Olshan Foundation Repair

He was very educational to me. His was the most expensive. He told he could do half of it or the whole house. I think if I had chosen him, I probably could have gotten a good foundation repair but it would have cost may be a lot more than I needed. When he first came in he was kind of very condescending to me. He talked to me like I was in elementary school and he was teaching me. I appreciated the teaching but he was just talking down to me. I expected him to come in, take measurements and maybe sit down and talk to me. He came in, talked to me and was asking me questions. In the very beginning I did not like this person but then he educated me.

Olshan's sent out a large crew so the work was done in 4-5 days. They placed 39 pilasters and this included two in the garage and seven that ran through the center of my house. I will have to say that when they were working inside my house it looked like a war zone, but the workers were very careful to not scrape my doors, walls, etc. They covered all of the furniture and walls so they did not get dusty. This involved wheelbarrows of dirt going outside of my 1740 sf one story home. The work was done about nine years ago and about a year after the work was completed, my house started shifting again. Noticeable gaps between the ceiling and top of certain walls. Doors started sticking again. Same nightmare before the work was done. FYI, my all brick home did not have any exterior cracks before the work was done, but now there are several noticeable cracks around the exterior of the home. I constantly have sheet rock that is cracked and large walls have every separation where the sheet rock pieces come together. Tape tears loose, it looks awful. This is what I live with after everything was freshly taped and floated and repainted after the work was completed. My kitchen cabinets are not hanging straight anymore. Keep in mind my house is 40 years old, and I think it looked better before I had the work done than after. Calling them back for warranty work is a nightmare. It takes about two months before anyone can come out to look at the new damage, then another two or three months to get a crew out to fix it. By then, the house has shifted another direction. All they do is tear up my flower beds and kill my shrubs by digging them up and replanting them to "repair" the foundation. What a waste of money! I finally gave up and just live with the crappy walls and sticky doors and cracked bricks on the exterior, and cabinet doors that don't close to. Unfortunately, my brother had them do his house for $14.000 before I started having trouble with mine and his is the same as mine. He is unhappy as well.

In 2004 my home's foundation was adjusted by Olshan. They lifted up the house, inserted steel shims, and corrected the house's imbalance. By 2013 the foundation had shifted slightly again (as it does in Austin), but basically things were still fine. In retrospect I wish I'd hired Centex instead for one major reason: Olshan is less expert with pier and beam foundations than with slab foundations, and the company changed hands sometime in the last few years. When I was selling the house last summer, the home inspection revealed some problems with the home's foundation and I called Olshan to clarify what they'd done back in 2004. I wanted to make sure that nothing they'd done was out of code or revealed shoddy methods or materials. They were extremely defensive and cagey on the phone; the secretary told me she couldn't send me copies of the reports they'd done for my house until she'd talked to the legal department; one person after another went out of their way to remind me that the company's ownership had changed and they weren't liable for anything done incorrectly (even though the name of the company was the same, the guy who'd done my work was still there, and they had all the files on the previous work...?); and it took days for me to get a clear sense even of what work had been done on my house. In the end I was persuaded that they'd done everything correctly. But the extreme defensiveness, anxiety about litigation, and unwillingness at first to send me records of the work they did on my house makes me quite sure I would not use them again. Let me repeat that I'm certain, now, that their work was just fine. My hesitation comes solely from my most recent encounter with them.

I received a visit and an estimate for foundation repair. I was given a very thorough explanation of the process, and handouts/marketing materials that were quite good. I didn't expect the sales pitch to be quite so aggressive, and I'm not a fan of companies using scare tactics to warn me away from competing vendors. The notice that I should carefully research how long any company has been in the business of leveling foundations was adequate. Trying to make me believe that every other foundation company in Texas is a fly-by-night operation with limited or no experience in the industry was too much of a hard-sell for my taste. In the end, I went with a foundation repair company that was recommended by friends, and I am happy with the result. I'm sure Olshan does exceptional work, but this particular sales tactic didn't work with me.

We had an engineer came out that said to leave it well enough alone and another foundation company said leave it well enough alone but your doors are roofing and your windows are closing so I felt like we were getting ripped off by Olshan Foundation Repair. They have been professional and courteous. Since they did some foundation repair in the past other companies won't touch the work so we are locked in to Olshan Foundation Repair.

Made appointment to receive estimate on foundation repair. Mr. Nash's attitude made it obvious from the beginning that he felt he was wasting his time talking to us. Talked down to us until he realized my husband was knowledgeable in the area of concrete construction. Spent more time telling us what was bad about the other foundation repair companies than what was good about his company. Kept telling us to review the CD in promo packet. Although we felt Olshan's product is superior others, the price difference was too great. Aside from that, we won't use them because of Mr. Nash's attitude.

I solicited bids from three companies. Olshan came in with the middle price but was the most responsive in followup. I asked for extensive information including drawings of the foundation work to be done. I will most likely choose Olshan when I go forward.

Absolute nightmare. The foundation was leveled in 2001. Within five years cracks began to appear in the living room and bed room. Came out to adjust and make repairs without even bothering to measure the elevations of the floor before doing the work. Last year major cracks in the bedroom and living room occurred again/ This time they came out and measured. They said the entire house inside and out would have to be redone. Tried the blame me, the plumbing and everyone but themselves for the problem. There plumbers came out and checked for leeks in the pluming. when none were found I never herd from them again. I would not use them again.

I am going to be having an on-going relationship with them; I think they are going to come by every 6 months to measure to see what my slab is doing. They only did repair on part of the house so I have decided that if I need additional foundation repair that is not under their warranty I would go with a different company; but not necessarily because of this company -- it is because of the system they use for foundation repair. It does not go all the way down to the bedrock and I would chose something that does because I feel like it would be more stable.

The woman I talked to was wonderful. When I told her the problem, she said it sounded like plumbing. We got plumbers out so we didn't need their services. It was wonderful that she told us that it was not the foundation and it was plumbing. We would absolutely use them.

Olshan's Plumbing bad experience. I cannot say a good word about Olshan Plumbing. Contacted Home Depot to install a water heater in my business. Buck's plumbing was contracted by Olshan (Home Depot Contractor). The quote given was reasonable until after installation. They charged me $460.00 for 40 feet of drain pipe. Home Depot sells this for $1.97 for a 10 foot section. Lets assume with a couple of fittings this should cost less than $20.00. I realize they need to mark this up lets assume $50.00 on the high side. This surprise charge was not part of the original quote. Olshan's contractor obtained the wrong permit and took over 2 weeks and several calls to get it resolved. Another item was the poor communication. After complaining to Olshan, they called Plumbing contractor while I was on hold, I was promised a call from the plumber and am still waiting for it 2 months later. I sent Olshan Pluming a complaint letter and have not recieved a reply. STAY AWAY FROM OLSHAN PLUMBING ....BAD NEWS

They were honest enough to tell me that I did not need foundation repair. They were wonderful.

The price was reasonable. I was happy with their work.

We have had to re-pier our house (2012) in the same areas that were previously repaired by Olshan in 2008. We have discovered that the piers used by Olshan apparently do not go deep enough because of our area's rocky soil. These piers apparently work great in sandier soils). Also in working with our new company, we see in hindsight, just how unprofessional that Olshan's work was done. We were told by Olshan that the work would take about 3 days, but it was completed in one day, which means that quality was probably not a top priority. At the time, this didn't register with us. But seeing how the new company measured frequently and had a professional engineer in attendance and how they kept us informed of the procedures, really makes Olshan look unprofessional. When we discovered that the same areas of our home that was repaired by Olshan previously, now needed to be done again in 2011-12, we did not want to go back to Olshan or go into dispute with them, so we chose another company.

They were punctual and showed up when they said they would. I would use them in the future and recommend them to others.

Contacted company early May. They sent a structural technician (Daryl) to inspect foundation. He took electronic readings to assess condition. After determining that it was needing repair, he suggested I have the plumbing under the house tested for possible plumbing leak (if broken, foundation repair might be covered by homeowner insurance.) I had them send their own plumber from their plumbing division. Had some difficulty getting the plumber to actually visit when agreed, so I called Daryl and he took action. The plumber finally arrived and performed tests and said it was leaking. Cost for test was $150. When I reported this to insurance co., they also sent a plumber to verify. Their independent plumber did a thorough test and showed me that it was not leaking, therefore, claim was denied. I relayed info to Daryl and explained I would need his proposal to repair foundation, based on his initial visit/inspection. Said he would send it to me. After several days, I had not received it, so I called him back. I reminded him I was still awaiting his proposal, and he again said he would send it. I never did receive it, so I disqualified them from consideration and called another company. I am pleased to report that I had GL Hunt perform the work and am very glad I did - see separate report for them.

Our foundation cracked during the drought of 2008, so we began looking into what it was going to take to fix and stabilize it. We had three other bids other than Olshan and they were definitely not the cheapest option. The others were about $3,000 - $5,000 less, in fact. But, in the end, it was the technology that sold us on this being the best option. I will also say that they were a bit more persistent about following up after the bid was made. Sometimes this was more than we wanted it to be because it seemed that the left hand did not know what the right hand was doing. However, it showed us that at least they were interested in actually doing the job. Once scheduled, we were expected to pay the crew leader half up front and half at the end of the job. They arrived promptly and scarcely had the crew leader let go of my handshake than he was asking for the first installment check. LOL. It took them three days to dig 21 excavations, set the technology, and refill the holes. They were receptive to the need for me to let the dogs out from time to time and were also receptive to answering questions that we had along the way. If you have never had this kind of work done, the piles of dirt and holes in your concrete can be a bit concerning. When it came time to fill the holes back in, they asked where we would prefer to have the excess dirt spread. They left everything in pretty good shape, other than a planting bed that they attempted to re-piece, but failed utterly in doing so. I have purposely waited for over a year to submit this report because I wanted to be assured of the quality of the work. Despite continued drought and then torrential rains through 2009 - 2010, the foundation is stabilized and we will soon set about fixing the internal damage to the structure. The best part is that I have never had to call them to take advantage of their lifetime warranty guarantee...yet.

The foundation repair was good, but they had warned us that they would need to drill some holes in our front porch to put piers in to lift that portion of the house. They did say they would repair the holes, and when they left, the front porch looked terrible. The fill-in they used was not smooth or even, and the color did not match the previous concrete color at all. They replaced our pale concrete with very dark gray, and it was so uneven that we could not put porcelain over it. We ended up having to cover it with carpet. They did not respond to my letter concerning the porch. They did complete the project on time, and they were easy to work with prior to finishing the job. I recommended them to my sister-in-law but warned her to watch them. I would consider using them again, but I would want to be there when they finished to approve the job before they left.

Chose not to go with this company - only because of the price

I contacted OLSHAN through Service Master. I got a canned E-mail back with company history. After a week or more of no call from OLSHAN, I called and left a message after the office was closed. NO RESPONSE TO THAT CALL EITHER. In my Service Master description of problem I stressed that there were no cracks in my walls, but wasn't sure if I had a foundation problem or not. I guess they figured they wouldn't hear the CHA-CHING of money coming in if I didn't have any foundation problems.

They got the job done, but really made a mess of the house. Did not cover the furniture so there is cement dust all over the place. Actually tore the carpet when they rolled it up to dig inside the house. Mud on the walls, mud on the brick. I had to call them back so they could fill in one of the holes they did not fill in completely. It was a mess! All the drapes and furniture need to be cleaned now. Also had different crew members every single day (ranged from 3 to 5 per day) the supervisor also quit mid job.

Work was started and completed on time. Company representative was knowledgeable about the problem. Work crew were non stop and were polite and friendly. Area was cleaned after work was completed. Office staff was helpful with questions and were very polite.

Olshan did a good job. The concrete work probably could have been a little bit better, but besides that I have no complaints. They were on time. The crew was polite & professional. I would do business with them again.

The crew arrived on time, and did an excellent job of re-enforcing my foundation. Their behavior was good, and I feel better about the condition of my house. They did, however, break a window while doing the job, and did not seem eager to replace it. I had to call several times to get a check for the repair. I realize accidents happen, but I see no reason why they did not offer to pay for it immediately.

Olshan Foundation conducted their business professionally. I liked the way they handled themselves. I thought they were very experienced. The price was reasonable for this type of contract. I was satisfied with their work.