BEWARE! Quality Foundation & Plumbing (Texas)
I was recommended to Quality Foundations and Plumbing (they work in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin) by fellow investors and knew that they were being used extensively and recommended by wholesalers in the area. I called them out to pier a 1200SF slab house with obvious foundation movement. They quoted the job with enough piers to surround the perimeter and loaded the interior with piers as well, totally 26 altogether. They ran into problems as they attempted to pier during our severe rainfall period of flooding. The holes were dug and just swamped with water. The continued to work even though. It ended up taking them over a week to finish the job, claiming they had run out of supplies, but seeing as how there were only two guys working at any one time, I think this was the first of many lies.
3 months later and this house is under contract. Now it is noted on inspection, that the wood floors are sloping as much as 2-3" out of level. I call Quality back out under their LIFETIME warranty to assess the situation. They tell me that 4 additional interior piers will be required to properly repair the foundation. They provide me a diagram showing the intended locations of these piers to be in the exact same place where they have place their original piers. What do they think I am stupid or something? I have photographic evidence taken during construction showing where they dug up the floors and placed every pier. So I tell them they are not to add the additional piers, but need to come out and adjust the ones that they have installed.
So they come out and dig their holes again to expose the original piers, but only on the outside this time. Curious because they had installed 3 interior piers right in the area that needed to be lifted and yet did not think to adjust them. So our neighbor here is very finicky about his lawn and keeps a soaker hose on daily on the side of his house, which is uphill and about 10' away from our house and where the pier holes were opened up. Of course this soaked the soil in and around the foundation on that side of the house, and when the holes were left open, water then trickled into the holes. No fault to the neighbor of course for watering his foundation to keep the grass green on his sloping side yard and keeping his foundation in tack. Actually, this even provides a free soaking of our side yard should grass ever decide to grow there, and even help keep the clay soil from shrinking and causing further stress on the foundation.
So when they saw the water in the bottom of these open holes, they decide that there is either a drainage problem (DUH!) or that a water line has been broken some where. Well, evidently, and this is actually in their contract, "if a drainage issue should arise" your LIFETIME warranty is denied and you are on your own. They kept stressing how they would not ever come back.
"Ever?!" I asked.
"Even if we stopped the source of the water?"
That is right. Never will they come out again. "You will have to find another company to do any additional work.", they said. So not only do they give your warranty the axe, they give you the axe as a client.
Thanks for taking my $5,500 and leaving me hanging Quality. I guess "you get what you pay for." And thanks for cleaning out your concrete buckets in my backyard. I now have heaping piles of concrete turds decorating my grass. All this really makes me feel like working with you in the future.
UPDATE: So, I had out another foundation guy and he said he could make the adjustments to the existing piers and do it at a respectable investor level fee. Should we go that route, i will revisit this board to give recommendation for him.