Olshan Foundation Repair

My house has had some weird issues with tiles cracking and tenting and I called to have them check out the issue thinking I'd need a ridiculous amount of repair work. Olshan came out for a free estimate, inspected everything, didn't upsell me or snow me over by saying there was a problem that I didn't actually have. Instead they explained all the reasons that this could be happening, showed me the measurements and explained why it isn't my foundation at all. Then spent a good amount of time teaching me what to look for, how to assess, and when I would really need to call them. Dry pleased, and if I ever do need foundation repair I'll call them first thing!

I needed a water management solution for my home. Sam came to my home and listened to my problem. He inspected the property, measured the elevation of affected areas and provided a comprehensive set of solutions. I opted for the double-barrel drain and scheduled installation. The installation team was prompt and courteous. They were knowledgeable and informative during the installation providing vital information concerning drainage patterns and elevation measurements to ensure proper system functionality. The system works flawlessly and as designed. I no longer have to worry about flooding during heavy rain events. I highly recommend Olshan for water management and would gladly use them again.

The crew showed up at the appointed time on the promised date. They unloaded their truck and got right to work. They dug the needed holes, placed 7 'cable-lock' piers, stabilized the foundation, then filled in the holes and cleaned up the area. The process took nearly 8 hours. They seemed to do an excellent job. I was very happy with their work.

The Intial visit went well. He did the measurements and left us a copy of what he figured needed adjusted. He said he would get back to us with the estimate in a few days. Unfortunately, we did not hear from him. When we called the office the receptionist told us we had to call him and gave us his cell phone number. We left a message and have not heard anything since. This was 3 weeks ago. I would not recommend this company to anyone if this is the kind of service this company provides.

They performed the work in one day, and everything went smoothly. They made some recommendations that other companies did not mention, and felt more comfortable after speaking with the salesman from this company.

He didn't talk to me alot. I just wanted the part where the area was settling. He wanted to do the whole area. My point with Olshan, was he wasn't very informative as to his procedure.

If you'll spend that kind of money, you need to get several quotes from more than one person. They were neither the highest nor the lowest quote we got. I just felt more comfortable with size of the company and they were very good. We haven't had any issues since. Yes, I would use them again in the future.

We used Olshan in the past when we first purchased the house, they put in a few piers which we had to have adjusted this year. In addition they had to put in 14 more piers both inside and out. We had problems with their crew cutting our fios internet line 2 times. While they did eventually reimburse us for the cost to have repaired it was a huge hassle to lose internet and deal with the reimbursement process. They did not offer to compensate us for any inconvieance. In addition their inside work plan changed during the course of the job and they moved the piers where it would be place so it would be an easier install. They created major cracks and door jam issues and didn't seem to care about the problem, it was and quot;part of the risk.and quot; Overall not happy with their lack of caring they took with our home but we now have a lifetime warranty with them so we have no choice but to use them again if we need more work done. In addition, their workers left trash in our yard, we found soda cans and apple cores in our yard. Careless!

.The work done inside was very quick and clean up accomplished very fast. Have not noticed and shifting since.

They installed all contracted piers on date and completed work in the same day.

Everything was good. I didn't have any dislikes. I thought they did a good job and they were responsive. They took care of what needed to be taken cared of. It was a good experience. I don't think there were any issues. I would use them in the future.

In 2010, the old cracks were growing and new cracks appeared. I had to chase them with countless phone calls and they finally send out a technician who suggested they should have dug in a French drains to control the water near the house. A few weeks went by, I called him back to find out he no longer worked at Olshan, and no one else ever came back to continue his work. About that time, my wife’s mother, father and grandmother died and then our 23 yr old son died and our foundation problems went to the back burner. In June of this year, I entered a BBB complaint and someone called me back right away and scheduled to have a technician come out to take leveling measurements. He said I would have to have a sewage check performed before he could do anything; that cost me $2,000. He scheduled at least 3 more measurements each 4-6 weeks apart and the last time brought an out of town with him; they both agreed there was not underground leakage, that my foundation was soundly made and yet they were both without answer or a plan to mitigate further damage. In addition, they found several of their beams had dropped causing the house to settle; this is the reason they came out originally and the warranty guarantees against this from happening. This was probably caused because the beams were only pushed 8 feet down rather than 30 feet. They also found out that there was 1.3” difference between their center measurement point and a beam 12 feet away, while the maximum allowed in 1” for 30 ft. The technician stopped returning my emails and phone calls. I sent him another letter suggesting they refund $10,000 as they were obviously not able to fix the problems I paid them to fix. I emailed and called the area manager who also refuses to make any contact. So, I out $19,500 with a house in worse condition than it was when I hired them and they won’t call me back while there are in violation of their lifetime warranty.

Our water heater went out suddenly. Home Depot could not deliver one for 2 weeks but advised me to buy one, put it Will Call and schedule a plumber via their hotline to pick it up and install it for me. The Home Depot hotline connected me to Olshan to do the job. The person I spoke to was very helpful and gave me some additional information along with measurements to check for the doorway and base area. After measuring, I learned that the water heater I had purchased would not fit in the water heater closet due to the doorway width and base size. The Olshan agent was reassuring and was able to provide a similar water heater that would fit. It was 9 yr instead of 12 yr warranty, but would fit. By buying the water heater directly from Olshan, I avoided their $100 fee to pick one up at Home Depot's Will Call. The plumber arrived on schedule the next day with the water heater and expansion tank. He was very professional. He explained the additional modifications needed to meet new city codes, and let us know that the city inspectors will also check for Carbon Monoxide filters in the home when hey inspect the water heater. He provided detailed information, answered all questions and cleaned up everything. I would use their services again.

Though we waited several months from inspection until we got a date for them to come to do the work, they did arrive as schedule, did the agreed upon work and did a good job of cleaning up after themselves before leaving. Once or twice before they had done warranty work on work that had been previously done. Now we have almost 75% around the house stabilized with piers, plus 3 interior piers. They had bought a company who had done the initial foundation work and have followed through, cheerfully, with all warranty work. Don't use them if you are in a hurry because they generally have at least 6 weeks wait to get an appointment, or at least that has been our experience. I will say that we didn't feel confident in the honesty of several companies whom we had talked to before deciding to wait the 2-3 months to get Olshan to do the work. We will transfer the warranty to whom ever buys our house (we are planning to downsize in the near future).

In October 2012, we scheduled an appointment with Olsham, but had to cancel, They were very nice about this. In January 2013, we asked them to come out for an evaluation and quote. Their presentation was by far the best of the four firms we talked with. The men were courteous, professional and well prepared. We went with Olsham as their price was competitive and they had received several good reviews. The work was scheduled for 15 piers to be installed on March 6 and 7. They were on time to start work with 6 men and worked very hard during the day. I was at home when the work was performed. They completed the job in one day and did a great job of clearing the flower bed and yard of all scraps. When they were done, a representative came by to review the job and job site. He also discussed the work performed, including changes they had recommended during the installation.

On Friday May 10th, one water heater started leaking. Arranged for replacement of two water heaters through Home Depot. Olshan Plumbing came to the house on the next day, Saturday May 11th in the morning to complete the work.

The first availability was 3 weeks out!!! Other companies scheduled an appt for the next few days. I did Not necessarily take it as a bad sign. it is either they are very busy or underhanded, just could not meet my timeline...

They came out and gave me a free quote before I decided to hire them. I had no idea that Olshan installed patios. When I did decide they listed to all my wishes as far as size, location, type of stone, etc. They installed the entire patio in less than a day. Very happy with service!

We contacted Olshan and they sent an estimator out to access the foundation damage. We had several different companies come out to do an estimate. Olshan was the most expensive, but we were most impressed and comfortable with them. We decided to go ahead with the foundation repair and they worked with us to get a crew out as soon as they could, which was about 30 days. But during a couple weeks into the 30 days, they called and told us a crew had come available if we wanted to get the work done sooner. We were happy to go ahead and get this behind us. They crew showed up on a Monday morning as promised and reviewed the job specs with us. After his assessment of the work to be done, the crew chief told us, we needed an additional pier inside the house. He also told us that the way the specs were drawn, he felt confident that he could move one of the speced perimeter piers to the inside with no degradation of the quality, and minimal impact to the price. It made sense to us. The week of the repairs, there was rain scheduled for the middle of the week. We talked with the crew chief about alternate plans if the rain actually came. It rained on Wednesday, and they had to delay completion of the work by one day. So the original 3 day estimate turned out to be 4 days. After they finished installing the piers, the cleaned up, and re planted our shrubs. During the whole process, the workers were very professional and respectful of our home. Bottom line, is that we were very pleased with the work, the crew and the overall experience. We have already recommended Olshan to others. There are a couple of things that they could have done better. First, they should have told us that more than likely, none of our shrubs would survive the ordeal. Yes, they did inform us that all the shurbs may not survive. Actually, none of them did. I just think they should prepare the client for worst case scenario. Second thing is that they should have told us that since we were havingsome interior piers done, and one of them was in the bedroom, we should plan to vacate the house during the work. Which is what we ended up doing. Once they started to jack hammer the slab inside the house, it quickly became apparent that there was going to be far too much dust and dirt for us to sleep in the house. They did tell us that they would cover everything with plastic which the crew did a really good job of doing. But again, I believe the client should be prepared for worst case scenario, so it would have been nice if we had been told that we may want to consider vacating the house during the work. However, as I said before, overall were are very pleased with the work and would not hesitate to use them again or recommend them to others. They were the most expensive, but you know the old saying.....You get what you pay for. We figured that the foundation of our home was not something we wanted to make a mistake on. We are very happy with our decision. I believe we got what we paid for.

Very well. Complete story appears above.

They said that they way they install the peers are better than anybody else, but I can't say anything about that. However, my objection is they came back after they finished and said that I need additional work inside the house, but they didn't tell me that before.

They were clean, prompt and did a great job. I had my own structural engineer on site to make sure everything was done appropriately. They got the job done within the week they said it would take. The work was excellent and the house is level; they did a fabulous job. The price was excellent; we were able to negotiate it down. They left the house as clean as they could. I have already referred them to a neighbor.

The work went smoothly. They dug a trench along the side and back of my house to give them access to the foundation. Piers were placed carefully to raise the back and west side of the house since it was noticably lower than the front and east side. I was home the entire time and was kept informed by the supervisor. The supervisor also kept my son informed of what was going on and how each stage of the work would be accomplished. When they left the back yard was cleaner than when they arrived. There were no papers or soda cans or water bottles left in my yard. Actually, other than freshly turned soil there was no evidence any workers had been present. The job was done as stated in the estimate and in the time promised.

They had accidentally broken some sprinkler lines and when we complained about that, they came out and fixed them for free. One thing that I was disappointed about was we called them 3 times trying to move our schedule and they said they can't. Then they called up later and said we need to have a holiday party on the scheduled day, so can we move it to a closer date? They couldn't work when we desperately needed to move the schedule, but as soon as it interfered with their holiday party, they moved it. Then they tried to complete 2 days work in 1 day and our foundation is not quite right.

After doing some fairly comprehensive research and receiving several competitive bids over the phone, we decided to go with Olshans Plumbing for the following reasons: (1) They did NOT assume that they already knew my problem before I described it to them, (2) There WERE patient, asked good questions and very courteous in talking with me over the phone, (3) Scott did a great job, cleaned up after he was done, and answered all questions I had during the installation process, (4) Their prices were VERY competitive considereing i wanted a much higher grade of HW heater than what the other plumbing companies offered as and quot;standard.and quot; These models (offered by the competitiors) were spec-grade, lower quality, less years of warranty units that maximized the plumbing company's profit margins but not at all what I was looking for. Two thumbs up for Olshan's Plumbing from this very particular, sometimes-demanding Engineer!!