My son's two-story home has a cracked foundation with attendant settling.

He noticed a crew working on a house a few doors down and had a chat with
the crew chief. The crew chief (named Guadeloupe) came and did a quick
survey of my son's home. The chief said the problem could be fixed with 18
piers (each going down, in this soil, about twenty feet) and that his
experienced crew (Juan, Jesus, Allesandro, and Moishe) could do the work
over a two-day period.

For $3,000.

This is in dramatic contrast to the presumed cost of $15,000+ from the kinds
of firms one normally thinks of when contemplating house leveling.

My son's rhetorical thought - and with which I agree - is "what could go
wrong?" Even if the leveling didn't "take" and a more professional firm had
to come and make "adjustments," the heavy-lifting (pardon the bad metaphor)
would have already been done.

I tend to think that house-leveling is similar to replacing a breaker-box -
not rocket surgery, but intimidating simply because it is so unusual, and
that common sense plus the right tools, in experienced hands, are mostly
what are essential.

Couple of other bits of knowledge: Guadeloupe is the brother of my son's
neighbor and Guadeloupe knows my son has a gun.

Any random thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.

HeyBub wrote:
My son's two-story home has a cracked foundation with attendant settling.

He noticed a crew working on a house a few doors down and had a chat with
the crew chief. The crew chief (named Guadeloupe) came and did a quick
survey of my son's home. The chief said the problem could be fixed with 18
piers (each going down, in this soil, about twenty feet) and that his
experienced crew (Juan, Jesus, Allesandro, and Moishe) could do the work
over a two-day period.

For $3,000.

This is in dramatic contrast to the presumed cost of $15,000+ from the kinds
of firms one normally thinks of when contemplating house leveling.

My son's rhetorical thought - and with which I agree - is "what could go
wrong?" Even if the leveling didn't "take" and a more professional firm had
to come and make "adjustments," the heavy-lifting (pardon the bad metaphor)
would have already been done.

I tend to think that house-leveling is similar to replacing a breaker-box -
not rocket surgery, but intimidating simply because it is so unusual, and
that common sense plus the right tools, in experienced hands, are mostly
what are essential.

Couple of other bits of knowledge: Guadeloupe is the brother of my son's
neighbor and Guadeloupe knows my son has a gun.

Any random thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.


And this 3k includes actual permits and insurance and so forth? Yeah, it
may work, having a seat-of-the-pants repair job, done off the books. But
the downside is that if they eff up, and the house collapses, insurance
company may just look at your son and giggle. And they will also call
the local inspection folks, and let them in on the joke. If this is out
in the boonies in a 'no inspection' area, I might be tempted myself. In
town with lots of eyes peering out of nearby houses, no way.

--
aem sends...

On Jan 18, 11:53*am, "HeyBub" wrote:
My son's two-story home has a cracked foundation with attendant settling.

He noticed a crew working on a house a few doors down and had a chat with
the crew chief. The crew chief (named Guadeloupe) came and did a quick
survey of my son's home. The chief said the problem could be fixed with 18
piers (each going down, in this soil, about twenty feet) and that his
experienced crew (Juan, Jesus, Allesandro, and Moishe) could do the work
over a two-day period.

For $3,000.

This is in dramatic contrast to the presumed cost of $15,000+ from the kinds
of firms one normally thinks of when contemplating house leveling.

My son's rhetorical thought - and with which I agree - is "what could go
wrong?" Even if the leveling didn't "take" and a more professional firm had
to come and make "adjustments," the heavy-lifting (pardon the bad metaphor)
would have already been done.

I tend to think that house-leveling is similar to replacing a breaker-box -
not rocket surgery, but intimidating simply because it is so unusual, and
that common sense plus the right tools, in experienced hands, are mostly
what are essential.

Couple of other bits of knowledge: Guadeloupe is the brother of my son's
neighbor and Guadeloupe knows my son has a gun.

Any random thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.

I leveled my house but did it maybe 1/8" at a time over days to move
it. I took a month to move it maybe 2" so walls glass did not crack.
Do doors, windows close now. Cheap is good, but he needs to learn
whats up so all goes well, even the 15000 guys may screw up.

On Sun, 18 Jan 2009 11:53:08 -0600, "HeyBub" wrote:

My son's rhetorical thought - and with which I agree - is "what could go
wrong?" Even if the leveling didn't "take" and a more professional firm had
to come and make "adjustments," the heavy-lifting (pardon the bad metaphor)
would have already been done.

Done right?

Done Wrong?

You are in a better position than us to determine, and evaluate
consequences.

Howsumever, you might wanna consider getting detailed estimates from
the $15k folks. If you can size the job, determine that only very
standard procedures (that the $3k guys can do competently) are
necessary, all you'd have to worry about is the insurance, etc.

If the application looks at all tricky/complex, I'd see what
kinda discounts the $15k guys might render.

P

"Take Yo' Hand Out My Pocket (I Ain't Got Nothing What Belongs To You)!"
- Rice Miller, who probably never even _heard_ of GW Bush, Paulson, etc

"HeyBub" wrote in message
m...
My son's two-story home has a cracked foundation with attendant settling.

He noticed a crew working on a house a few doors down and had a chat with
the crew chief. The crew chief (named Guadeloupe) came and did a quick
survey of my son's home. The chief said the problem could be fixed with 18
piers (each going down, in this soil, about twenty feet) and that his
experienced crew (Juan, Jesus, Allesandro, and Moishe) could do the work
over a two-day period.

For $3,000.

This is in dramatic contrast to the presumed cost of $15,000+ from the
kinds of firms one normally thinks of when contemplating house leveling.

My son's rhetorical thought - and with which I agree - is "what could go
wrong?" Even if the leveling didn't "take" and a more professional firm
had to come and make "adjustments," the heavy-lifting (pardon the bad
metaphor) would have already been done.

I tend to think that house-leveling is similar to replacing a
breaker-box - not rocket surgery, but intimidating simply because it is so
unusual, and that common sense plus the right tools, in experienced hands,
are mostly what are essential.

Couple of other bits of knowledge: Guadeloupe is the brother of my son's
neighbor and Guadeloupe knows my son has a gun.

Any random thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.


*I would think that some engineering would be involved to determine the
actual soil conditions that caused the problem to begin with. Was the house
built on backfill or sandy soil? Maybe there is an underground stream which
caused some erosion. I would talk to several contractors on the problem and
their methods for correcting it. I don't think that this is a process that
you want to go through more than once.

On Jan 18, 9:53*am, "HeyBub" wrote:
My son's two-story home has a cracked foundation with attendant settling.

He noticed a crew working on a house a few doors down and had a chat with
the crew chief. The crew chief (named Guadeloupe) came and did a quick
survey of my son's home. The chief said the problem could be fixed with 18
piers (each going down, in this soil, about twenty feet) and that his
experienced crew (Juan, Jesus, Allesandro, and Moishe) could do the work
over a two-day period.

For $3,000.

This is in dramatic contrast to the presumed cost of $15,000+ from the kinds
of firms one normally thinks of when contemplating house leveling.

My son's rhetorical thought - and with which I agree - is "what could go
wrong?" Even if the leveling didn't "take" and a more professional firm had
to come and make "adjustments," the heavy-lifting (pardon the bad metaphor)
would have already been done.

I tend to think that house-leveling is similar to replacing a breaker-box -
not rocket surgery, but intimidating simply because it is so unusual, and
that common sense plus the right tools, in experienced hands, are mostly
what are essential.

Couple of other bits of knowledge: Guadeloupe is the brother of my son's
neighbor and Guadeloupe knows my son has a gun.

Any random thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.

The quoted price seems WAY low.........less than $200 per pier
installed and the house leveled?
The numbers I heard thrown about (SoCal) is something like $1000 per
pier.

Maybe G get's his piers for free.

To build on your service panel analogy (house leveling though more or
less routine is not exactly in the same category) .....

if a service panel replacement runs something like $1500.....does it
seem possible to do for $300?

cheers
Bob

BobK207 wrote:
On Jan 18, 9:53 am, "HeyBub" wrote:
My son's two-story home has a cracked foundation with attendant
settling.

He noticed a crew working on a house a few doors down and had a chat
with the crew chief. The crew chief (named Guadeloupe) came and did
a quick survey of my son's home. The chief said the problem could be
fixed with 18 piers (each going down, in this soil, about twenty
feet) and that his experienced crew (Juan, Jesus, Allesandro, and
Moishe) could do the work over a two-day period.

For $3,000.

This is in dramatic contrast to the presumed cost of $15,000+ from
the kinds of firms one normally thinks of when contemplating house
leveling.

My son's rhetorical thought - and with which I agree - is "what
could go wrong?" Even if the leveling didn't "take" and a more
professional firm had to come and make "adjustments," the
heavy-lifting (pardon the bad metaphor) would have already been done.

I tend to think that house-leveling is similar to replacing a
breaker-box - not rocket surgery, but intimidating simply because it
is so unusual, and that common sense plus the right tools, in
experienced hands, are mostly what are essential.

Couple of other bits of knowledge: Guadeloupe is the brother of my
son's neighbor and Guadeloupe knows my son has a gun.

Any random thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.

The quoted price seems WAY low.........less than $200 per pier
installed and the house leveled?
The numbers I heard thrown about (SoCal) is something like $1000 per
pier.

Maybe G get's his piers for free.

To build on your service panel analogy (house leveling though more or
less routine is not exactly in the same category) .....

if a service panel replacement runs something like $1500.....does it
seem possible to do for $300?

I did mine -200 Amp - for (total out of pocket) $330.00. My son's (also
200-amp) was a tad less since we had parts left over from mine.

aemeijers wrote:


And this 3k includes actual permits and insurance and so forth? Yeah,
it may work, having a seat-of-the-pants repair job, done off the
books. But the downside is that if they eff up, and the house
collapses, insurance company may just look at your son and giggle.
And they will also call the local inspection folks, and let them in
on the joke. If this is out in the boonies in a 'no inspection' area,
I might be tempted myself. In town with lots of eyes peering out of
nearby houses, no way.

Your points are well taken and should be considered by most folks.

As for busy-body neighbors, screw 'em. In our town there are no permits or
inspections required.

We live WAY inside the city limits of the fourth-largest city in the nation
(about 4 million in the metropolitan area, between Chicago and
Philadelphia). Our town doesn't have any zoning laws either.

Works for us; very few houses fall down or blow up in any given year. And
there's the convenience factor of living next door to a bodega on one side
and a strip-club on the other. (It's a JOKE son, doesn't happen in real
life.)

ransley wrote:
On Jan 18, 11:53 am, "HeyBub" wrote:
My son's two-story home has a cracked foundation with attendant
settling.

He noticed a crew working on a house a few doors down and had a chat
with the crew chief. The crew chief (named Guadeloupe) came and did
a quick survey of my son's home. The chief said the problem could be
fixed with 18 piers (each going down, in this soil, about twenty
feet) and that his experienced crew (Juan, Jesus, Allesandro, and
Moishe) could do the work over a two-day period.

For $3,000.

This is in dramatic contrast to the presumed cost of $15,000+ from
the kinds of firms one normally thinks of when contemplating house
leveling.

My son's rhetorical thought - and with which I agree - is "what
could go wrong?" Even if the leveling didn't "take" and a more
professional firm had to come and make "adjustments," the
heavy-lifting (pardon the bad metaphor) would have already been done.

I tend to think that house-leveling is similar to replacing a
breaker-box - not rocket surgery, but intimidating simply because it
is so unusual, and that common sense plus the right tools, in
experienced hands, are mostly what are essential.

Couple of other bits of knowledge: Guadeloupe is the brother of my
son's neighbor and Guadeloupe knows my son has a gun.

Any random thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.

I leveled my house but did it maybe 1/8" at a time over days to move
it. I took a month to move it maybe 2" so walls glass did not crack.
Do doors, windows close now. Cheap is good, but he needs to learn
whats up so all goes well, even the 15000 guys may screw up.

Excellent advice. Thanks.

Puddin' Man wrote:
On Sun, 18 Jan 2009 11:53:08 -0600, "HeyBub"
wrote:

My son's rhetorical thought - and with which I agree - is "what
could go wrong?" Even if the leveling didn't "take" and a more
professional firm had to come and make "adjustments," the
heavy-lifting (pardon the bad metaphor) would have already been done.

Done right?

Done Wrong?

You are in a better position than us to determine, and evaluate
consequences.

Howsumever, you might wanna consider getting detailed estimates from
the $15k folks. If you can size the job, determine that only very
standard procedures (that the $3k guys can do competently) are
necessary, all you'd have to worry about is the insurance, etc.

If the application looks at all tricky/complex, I'd see what
kinda discounts the $15k guys might render.


Good advice. If the "professional" comes out and bids $15,000, the next
question for the pro is "I have a firm bid for $3,000. What do I get from
you for the extra twelve?"

John Grabowski wrote:

Any random thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.


*I would think that some engineering would be involved to determine
the actual soil conditions that caused the problem to begin with. Was the
house built on backfill or sandy soil? Maybe there is an
underground stream which caused some erosion. I would talk to several
contractors on the problem and their methods for correcting it. I
don't think that this is a process that you want to go through more
than once.

Right. The house is in a sub-division with, evidently, problematic soil
conditions as evidenced by the neighbors also having to take remedial steps.

You may have heard the story of the ancient philosopher who said "The earth
is suspended on the shoulders of the great Atlas. Atlas himself is standing
on the back of a great turtle. And before you ask, it's turtles all the way
down."

Here, it's clay all the way down.

On Jan 18, 11:10*am, "HeyBub" wrote:
BobK207 wrote:
On Jan 18, 9:53 am, "HeyBub" wrote:
My son's two-story home has a cracked foundation with attendant
settling.

He noticed a crew working on a house a few doors down and had a chat
with the crew chief. The crew chief (named Guadeloupe) came and did
a quick survey of my son's home. The chief said the problem could be
fixed with 18 piers (each going down, in this soil, about twenty
feet) and that his experienced crew (Juan, Jesus, Allesandro, and
Moishe) could do the work over a two-day period.

For $3,000.

This is in dramatic contrast to the presumed cost of $15,000+ from
the kinds of firms one normally thinks of when contemplating house
leveling.

My son's rhetorical thought - and with which I agree - is "what
could go wrong?" Even if the leveling didn't "take" and a more
professional firm had to come and make "adjustments," the
heavy-lifting (pardon the bad metaphor) would have already been done.

I tend to think that house-leveling is similar to replacing a
breaker-box - not rocket surgery, but intimidating simply because it
is so unusual, and that common sense plus the right tools, in
experienced hands, are mostly what are essential.

Couple of other bits of knowledge: Guadeloupe is the brother of my
son's neighbor and Guadeloupe knows my son has a gun.

Any random thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.

The quoted price seems *WAY low.........less than $200 per pier
installed and the house leveled?
The numbers I heard thrown about (SoCal) is something like $1000 per
pier.

Maybe G *get's his piers for free.

To build on your service panel *analogy (house leveling though more or
less routine is not exactly in the same category) .....

if a service panel replacement runs something like $1500.....does it
seem possible to do for $300?

I did mine -200 Amp - for (total out of pocket) $330.00. My son's (also
200-amp) was a tad less since we had parts left over from mine.

You're not comparing apples to apples......your son's house leveling
is not being approached as a DIY job (ie, "free labor")

it is being approached as a bootleg / discount job........

could you HIRE a guy to do your panel for $330 and how many hours did
you & your son spend on the panel work?

be fair in your comparisons


cheers
Bob

aemeijers wrote:

And this 3k includes actual permits and insurance and so forth? Yeah,
it may work, having a seat-of-the-pants repair job, done off the
books. But the downside is that if they eff up, and the house
collapses, insurance company may just look at your son and giggle.

That was my first thought, what ironclad guarantee is in place if the job
fails with resulting damage to the house? I'd want to know that if part of
my house fell down I wasn't going to have to chase this guy with or without
a gun.

References would be nice, talk to some previous customers and see if they
now have a swimming pool where their house used to be.

That price seems amazingly low, we spent more than that getting half a dozen
yards of sewer line replaced recently, I'd be real cautious.

On Jan 18, 3:52�pm, "DGDevin" wrote:
aemeijers wrote:
And this 3k includes actual permits and insurance and so forth? Yeah,
it may work, having a seat-of-the-pants repair job, done off the
books. But the downside is that if they eff up, and the house
collapses, insurance company may just look at your son and giggle.

That was my first thought, what ironclad guarantee is in place if the job
fails with resulting damage to the house? �I'd want to know that if part of
my house fell down I wasn't going to have to chase this guy with or without
a gun.

References would be nice, talk to some previous customers and see if they
now have a swimming pool where their house used to be.

That price seems amazingly low, we spent more than that getting half a dozen
yards of sewer line replaced recently, I'd be real cautious.

times are tough, low price may be a reflection of that and desperation
to feed and pay the workers mortage.

if the choice is no money at all, or some and you have nothing else
going at the time

some $$$ is better than nothing

BobK207 wrote:

To build on your service panel analogy (house leveling though more
or less routine is not exactly in the same category) .....

if a service panel replacement runs something like $1500.....does it
seem possible to do for $300?

I did mine -200 Amp - for (total out of pocket) $330.00. My son's
(also 200-amp) was a tad less since we had parts left over from mine.

You're not comparing apples to apples......your son's house leveling
is not being approached as a DIY job (ie, "free labor")

it is being approached as a bootleg / discount job........

could you HIRE a guy to do your panel for $330 and how many hours did
you & your son spend on the panel work?

be fair in your comparisons


Ah, good point.

'Course we paid retail for the parts and took our time - even backtracked in
a couple of places - about ten man-hours for each job.

Still, if we had some door-to-door types doing the job, it could have cost,
easily, $600.00.

"HeyBub" wrote in
m:

My son's two-story home has a cracked foundation with attendant
settling.

He noticed a crew working on a house a few doors down and had a chat
with the crew chief. The crew chief (named Guadeloupe) came and did a
quick survey of my son's home. The chief said the problem could be
fixed with 18 piers (each going down, in this soil, about twenty feet)
and that his experienced crew (Juan, Jesus, Allesandro, and Moishe)
could do the work over a two-day period.

For $3,000.

This is in dramatic contrast to the presumed cost of $15,000+ from the
kinds of firms one normally thinks of when contemplating house
leveling.

My son's rhetorical thought - and with which I agree - is "what could
go wrong?" Even if the leveling didn't "take" and a more professional
firm had to come and make "adjustments," the heavy-lifting (pardon the
bad metaphor) would have already been done.

I tend to think that house-leveling is similar to replacing a
breaker-box - not rocket surgery, but intimidating simply because it
is so unusual, and that common sense plus the right tools, in
experienced hands, are mostly what are essential.

Couple of other bits of knowledge: Guadeloupe is the brother of my
son's neighbor and Guadeloupe knows my son has a gun.

Any random thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.



As a side question...

It's crossed my mind a few times, if a house has a crawlspace and let's
say thay had to resupport towards the inner part (let's pick center
beam), how do they dig for a 10 ft or whatever pier when there's only a
couple of feet under there?

I'm thinking start diggin down at the outer wall creating a "walkway". Or
is there a magic drill/digger they use like for digging wells/oil etc
that can get added on to as they get deeper.

Or is it more radical like cut a damn hole in the floor of your house
(eeek!)

On Jan 18, 12:53 pm, "HeyBub" wrote:
My son's rhetorical thought - and with which I agree - is "what could go
wrong?"

I have very little wisdom to add, but this question is easy. Your
whole house could collapse, your uninsured crew could skip town and
you could possibly be held liable for the cost of hauling away the
rubble. "What are the chances of that happening?" is a harder question.

On Jan 18, 7:40�pm, Red Green wrote:
"HeyBub" wrote innews:iOOdnYFJmMwZ8e7UnZ2dnUVZ_jWdnZ2d@earthlink. com:





My son's two-story home has a cracked foundation with attendant
settling.

He noticed a crew working on a house a few doors down and had a chat
with the crew chief. The crew chief (named Guadeloupe) came and did a
quick survey of my son's home. The chief said the problem could be
fixed with 18 piers (each going down, in this soil, about twenty feet)
and that his experienced crew (Juan, Jesus, Allesandro, and Moishe)
could do the work over a two-day period.

For $3,000.

This is in dramatic contrast to the presumed cost of $15,000+ from the
kinds of firms one normally thinks of when contemplating house
leveling.

My son's rhetorical thought - and with which I agree - is "what could
go wrong?" Even if the leveling didn't "take" and a more professional
firm had to come and make "adjustments," the heavy-lifting (pardon the
bad metaphor) would have already been done.

I tend to think that house-leveling is similar to replacing a
breaker-box - not rocket surgery, but intimidating simply because it
is so unusual, and that common sense plus the right tools, in
experienced hands, are mostly what are essential.

Couple of other bits of knowledge: Guadeloupe is the brother of my
son's neighbor and Guadeloupe knows my son has a gun.

Any random thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.

As a side question...

It's crossed my mind a few times, if a house has a crawlspace and let's
say thay had to resupport towards the inner part (let's pick center
beam), how do they dig for a 10 ft or whatever pier when there's only a
couple of feet under there?

I'm thinking start diggin down at the outer wall creating a "walkway". Or
is there a magic drill/digger they use like for digging wells/oil etc
that can get added on to as they get deeper.

Or is it more radical like cut a damn hole in the floor of your house
(eeek!)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Flip this house supplies answer.

Cut hole in floor and dig by hand for pier.........


Now thats a JOB I would NOT WANT!

On Jan 18, 3:47*pm, "HeyBub" wrote:
BobK207 wrote:

To build on your service panel analogy (house leveling though more
or less routine is not exactly in the same category) .....

if a service panel replacement runs something like $1500.....does it
seem possible to do for $300?

I did mine -200 Amp - for (total out of pocket) $330.00. My son's
(also 200-amp) was a tad less since we had parts left over from mine.

You're not comparing apples to apples......your son's house leveling
is not being approached as a DIY job (ie, "free labor")

it is being approached as a bootleg */ *discount job........

could you HIRE a guy to do your panel for $330 *and how many hours did
you & your son spend on the panel work?

be fair in your comparisons

Ah, good point.

'Course we paid retail for the parts and took our time - even backtracked in
a couple of places - about ten man-hours for each job.

Still, if we had some door-to-door types doing the job, it could have cost,
easily, $600.00.


..........Still, if we had some door-to-door types doing the job, it
could have cost,
easily, $600.00. ........

Ok....that sounds like a fair "discounted / bootlegged" price.

So a door-to-door type for a house leveling with 18 piers installed
should be more like maybe $6000, if we use the SWAG model of the
service panel.

That $3000 price just seems way too low.


cheers
Bob

Red Green wrote:
"HeyBub" wrote in
m:

My son's two-story home has a cracked foundation with attendant
settling.

He noticed a crew working on a house a few doors down and had a chat
with the crew chief. The crew chief (named Guadeloupe) came and did a
quick survey of my son's home. The chief said the problem could be
fixed with 18 piers (each going down, in this soil, about twenty
feet) and that his experienced crew (Juan, Jesus, Allesandro, and
Moishe) could do the work over a two-day period.

For $3,000.

This is in dramatic contrast to the presumed cost of $15,000+ from
the kinds of firms one normally thinks of when contemplating house
leveling.

My son's rhetorical thought - and with which I agree - is "what could
go wrong?" Even if the leveling didn't "take" and a more professional
firm had to come and make "adjustments," the heavy-lifting (pardon
the bad metaphor) would have already been done.

I tend to think that house-leveling is similar to replacing a
breaker-box - not rocket surgery, but intimidating simply because it
is so unusual, and that common sense plus the right tools, in
experienced hands, are mostly what are essential.

Couple of other bits of knowledge: Guadeloupe is the brother of my
son's neighbor and Guadeloupe knows my son has a gun.

Any random thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.



As a side question...

It's crossed my mind a few times, if a house has a crawlspace and
let's say thay had to resupport towards the inner part (let's pick
center beam), how do they dig for a 10 ft or whatever pier when
there's only a couple of feet under there?

I'm thinking start diggin down at the outer wall creating a
"walkway". Or is there a magic drill/digger they use like for digging
wells/oil etc that can get added on to as they get deeper.

Or is it more radical like cut a damn hole in the floor of your house
(eeek!)

The "piers" are only about 18-24" long. They keep pushing them down and
stacking more until they won't go any more. They may only need two or three
sections for a depth of six feet. In our case, twenty feet is the norm.

Here's a pic:
http://www.olshanfoundation.com/cont...lation-process

On Sun, 18 Jan 2009 11:53:08 -0600, "HeyBub"
wrote:

My son's two-story home has a cracked foundation with attendant settling.

He noticed a crew working on a house a few doors down and had a chat with
the crew chief. The crew chief (named Guadeloupe) came and did a quick
survey of my son's home. The chief said the problem could be fixed with 18
piers (each going down, in this soil, about twenty feet) and that his
experienced crew (Juan, Jesus, Allesandro, and Moishe) could do the work
over a two-day period.

For $3,000.

This is in dramatic contrast to the presumed cost of $15,000+ from the kinds
of firms one normally thinks of when contemplating house leveling.

My son's rhetorical thought - and with which I agree - is "what could go
wrong?" Even if the leveling didn't "take" and a more professional firm had
to come and make "adjustments," the heavy-lifting (pardon the bad metaphor)
would have already been done.

I tend to think that house-leveling is similar to replacing a breaker-box -
not rocket surgery, but intimidating simply because it is so unusual, and
that common sense plus the right tools, in experienced hands, are mostly
what are essential.

Couple of other bits of knowledge: Guadeloupe is the brother of my son's
neighbor and Guadeloupe knows my son has a gun.

Any random thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.



The ground around my house has been moving, and it continues to move.
I had my driveway slabs jacked up and leveled last year ($1500). It
was perfect after the job, but after a year there is more movement.
Hopefully I can go another 5-10 years before its needs another job.
The company can not really guarantee the ground will stop heaving or
moving.

HeyBub wrote:
My son's two-story home has a cracked foundation with attendant
settling.
He noticed a crew working on a house a few doors down and had a chat
with the crew chief. The crew chief (named Guadeloupe) came and did a
quick survey of my son's home. The chief said the problem could be
fixed with 18 piers (each going down, in this soil, about twenty
feet) and that his experienced crew (Juan, Jesus, Allesandro, and
Moishe) could do the work over a two-day period.


Moishe???????


--

dadiOH
____________________________

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....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

On Sun, 18 Jan 2009 11:53:08 -0600, "HeyBub"
wrote:

My son's two-story home has a cracked foundation with attendant settling.

He noticed a crew working on a house a few doors down and had a chat with
the crew chief. The crew chief (named Guadeloupe) came and did a quick
survey of my son's home. The chief said the problem could be fixed with 18
piers (each going down, in this soil, about twenty feet) and that his

Where do they put these piers? Inside or outside?

experienced crew (Juan, Jesus, Allesandro, and Moishe) could do the work
over a two-day period.

Jesus? I thought he did all hiw work in churches?

For $3,000.

This is in dramatic contrast to the presumed cost of $15,000+ from the kinds
of firms one normally thinks of when contemplating house leveling.

My son's rhetorical thought - and with which I agree - is "what could go
wrong?" Even if the leveling didn't "take" and a more professional firm had
to come and make "adjustments," the heavy-lifting (pardon the bad metaphor)
would have already been done.

Check the Better Business Bureau for this company

I tend to think that house-leveling is similar to replacing a breaker-box -
not rocket surgery, but intimidating simply because it is so unusual, and
that common sense plus the right tools, in experienced hands, are mostly
what are essential.

But much heavier than a breaker box

Couple of other bits of knowledge: Guadeloupe is the brother of my son's
neighbor and Guadeloupe knows my son has a gun.

A CAULKING GUN or a NAIL GUN?

Any random thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.


You got em'

On Jan 18, 11:53*am, "HeyBub" wrote:
My son's two-story home has a cracked foundation with attendant settling.

He noticed a crew working on a house a few doors down and had a chat with
the crew chief. The crew chief (named Guadeloupe) came and did a quick
survey of my son's home. The chief said the problem could be fixed with 18
piers (each going down, in this soil, about twenty feet) and that his
experienced crew (Juan, Jesus, Allesandro, and Moishe) could do the work
over a two-day period.

For $3,000.

This is in dramatic contrast to the presumed cost of $15,000+ from the kinds
of firms one normally thinks of when contemplating house leveling.

My son's rhetorical thought - and with which I agree - is "what could go
wrong?" Even if the leveling didn't "take" and a more professional firm had
to come and make "adjustments," the heavy-lifting (pardon the bad metaphor)
would have already been done.

I tend to think that house-leveling is similar to replacing a breaker-box -
not rocket surgery, but intimidating simply because it is so unusual, and
that common sense plus the right tools, in experienced hands, are mostly
what are essential.

Couple of other bits of knowledge: Guadeloupe is the brother of my son's
neighbor and Guadeloupe knows my son has a gun.

Any random thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.

In winter when I needed work and I was out of work I would bid at cost
to keep my crew and not loose them, the 15000 guy may just be busy.
Times are tough everybody cuts prices, it may be a deal.

Phisherman wrote:

On Sun, 18 Jan 2009 11:53:08 -0600, "HeyBub"
wrote:

My son's two-story home has a cracked foundation with attendant settling.

He noticed a crew working on a house a few doors down and had a chat with
the crew chief. The crew chief (named Guadeloupe) came and did a quick
survey of my son's home. The chief said the problem could be fixed with 18
piers (each going down, in this soil, about twenty feet) and that his
experienced crew (Juan, Jesus, Allesandro, and Moishe) could do the work
over a two-day period.

For $3,000.

This is in dramatic contrast to the presumed cost of $15,000+ from the kinds
of firms one normally thinks of when contemplating house leveling.

My son's rhetorical thought - and with which I agree - is "what could go
wrong?" Even if the leveling didn't "take" and a more professional firm had
to come and make "adjustments," the heavy-lifting (pardon the bad metaphor)
would have already been done.

I tend to think that house-leveling is similar to replacing a breaker-box -
not rocket surgery, but intimidating simply because it is so unusual, and
that common sense plus the right tools, in experienced hands, are mostly
what are essential.

Couple of other bits of knowledge: Guadeloupe is the brother of my son's
neighbor and Guadeloupe knows my son has a gun.

Any random thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.


The ground around my house has been moving, and it continues to move.
I had my driveway slabs jacked up and leveled last year ($1500). It
was perfect after the job, but after a year there is more movement.
Hopefully I can go another 5-10 years before its needs another job.
The company can not really guarantee the ground will stop heaving or
moving.

There are different types of ground movement. The most common type is in
areas with expansive clay soils and those are relatively straightforward
to deal with since it doesn't generally involve sideways shifting or
undermining. The issue is uneven expansion and contraction of the soil
due to uneven moisture content, i.e. the perimeter near where the ground
is exposed to the air dries faster and thus shrinks faster leaving the
perimeter of the house to drop relative to the interior. The deeper you
install the piers the more stable the soil moisture and therefore the
more stable the soil the pier rests on.

DGDevin wrote:
aemeijers wrote:

And this 3k includes actual permits and insurance and so forth? Yeah,
it may work, having a seat-of-the-pants repair job, done off the
books. But the downside is that if they eff up, and the house
collapses, insurance company may just look at your son and giggle.

That was my first thought, what ironclad guarantee is in place if the
job fails with resulting damage to the house? I'd want to know that
if part of my house fell down I wasn't going to have to chase this
guy with or without a gun.

References would be nice, talk to some previous customers and see if
they now have a swimming pool where their house used to be.

That price seems amazingly low, we spent more than that getting half
a dozen yards of sewer line replaced recently, I'd be real cautious.

Strange you should mention that. Last year my son had his sewer line
replaced - about seventy feet. The original builder used some thin black
plastic stuff that eventually shattered (after ~40 years) and filled with
roots. His next door neighbor, Lupe, came over, dug up the original crap and
replaced it with a larger diameter, industrial-strength, sewer pipe and
concrete-sealed the connections.

Took all week-end.

As I recall, the project cost $550.