a copy of his report via email.

The removal of old wall covering material in our basement revealed horizontal cracking in the foundation (near the rim). We wanted an unbiased assessment of the severity of the cracking and the recommendation for any repairs required. Mike was prompt, courteous and professional. He reviewed the condition of the foundation in all the exposed areas (not just where I had seen cracking). He was able to determine that the appropriate repair was injection of structural epoxy. The written report along with some potential repair contractors was in my email within a half hour.

Mike showed up early. He talked with us about we wanted. He went in the crawl space and evaluated the cracks. One wall that was bowed about 3/8 of an inch will not require any work. He found some step cracks in the front and side and recommended repair. Mike answered all of our questions and was completely professional.

Michael was on time. Had all tools necessary to complete inspection. He was very thorough. Once complete informed us of next step. Also offered good information on contractors for our home.

Michael Montgomery just saved me a major headache, the cost of which would have been over $10,000. Rather than having the cracks in my home looked at by a Structural Engineer -- as I should have done first, I tried to save money, etc., by calling out a few concrete-foundation-contractors for free estimates. By the end of my 3rd estimate yesterday, I was looking at putting my new addition plans on back burner, while I forked over $10,000 to install SEVERAL STEEL PIERS to "fix" my foundation. One of the contractors this morning refused to give me such a bid for so-called foundation repair work, and suggested I contact a Structural Engineer, which I did, rather fearfully. I was afraid that all sorts of problems would be uncovered, making the $10,000 foundation repair estimate seem small. Although I am an existing homeowner, I called Buyers Protection Group, and they put me in touch with Michael Montgomery, who does Structural Engineering Inspections in my area for their group. Its so hard to take off from work, and I happened to be home today, and to my surprise, Michael Montgomery fit me in for a morning consultation, all within just about an hour's time! The consult lasted a little over an hour, and it was one of the most productive hours of my life as a homeowner. YES, IF I ADD-ON to my existing structure, some additional supports relative to that area of the house would be helpful, but NO -- I did NOT need costly steel piers to underpin my home!!!! The sales advise was that I needed to pay $10,000 for several steel beams to lift up my home, but the engineer's advice is that the cracks in the home are largely cosmetic and would not be served at all by my paying $10,000 for steel beams. By mid noon, I had a copy of the written engineering report which contained NO SURPRISES. Michael Montgomery was so helpful, and Angie's List was helpful too, because I found him by plugging in information about the Buyers Protection Group. I paid $300 for his consult and engineering report, and this was truly money WELL SPENT.