The Foundation Expert

They did a really great job. The wall is all better after they fixed the earthquake damage. They were on time, very clean, and really did a good job. We felt that the price was a little high considering how long they were actually here. Update 05/07/13: crew showed up without original consultant when owner not present . family member present, but unfamiliar with contracted work to be performed.work was begun in wrong location of cellar which was discovered upon owner returning. work was then performed after owner showed crew what was discussed with initial consultant, work completed and payment made as agreed. i called the company back appx 10 days ago to inform them that same problem had recurred and was told they would arrange to come back and look at it. there has been no call back to arrange same.

I purchased the Big Deal for $99 that included a foundation inspection and report. It has now been nearly two months since the inspection, and despite repeated requests I still don't have the written report. The company was most eager to send me a "proposal" to fix problems with the unevenness of my floors that it said it had found. (It turns out the proposal included an estimate that was over 200% higher than other estimates I have received from top contractors on Angies List; this also was touted as a "special deal" that would expire in a few days.) When I responded that I first wanted to get the report that was included in the Big Deal before I considered any remediation proposal, I got radio silence for weeks. When I inquired again, I still received no response. Finally, I contacted the company and told them I would have no choice but to report this poor experience to Angies List if I did not hear from them. I promptly got a reply apologizing for the delay and that the inspector would be contacted about the report. That was two weeks ago, and I still have not received the written report. I'm now completely fed up and have decided to file this report.

We called The Foundation Expert because our basement had flooded on several occasions during heavy rainstorms. Sam and Kenny came out to our house at a time convenient to us and evaluated the problem and gave us an estimate. After we agreed to the recommended work they again accomodated our schedule to complete the work. Everything was done in a professional manner, and according to schedule. Inside, they covered all our belongings with plastic sheeting in order to keep dust from getting on them. In addition, some problems we had had with basement wiring were corrected during their work connecting the sump pump. The floor was repaired very well afterwards. Everything was cleaned up nicely after the work was done. We had one minor problem regarding the re-installation of our AC unit (it had to be moved for the excavation). Sam sent someone out the next day to fix the problem.We hope to never need their services again, but we wouldn't hesitate to recommend them in the future.

What can I say other than Sam Weisgal (the owner) gets it. When I say "it", I mean the concept of professional service and all that concept entails. If you've worked with any contractors on any significant project related to your home, you will know that's no small feat in the home improvement industry.I work in the financial services field, and there's no business more sensitive and scrutinzed than handling someone else's money. From my lens, Sam and his staff deliver a level of service that is the equivalent, on a universal scale, with the 'high touch' service you might receive anywhere in any business. And in my opinion, that's all you really need to know. Nevertheless, I will elaborate with the following observations as they relate to the work he completed on our house: 1. Sam is/was always available. The man doesn't sleep. You call him and he answers almost every time regardless of time of day, weekend, from the beach on vacation, whatever. Sometimes I call late with the intent of leaving a voicemail about something I've just thought of related to the job, and he answers. I apologize for bothering him late, and he says to me (on more than one occasion), "If you call me, you're never bothering me." If I'm up late catching up on email, and send him an email about the job, I get a response in 5 minutes. Then, a follow up email might be sent before I get up in the morning. This is hyper-service, and I've rarely encountered it in any business. 2. They manage expectations. Sam explains what is going to happen, what surprises they might encounter, and gives you a realistic estimate for all of it. 3. They deliver. The job is done right, and they keep at it until you're completely satisfied. Other contractors have remarked on the quality. Quality matches/exceeds prices. 4. Sam immediately addresses problems and makes no excuses. No one is perfect, and Sam sets the bar high for those who work for and with him. I had a bristly conversation with a person in the one of the other companies under Sam that worked on my basement. Sam apologized, made no excuses, addressed it, and there was no further issue. In another instance, a somewhat superficial aspect of our project we discussed - the re-grading of a small slope near one of our basement windows - did not get completed during the first job. It's not actually a current problem, I haven't seen any water at the window during heavy rain. I totally forgot about it but then called Sam about it over a month later. Sam felt bad about it and eventually offered to put in a new window well at that window (80" window) at raw cost, an option we had originally passed up due to cost and lower urgency. 5. The staff is professional. Apart from my one bristly conversation mentioned earlier which was addressed, Sam's staff and workers were terrific. Jamie, the foreman from Apex, was great, and Troy and Juan from Sam's crew were as well. His workers were all friendly and worked non-stop. Sherry, in the office, is very sweet. 6. They exceed expectations. We had other work going on in our basement that couldn't continue without the drainage system going in. Sam understands time is money and fast-tracked our project to minimize the disruption. In another instance, this month, our patio drain backed up in heavy rain and began to flood the adjacent sun room. He sent over his project manager, Troy, at night with a sump pump connected to a firehose to pump the water away at no charge. This issue was not related to the work they were doing, but I didn't know who else to call, and Sam just took care of it. Also, see previous note about window well at cost. I'm sure there's more that I'm leaving out, but I think you get the idea. The contrast between The Foundation Expert and other contractors I have dealt with could not be wider. So, if you want to worry about whether your contractor's going to show up, whether he's going to be hung over, or which of his multiple personalities you'll be dealing with, by all means hire someone else. Or you can hire The Foundation Expert.

I would highly recommend Sam and his team at The Foundation Expert for the work they performed on our house. While a number of places were focused simply on installing an interior drainage system, Sam took the time to explore a number of other opportunities to prevent water from penetrating the block walls of our home, including waterproofing the outside and performing work in the crawl space. I had a number of conversations with Sam in advance of making a decision and he took the time to explain the proposed scope of the work and even visited the house more than once to re-confirm everything before we signed up. He and his team, led by Troy, were very thorough, always on time and always willing to answer questions during the course of the work. His team was also very courteous and neat (and even willing to try to preserve landscaping), which was very appreciated given the significance of the project. Again, we were very satisfied with The Foundation Expert and would highly recommend Sam and his team to others.

Had them come out to look at some issues with our english basement but the engineer did not think there was a major structural problem. Since we had paid for his time and that assessment was relativley quick, he asked if he could check all around the house. He identified problems I knew about with some rotting on the window sills, a wood panel on the side of the house had termite and water damage, broken front door screen that needed refinishing, and repairing some racoon damage done to our inside window sills (don' t ask). He had an estimator come out and give us a bid. The bid was sent to us over E-mail and was well laid out. Had some initial problems setting up a time for the work to begin but when I started going through Sherry at their main office and everything went smoothly. Troy was the manager of our project and his attention to detail, enthusiam for working on the project really showed. It was great to have a contractor who really seemed to have a passion for his work. He did a great job in doing some of the harder parts of the work himself, but also did a good job overseeing his crew - there was no wasted time. We were very happy with the results and they finished on time. Would recommend them without reservation.

The Foundation Expert did an excellent job on our very challenging assignment. I highly recommend them to anybody who needs serious foundation & waterproofing work. We just bought a very unique contemporary 14,000 sq. ft. house built on a hill. We got a great deal on the house because it had many issues, one of which was a mildew-type smell in the lower levels and other signs of water damage. I didn't know much about waterproofing, foundations, crawlspaces, radon, or drainage. Now I feel like I do, thanks to Sam & his team. I also feel much better about how waterproof our house is. We got several quotes for waterproofing the lower level, and The Foundation Expert was the most expensive. However, I don't think the other organizations really understood the extent of the problem and were only going to superficially fix the symptoms, not the root cause. In the end, I feel we really got our money's worth, or even more. Just to excavate a drainage area in the crawlspace & refill it with gravel was a major effort. They literally removed many tons of dirt bucket by bucket through a tiny access panel. They then refilled it with tons of gravel through the same 3'x2' access panel. They had half a dozen or more guys working for about 2 weeks just doing those 2 activities. They moved the excavated dirt about 100 yards away to a location on our property that needed fill dirt. They also dug down under the existing footer / lintel to pour a new 6' tall concrete wall. The floors of this house step down a hill, and the original design should have had these foundation walls poured originally. (Other service providers weren't going to do this). They also did an excellent job on our flagstone / blue-stone patio. It had to be dug up to pour one of the walls, but they put it back together better than it was originally. At first I was a little confused / concerned about the different "teams" doing work. Sam Weisgal explained that he has a couple of shared partners in his company and/or other companies. Some of them share ownership & profits. The "foreman" (not sure if that's the proper term) we had were Dan & Troy and they were excellent. It never turned out to be an issue. I guess with all the different trades that are needed in a big project like this (e.g. masons for the flagstone patio) that you can't keep all on-staff. They also helped with some guidance to some other contractors we had doing interior remodeling. Sam's crews were all very polite & cleaned up after themselves. If you're looking to have foundation / waterproofing / basement work done, these guys are the pros!

TERRIBLE. I absolutely would NOT recommend their services to anyone.

Great, everythig is high and dry and the foundation is now stable. Best of all, I am confient the work meets or exceeds code. The work was completed as detailed, the crew was hard working, clean and professional. I would highly reccomend " The Foundation Expert " .

Mr. Weisgal came out to look at a crack in our living room wall and assured us that it was not due to any foundation issues as we had been informed that it was by one of his competitiors. He took a very careful look around our property and suggeted that we install a sump pum at the bottom of our basement steps. The work was scheduled for a Saturday morning. The work crew arrived promptly at the agreed upon time, completed the work and cleaned up nicely. We will definitely use them again.

Report purchased. No report provided. Maybe they're is still looking for it (over one months later). If that's the case, how good could it be?

I have a serious problem in my crawl space due to settlement and mold issues. I had contacted The Foundation Expert company a couple months ago and the day before the appoint ment I received a call from their office to cancel the appointment due to the Rep's illness. I contacted them again and on April 7th their representative, Troy Michael, came over. He was polite and very pleasant. He looked in the crawl space and gave me a good understanding of the issues at hand. He told me he was going to send me a written report and quote. As he was walking out the door, he asked me if it was a free quote or had I been asked to pay a fee. I told him I didn't remember and so he called the company and was told I was required to pay a $150 fee. I couldn't find my wallet at that moment and so Troy told me to call the company when I find it and make the payment. I called later that evening and was put through to the voicemail of someone called Sherry where I left a mwssage asking them to call me back. I didn't hear anything for almost 10 days and called them again and left another message on their voicemail; again I heard nothing. On Friday, April 13th I called Troy and left a message on his cell phone number (his number is the only number on his business card), again i heard nothing. On Monday April 16th, I finally called their office to inquire. I was told they'll tell Troy to call me. Troy called shortly thereafter but had no clue or recollection of who I was or the reason for my call. I told him I had left a message on his cell number and he claimed he hardly ever returns any messages left on his cell phone! He then remembered and said that the report was at the office awaiting my payment of $150. I called theirt office again to pay the fee and once again I was put into Sherry's voicemail. On Wednesday, April 18th; I finally called Troy to tell him that i was done with The Foundation Expert and will leave my comments on Angie's List and BBB. Minutes thereafter, Sherry called me to apologize for the delay. I told her i was no longer willing to pay the fee and she said she was not going to charge me after all the delays and will e-mil me the report and asked me to consider retaining their services. About a couple of hours later, I received a call from someone who introduced himself as "Sam" the owner. His tone and his demeanor were condescending and rude. He claimed they never do free inspections and i tried to tell him that I had tried to pay their fees several times and that his employee Sherry had agreed now to send me the report, but he wouldn't let me speak and kept talking over me, so I finally hng up on him and contacted another company. I find The Foundation Expert to be an unprofessional and unreliable business.

When our basement flooded back in September, during Hurricane Irene, we knew we were looking at a major repair/renovation. As soon as the insurance company cleared us to get estimates, we called Sam, who sent Brady out within 24 hours. He spent at least an hour in the basement, assessing and measuring and answering the myriad of questions I posed. It wasn't until the end of February that we received our insurance check and I was concerned that we would have to start the process all over again. Not so! Even though his prices had gone up, Sam still honored the original estimate and was able to start the project within a week. His guys were punctual, respectful and hard-working. Rudy was our project manager and he was superb. He kept me in the loop through the entire project and was nothing but professional and accommodating. He and his crew worked through weekends (with our blessing) and completed the entire job in about two weeks. They cleaned up all of their materials and by the time they left, the place was pretty much spotless. My basement is now a beautiful, completed room, instead of a dark, cinderblock- walled cave. My son is thrilled with his new room and bathroom, and we will never have to worry about leaks again because of the excellent work completed by The Foundation Expert. I would not hesitate to hire them in the future for other projects in my house. Thanks for everything!!!

He wrote a detailed report on his findings and made several recommendations on what needed to be done. The rear wall on the left side of the house is bowed in. Other walls are structurally unsound and would need to be completely rebuilt. Horizontal cracks are traveling throughout the block walls. The house is in very bad condition and his unbiased observation was to demolish, sell or repair/rebuild the house (which would be very costly). We were given an estimate of the approximate cost of fixing the house. There was no pressure for us to use their services to repair/rebuld the house. We will have to give the recommendations serious thought. Fortunately, no one is living there at this time. I would definitely use the Foundation's services again!

He was very personable and knew exactly what he was doing. He always answered my calls and stayed in touch with me. He did the inspection and gave me the written report a few days later. I am considering from the report what I will have done. I will certainly will use him if I end up going with his suggestions.

Initially (within minutes actually) I got an email thanking me for my coupon purchase etc. I Set up an appointment for the inspection. Once they showed up it turned into a sales call, not the inspection I thought I paid for. They pointed out a few obvios things like wood rot, and painting but no real inspection of my foundation or any structural report as I was lead to believe. The initial meeting was left with a promise to send someone out to give me an estimate on some repair work but I haven't heard from them since. I tried to call once but no one picked up. Part of my failing grade has to go to Angie's list for offering a coupon with no real value. Most companies making a sales call don't charge for the privilege. Angie's list should be more careful before offering coupons.

I could have had a complete basement dug for $20,000.00. The $98.00 I spend with him was a ripoff.

The company came on time and cleaned up well. They quoted the job for 3 days and it took 2 days. They didn't damage plants further away than they had said would be at risk. The deck was reassembled and waterproofed and it looks great. We're very happy with the job.

Samuel did the estimate and communicated the process very well. Lawrence did the work and very clean, friendly, and punctual. The job went better than I expected, as most service companies these days leave a lot to be desired, but The Foundation Expert is top notch. They are also very military friendly with thier pricing.

I had a finished basement that, with heavy rains, would have water seepage down the walls and across the baseboards and carpet. Each time, the carpet would get saturated and mildew was slowly forming on and behind the drywall that was staying damp. I would worry whenever i heard the weather forecast announce several days of rain. I finally decided that, I couldn't ignore the problem any longer. I called TFE after finding them on Angie's List and reading their reports. I called Sam and within a few days, he came to assess my basement. He performed a thorough inspection, removed some drywall to be able to assess the foundation wall behind, and explained to me the options. Sam worked with my schedule and was able to start the following week. His crew, lead by Rudy, was punctual, very professional, and did excellent work. They drapped the area to keep dust to a minimum, and cleaned up every evening before leaving. I am extremely satisfied with their work and it was a pleasure dealing with them. Now, I no longer have to dread the R word ( Rain !), and can enjoy a clean, mildew free and dry basement. Thank you Sam, Rudy, and all the TFE crew.

Samuel Weisgal and his team worked quickly and professionally to fix my basement leak issue. They were easy to work with and Mr. Weisgal was very responsive to email questions over the time period of the work. I was at work most of the time while they were at my house but Mr. Weisgal's team worked seamlessly with my wife. She especially liked the TFE folks because they also took time to explain the work to her instead of talking past her to me (as she felt others did who bid on the project). I will be recommending the TFEs to my neighbors when their basement leaks are discovered (it is inevitable, right?) Also, working with the TFE went well enough that I am asking them to bid on my basement interior remodel project as well. (TFE also does complete remodeling projects as well--check out their website).

I contacted The Foundation Experts and spoke with Sam. I explained the problem I was having in my home and he asked me how much could I afford for a home inspection. I explained to him I did not have any money for an inspection, which is why I placed a request on his website for a "Free Consultation". He stated to me not all consultations are "Free". Since I live in Waldorf he would need to charge $250.00 to cover the cost of his travel which would be an hour coming and going. He then went on to state he doesn't need money and proceeded to run down to me his years of experience. He stated that I should to take pictures of the damage and email the pictures to him to avoid having to pay the $250.00 fee. I will not be contacting this company again for this service or any future services. It needs to be stated clearly on the website that they do not provide services in the Southern Maryland area. Additionally it needs to be noted that "Free Consultations" are not necessarily free. Sam stated to me he technically is conducting a consultation by phone and that his considered a "Free" consultation. That is a very misleading statement. Good luck to anyone who is willing to take the chance with The Foundation Experts, first impressions are lasting impressions with me, especially when your talking about conducting business.

This was a VERY intrusive and intensive job, and they had 2-3 guys on the job 8+ hours/day for a full week. One of the three owners/managers was almost always on site, and their crew was very professional and neat. Each night before they left, the cleaned up all debris out of the yard, covered the work with a tarp, etc. They protected my front door during the entire repair. I had one very small complaint: an uneven flagstone by the front door, and they rectified it within about 12 hours of my calling them. Overall, could not been more pleased. I hope I never need a foundation repair again, but they're who I'll call if I do!

Sam Weisgal was a pleasure to talk to. As for responsiveness, I called the Foundation Expert and Sam called me back the next day. He scheduled an inspection with us for two days later and showed up on time. Now that's what I call responsive. I also really appreciated Sam telling us some things we could do ourselves to save money - that's pretty rare these days. Thank You!

He came with a structural engineer. He was extremely helpful and provided a free estimate. I was very impressed that he brought a structural engineer. I would highly recommend him.