AQUIDNECK CONSULTING ENGINEERS

***BEWARE*** Do not hire this firm because if they find something wrong, they will turn you into the City Building Inspector. My house is for sale and in the buyer's inspection, a crack in the foundation needed further assessment. I hired ACE based on internet recommendations to assess this foundation crack. I spoke to Doug on the phone several times prior to our meeting and he seemed great. Prior to the site meeting, I had said that the buyer would be there so if he saw anything really bad to speak to me in private about it. He said that he worked for me and wasn't comfortable with the buyer being there and would not address anything in front of him. When he met me at the house, that all went out the window. He said that the foundation crack was not an issue but he found some other things that he didn't like. Now keep in mind, I only hired him specifically for this foundation crack. He assessed a underground concrete garage roof, which on the top also doubles as one entry point for the house. He said it wasn't safe and basically was going to collapse. And it was going to call the City Building Inspector to report this. Now I was flabbergasted. I had no idea there was any issue with this roof. I pleaded with him to not call the city officials because this was the first I was hearing about it and to give me a chance to repair. He said it was against his ethical code. He also told the buyer to basically run away from this sale because there were major problems. This was an as-is sale so ACE had no right to provide their opinion after we had hired ACE directly. Once ACE left, I called a concrete contractor immediately to assess the roof. I met the contractor the next day and he basically told me that it was not in any danger of collapsing. ACE forwarded the engineering report to the city building officials who put a lien on the property based on "Unsafe Conditions". I spoke to the building inspector who said he agreed that it was in no danger of collapsing but since they have a stamped engineer report, they had to write me up. I had to hire another engineering firm to assess this garage roof and draft plans for the work to be done. This literally cost me the sale of the house and more than $10K in repair work. DO NOT HIRE THIS FIRM!

In Progress with nice response by the team and timely updates.

Planning went rather smoothly. The implementation of their plan as designed was a different story. I received a call at work from the builder saying the frost walls that were planned by ACE actually ended beneath ground level and did I want his foundation crew to raise them to the proper above-ground height? It cost me extra to have the frost walls elevated above ground. After the foundation was poured, I noticed the north wall of the house was at the outer edge of the deck, eight feet north of where the north wall of the house was planned. Communication with Doug at ACE was frustrating. His recommendations from his email: "1. Collect rainwater from the deck with a membrane on thin plywood sheathing underneath the deck boards so it runs off the deck edge; 2. Set the breakaway panels at the north end of the house along Line B instead of Line A; or 3. Increase the pitch of the slab between Lines A and B.'" (Line B is where the north wall of the house is located). So, not only had I paid for unnecessary labor and concrete under the deck, it cost me more to have a frost wall added along Line B, where, I believe, the average home owner would expect to find a foundation wall...under the outside wall of the house, yes/no? My questions were met by blaming me for not providing a complete set of house plans or a site plan. I'm not the engineer. If ACE did not have the information they needed, they should NOT have drawn the plans or billed me for them. It's like a doctor not having all the x-rays or instruments he or she needs during surgery and the patient suffers harm because of it. Blame the patient? Our communication ended with ACE's stern statement in an email: "If you make changes to ACE's plan without authorization, you are responsible for their implementation cost and any consequences, intentional or otherwise, arising from those changes. ACE will bill you for further consultation on this issue at our Time & Materials rate." Then to top it off, when I applied for flood insurance, my premiums went from an estimated $700 a year to over $3500 per year because the slab was still at the same elevation of the original frost walls in ACE's design. The underground slab is therefore considered a basement, which is not allowed for new coastal construction in Coastal A zones, particularly if you want to minimize insurance costs, which was my original intent. I 'm sure someone's easy solution to my problem would read like this: "1. Just fill your basement with fourteen inches of concrete to bring it above ground level to where it should have been."