GFR Foundation Repair

It was a complete joke. The guy that came out to do the inspection and the quote, Camron Lutrell, The city came by and put a red flag on our door, the city told the company that they needed a permit and to stop work....they finished it anyways. He promised he was going to come back on Monday and file for the permit. Monday came and went....The rest of the week came and week....turned into a month. He eventually started ignoring my phone calls. Started calling the office. They left holes in our floors, three four inch holes up and down the hallways. Never seen anything like this. Left two foot piles of mud all away around the house. After a month and a half. They have still not come out.... Had to finish work on the house, had someone come in and do the windows...said the house is not leveled correctly. After months of trying to get a hold of him, he finally came out. Claimed it was within code, had other contractors look at it and they said it is not level! And advised I needed to hire a structural engineer. According to the engineer, seven of the existing poles are still off, about three inches.

Not very well. I hired a reputable foundation engineer from Angie's List to inspect my foundation and devise a repair plan to remedy the problem. I had the elevations he measured on file prior to meeting with GFR. My only contact with GFR was Cameron, the owner's son-in-law. He was very well-mannered, informed me of the many mistakes and shortcuts taken by the company who supposedly leveled my foundation 10 years earlier. He offered me a very good price and made me feel, initially, that I'd finally found a foundation contractor I could trust. In the end, it all turned out to be empty promises for the sake of turning a buck. Cameron was usually very responsive with the call-backs; however GFR was very bad at keeping their appointments. I knew nothing personal about any of the crew members when they showed up to do the work; however, my initial impression of their appearance was that several had prison records. The crew left their lunch trash all over my yard and ultimately, many of their tools, which I gathered an gave to Cameron after the job. Cameron told me that a side of the house not included in the contract had been over-lifted by the previous company and that they could remove the shims upon the company's piers, allowing the house to seat back down for $1,500, later re-negotiated for $1,000. I had used all the money in my budget up for what repairs were in the contract and took a rain check on the additional proposal. Many weeks later, the dirt used to backfill the piers had consolidated, leaving voids where water was pouring into my foundation. It was months after my call before they finally returned to add more backfill. Not surprising, since they had already been paid in full. At my request, Cameron returned months after the repair to determine if the foundation had been leveled properly. He took measurements and told me all was well except that the side of the home that had been high had risen higher and that the large oak tree that had turned up my driveway prior to any repairs had lifted that side of the house another 3 inches. I thought to myself "wow, I'm glad I didn't give him another $1,000 to remove the shims, considering the tree would have never put the shims in contact with the foundation. It would have done absolutely nothing. Why not tell me the tree was lifting that side of the house to begin with?" The worst part came when I gave up on the foundation and sold the home to developers for lot value. Small world this is; the developers employed the same engineer to survey the home during their option period that I used prior to hiring GFR. The engineer later told me that when he compared the elevations he took while working for me, to that which he took when I sold the home, it appeared I hadn't any foundation work done at all. That was $7,000 later! I couldn't help but think how Cameron used the same type of zip-level that the engineer did prior to his repair, months after and before the 2nd and last survey was done by the engineer and told me everything was fine. I guess to tell me the truth would have obligated him to perform warranty work. The only other person I spoke to who had a foundation "repaired" by this company had a near-identical experience with them. I have to move forward and try not to think about the better ways I could have spent my $7,000.