Dawson Foundation Repair

The price was too high. The Appraiser was very unprofessional.

Unable to schedule an appt. with us until Nov. 20, 2013. Stating we were Members of Angie's List made no difference in the date. Since they fixed my neighbor's foundation we will wait til their visit and report on the results.

Kevin was the estimate agent that came to the house and worked with us. He took his time and was very thorough and professional along with making us feel very comfortable with what investment decision we would make for our house. When the contractors came out it took 2 days to have 20 bell bottom piers put in, and they worked ALL DAY! During the process it does get a little messy, but at the end of day 2 I couldn't tell they did so much work. Everything was neat, picked and cleaned up and washed down so there wouldn't be any extra dirt. Its been 4 months and with all this rain that has come, there hasn't been any problems. They are fantastic!

My review is on record. You can stop sending me requests to complete the review!

Agent was very friendly and quite informative. Was on time; had double checked time and date.

The scheduled day of phase one - drilling process the crew arrive on time. Once work began the crew worked not stop except for lunch break. During the drilling process the site foreman explained how they had reached the correct drilling depth because the soil had consistent moisture. He determined this by squeezing a soil sample from the drill bit in his hands. Dawson's website videos show the moisture of the soil is measured with a meter. The drilling process involved pouring 5-gallon buckets of water down the drilled shaft to ease the drilling process. How did the site foreman tell the difference between natural moisture and the moisture added by pouring water down the drilled shaft? Dawson's website has a picture of how the drilled shaft should look after the pouring of the concrete. The website picture shows a bell bottom shaft containing rebar and concrete, the shaft comes up from the belled bottom and begins a taper that continues to the bottom of the concrete pad that will hold the concrete blocks. The concrete pad is then pour 12" thick and contains 2 steel rebar mats. Concrete blocks measuring 8" x 12" and steel shims are placed between the pad and the building foundation. This is what the building foundation actually sits on after the lift. The repair performed on my structure did not have a taper from the shaft to the concrete pad nor was the pad poured 12" thick as pictured on the website. My The distance from the building foundation to the top of the concrete pad was measured 23" - 25", requiring two concrete blocks stacked one upon another and then steel shims used after the lift. The concrete pad poured did have 2 rebar mat but was only 4" - 6" thick. After the waiting period to let the concrete set the next crew came out to level th3 structure. The total lift raised the structure approximately 1-1/4" to 1-1/2". I asked about back filling the gap with the mud slurry as advertised on Dawson's website. The lifting foreman stated back filling was only done lifts that raised the foundation over 1-1/2". It would not be done on this operation. The salesman who quoted the job said the gap would be backfilled as does Dawson's website. Another supervisor stated back filling is performed on lifts over 2". Who knows if they actually back fill any lift. The leveling crew arrived on time the day of the lift. The lifting supervisor and the crew appeared to be very knowledgeable with all aspects of the operation. After the lift I waited approximately 6 weeks for Dawson to set up a leak test per contract. I finally contacted Dawson informing them the test had not been performed. Dawson set up a contractor who turned out to be a no show. No fault of Dawson's though. The second contractor set up and performed a leak test. The results of the test showed there is a leak in the vent line aboce the main sewer line and would only leak if there waws a toal back up of the sytem. I called Dawson to inform them of the results of the leak test asking if this leak location would void the warranty. I was given the phone number of a lifting supervisor to discuss the leak. I called the supervisor and left a message on his voice mail requesting a return call. I'm still waiting. All things considered I would use Dawson Foundation again and I would recommend them to anyone who desires an alternative to pressed pilings. Dawson's website links: Home page: http://dawsonfoundationrepair.com Drilling process with moisture testing: http://dawsonfoundationrepair.com/step-by-step/soil-test/ Drilled pier illustration: http://dawsonfoundationrepair.com/bell-bottom-pier-illustration/

Top notch, excellent service from beginning to end. Martin, the owner, explained in detail the method that they were going to use which was to put in 16 bell bottom piers around the front half of the house in a two-step process. My engineer husband who is knowledgeable in the construction field agreed that bell bottom piers were the way to go although they cost more than other techniques that other foundation companies use (we also had Bonilla, Continental and AFF Honesty come out and bid on the job). Before the work started Cheri, their production coordinator, communicated with us frequently by email/phone and answered promptly any questions we had as well as told us about things we needed to know before the installation crew arrived. The crew arrived as scheduled and finished all the digging and installation over 2 days. They put back all the shrubs and another crew came with a pressure washer to clean the driveway and walkways and left everything spotless. Two weeks later they came back to level the house and almost instantly all the cracks that were on the marble foyer before miraculously disappeared. After that Dawson sent a water leak detection company over to check the sprinkler lines and make sure there were no leaks. Everyone at Dawson acted in a very professional manner and everything happened like clockwork which made this a painless process for us. We highly recommend this company.

Very well presented quote--hated not to use them for this project but we had already agreed to stay within our budget. They are definitley a very high quality organization

My experience with them went really well. Their explanation was really well. They were conservative but thorough.

After having other companies do the same assessment, no foundation repairs were recommended which suggests this company is more interested to selling services than helping home owners. The representative did not leave me a report but later e-mailed me a copy after calling their office for status. I felt the representative appeared very professional and the company seemed to have a good foundation pier solution but it would be better to use them after having a structural engineer set the specifications. Bonilla and Church services gave more honest answers that monitoring was recommended but no other repairs are needed at this time.

The workers were very prompt and courteous. All the soils extracted were taken away and the perimeter of the house is cleaned before they left. The entire process was very smooth.

They proposed an excellent repair, belled piers, but at a very high cost. They did make some good suggestions for other actions and said that what they recommend for my application was overkill. Very honest people.

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We called three people we found on Angie's List to repair our foundation and all three came out and gave their quotes. They were all great. I was impressed with all of their presentations. Dawson Foundation was the most expensive, because of the type of foundation work they do. It is the best. We don't plan to live here that long, though, and we don't want to invest that kind of money in a house we're going to be moving, probably within the next four years. But they're very good. If we were keeping the house, we would probably go with them. They were very professional. They gave us lots of documentation to do research ourselves. That was impressive. They encouraged us to find out about the different types of foundation repair. They were right. Theirs is the most substantial but it's also more expensive and more time consuming because they have to do more intensive work. It's worth it. It's just not what we wanted to pay at this time.

I had below issues, which are for me looks like foundation issues. *. A crack below the window. *. Wooden flooring is seeing some gaps between the flanks *. A crack in sealing. The foundation enginer came verified the floor. He didn't find any issues with the foundation and gave advise on couple of items..

I received a call the day prior confirming the appointment time. Greg actually came a few minutes earlier than our scheduled time. After taking measurements and assessing the exterior of the home, he spent time explaining to us why we did not need foundation repair at this time and also explained why he thought we had the crack in the exterior brick. He went on to explain the differences in the type of piers and how they are placed under the home. He shed some light on how damaging it can be to the foundation to install piers improperly as well as the hazards that come with the more typical cylindrical piers used in this area. What makes foundation repair so intimidating to me knowing that it is a BIG deal but also not knowing enough about construction to really know for sure what I need or what methods are best... it is a huge learning curve. But it is wonderful to know that Dawson is not taking advantage of that fear and recommending unnecessary work. Greg took the time to explain what we should be looking for to identify foundation issues. In addition, Dawson's website is really helpful. I will certainly call them again if the need should arise.

Their price might be a little bit higher but not much. They were all competitive. They came out within a week. They were very honest and upfront. Because I had another company that had done work on the house before, they recommended that I stay with that company because I already had a warranty with them on the house. He was very nice. I would recommend them. They gave me the information I needed to tell the other company what I wanted done.

Went well, services performed as per estimator and actually took less time than estimated. Workers were friendly and communicative during all phases and did a good job of cleaning up after each stage. Kept me informed the whole time.

I did not hire Dawson. In fact, I had already hired one of his competitors by the time Mr. Dawson and I spoke on the phone because I was in a hurry and he was not able to get to my property in time. Nevertheless, he spent twenty minutes on the phone with me discussing various pitfalls with respect to leveling a house. I cannot speak to his competence regarding leveling, nor can I rate Dawson's bell piers or their technique, but I can tell you that Mr. Dawson seemed to care about his clients, both actual and potential.

The representative was in an accident on the way to the meeting and did call to let me know he would be running late. Unfortunately after waiting the entire few hours he was unable to make it and we had to reschedule again. At the next appt he was on time very professional and gave a detailed estimate of work. We are planning on moving forward with the work sometime in 2013 and Dawson is on our "short list" of potential companies to use.

A person came out and gave a quote for foundation repair, one of four companies to do so. While my husband, who was there for each person, preferred the Dawson guy, we went with another company. Dawson's price was nearly 3 times the lower 2 quotes we received. We figure the foundation can shift and we'd need work done again (if the lower quote companies have shorter-lasting repairs, which only time will tell) and still come out cheaper than going with Dawson.

I liked them a lot and they were very professional. They got the work done timely. They did have to recommend someone to fix the wooden floors when they were finished and I felt that they were terrible.

Cleaned up after themselves. Did a great job. Came out to dig holes and put in the cement. Came back a second time to finish after the concrete set up. I'm very please. Cracks inside house closed up.

It was amazing and they did an excellent job. When they lifted the house, the cracked tile we had went back together. It was only off a half of an inch; since it was put back together exactly how it was, we didn't have to repair it ourselves.