K A T HOME REPAIR

We had a foundation wall collapse. Joe was quick to quote but could not repair for about 3 weeks. The work is a bit sloppy. He was supposed to come back and slurry (SP) the new part to blend better with existing foundation, but has been completely unresponsive. We have asked for a paid invoice receipt per the request of our insurance company and again he is unresponsive.

It was a very messy job, but they did a great job of not disturbing the rest of the house. They went to great lengths to make sure they didn't disturb the rest of the house. They might have underestimated how long it would take them to do this, because they were here twice as long as what they thought, but that didn't affect the estimate they gave me.

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They did a great job.  The new drains make a visible difference during heavy rains where we can see the water pouring out of them and removed from the foundation of the house.  While this was not the only thing we did to reduce the risk of water back in the basement, the basement has remained dry despite many heavy rains since this was done.

Once we scheduled the work, his crew was out and fixed everything quickly.  His price was very competitive as we had a second opinion that was going to charge more just to do the lintels, not including the downspouts.  He came highly recommended from the person who did our home inspection.

We had a great experience with Joe Walton.  We bugged him with a ton of questions and he was very patient and courteous in addressing all of them.  He was here when he said he would be and he finished the job more quickly than we expected.  The finished product is terrific.  As he worked, he found our wooden structure also needed extra support and he took care of that as well.  Joe's fee was very reasonable; in fact, it was less than we expected.  Can you imagine that?  We will recommend Joe Walton to anyone who needs foundation work and we'll absolutely call him for our next project.  Way to go Joe! 

Joe was great, ignore his previous bad reviews. I would highly recommend him!

There work ethic was excellence,  dependable, very kind, and professional. They did not over charge and personally I think they undercharged us for the work. With all the rain the past few weeks, there is has been zero leaks or signs of water. We are recommending them to our family and friends since they did such great work. I would like to personally thank Joel Walton (general manger) and Daniel - I highly recommend these individuals.

To whom it may concern:   In 2004 Indiana Foundation was contacted to do foundation work for us.  When a sales representative named Keith from Indiana Foundation came out, he explained that Indiana Foundation did not get into the kind of repair we needed.  He explained that the corner of the house did not have a footer under it to build or rebuild on.  He went further to explain that he had a company of his own (KAT) on the side that could do what we were looking to do with the problem of having an absence of a footer.  He added that he would guarantee his work.  He gave us references of names and addresses of people he had done work for, all typed up on Indiana Foundation Stationery.
He gave us a bid of $3840.00 to do the job start to finish.  We recorded the work done on video.  They started by putting up jacks to support the house so they could remove the existing brick corner.  They broke out all of the bricks approximately 15 feet back and approximately 4 feet around the front and dug down approximately 4 feet for the new footer.  They proceeded to pour the new footer as promised but KAT wanted to build on the new footer the same day.  We had some reservations about that and they explained to me that it was ok because they were using a fast dry cement.  Since they were the professionals and were backing it up
with a warranty, we said ok to proceed.  They finished the job that day as promised and we paid them for the work done
We went to check the water meter later that evening to do a reading and unable to find the meter. We determined that in the process of KAT doing the work, they had buried the meter and shut off valve.  Keith came to check this out, apologized to us, helped us unearth the meter, and gave us an Indiana Foundation hat to thank us for our patience.  Keith said he would have to come back within the week to do an acid wash to remove any excess mortar off the brick, but this never happened.   
In 2010 we started noticing cracking in the areas they worked on.  We called Indiana Foundation to hopefully find Keith again and learned that Keith was no longer running the KAT business.  He had turned the company over to his son Joe.  Keith said he
remembered the job and told us to give his son (Joe) a call and his son would take care of it.  We made the call to Joe and left a message.  When we received a call from Joe the first thing he started doing was backpedaling, giving excuses why they shouldn't and wouldn't do it.  We called Keith back and told him what happened.  He said to call Joe back and tell him to go fix the problem, which Joe never did.   
Recently we started getting estimates from other contractors for additional masonry work around the house.  They have all looked at it and agreed that the footing that was poured should have been allowed to cure 24-72 hours before building on it.  One contractor noticed a very tiny hole in the mortar joint, put his finger to it and the joint came out as sand.  Upon further inspection we found out that the whole area around it, about a 2 foot by 3 foot section, had no adhesion whatsoever.  The mortar joints had literally turned to sand in that area. 
We called Keith and Joe both and left a message.  When Keith and Joe called back, they were both very rude and hostile to the point we had to take each of their conversations to a different room where we were that day.  They told us we must have done something wrong or not done something right which they said negated the warranty.  Mainly, they claimed that our downspouts were not extended far away enough from the house. 
During this time we kept in contact with Indiana Foundation since it was through that company that we initially became acquainted with Keith.  John, a manager from Indiana Foundation, came out and asked to see the video of the work done.  After that he looked at our gutter downspout extensions and told us that there was nothing wrong with where they were placed.  He said that the downspout extensions were far enough away from the house and by observing that the placement was halfway between our house and our neighbor’s house and there were no problems with the neighbors foundation, John came to the conclusion that the problem must be with the work on our foundation.   He told Keith to go fix the problem.     
Joe finally came out to look at the mortar joint section that had turned to sand and finally agreed to fix it.  He tried very hard to think of a way that it was not their fault but to no avail.  Everything came back around to the simple fact that they had laid bad mortar and Joe finally agreed to grind out and tuckpoint  all of the brick work area that they had originally done to make sure they got all of the bad mortar out and replaced.  He agreed to do the few cracks on the inside as well.  Instead of doing what he promised to fix the problem, Joe came out and just tuckpointed the little 2 foot by 3 foot area on the outside where the bad sandy joints were. Joe said he wire brushed the sand out of the joints instead of grinding it out like he had first indicated he would do.  Now we have mortar over sand in
between the joints, and you guessed it, more joints going bad because they didn't do as promised by doing the entire area. 
Our most recent contractor that came out to give us an estimate, noticed these areas and pointed out more areas that are bad.  He also pointed out why the window area looks bad.  They simply miscounted the rows when laying the brick.  The bricks look like they are sloping into the ground under the window, because they literally are.
A conference call was made with Keith and John from Indiana Foundation.  Again Keith came across as hostile and rude.  Keith left
the conversation and John and I talked further. He apologized for Keith’s attitude. 
After all that has happened my wife and I agree that we wish we had never hired KAT to do the work, and we are better off hiring someone else to fix the problem that we know we can trust.  We do not feel like we can trust their judgment or workmanship. They are not even willing to look at the possibility that they are not using the appropriate type of concrete or mortar for the job or that they might
have gotten a bad batch of mortar or concrete.  We certainly have had difficulty getting Keith the father and Joe the son to work in conjunction with one another.  Recent conversations have led us to believe that they are not willing to work together to get the job done right, and that they are heavily in denial.  In addition to the aforementioned issues, neither father nor son can agree on the length of the warranty of their own company, one saying two years and one ten, when we clearly recall being told that it was a life time warranty and transferable to another party if we ever sold the house.  We are highly disappointed as it appears that the$ 3,840.00 we paid them has just gone to waste.    We are currently looking into the possibility of seeking any remedies that might be available to us.

Joe came out and provided an estimate- he went into the crawlspace so he could have an understanding of what really had to be done so I could have my furnace installed. He worked around our scheduled and what worked best for us. Since this was something unplanned, we were on a tight budget- Joe worked really hard to help us out. He let us know what had to be fixed and could wait. He could not schedule us right away because he was booked, but managed to schedule us in the first chance he could- which happened to be almost the very next day! The two young men that came out to start the work were very professional and knowledgeable. Since they didn’t start until late in the day, they were unable to finish that Thursday. Joe and his crew were back out the first thing the next morning to finish up. They were very respectful of my house and animals and left the area very neat and clean when they were done. Joe pointed out a few things that I need to have done and is going to send estimates. Great company to work with!

Mr. Walton seemed to be a nice and knowledeable person. I was told I needed jacks to stabilize the beams under my house and take care of the cracks above my doorways. It went really well until about December and all the cracks returned. I called Mr. Walton and he said he didn't have his appointment book with him and it probably just needed adjusting and he would call me back. I waited a week, nothing, called again and got his voice mail, left a message. Again, nothing. Tried again approx. another month later. Still nothing. On my bill he wrote, return trips to adjust at no cost, so I don't think I'm being unreasonable.

Arrrived on time, price was right, couteous and professional.

Satisfactory. The pier guys KAT were actually scheduled to come a week after the foundation company, because the foundation date had no been confirmed. We called Keith Tinsman and he quickly straightened the problem out. Were professional and did work quickly. Never met them, before they showed up. Keith Tinsman represents both Indiana Foundation and KAT. Decided to place piers differently that first suggested due to the way the floor joist ran. They do what they are supposed to do and guarantee their work. They can make adjustments if needed. Maybe they should see the house themselves, before they come to do the work.

They are very customer focused and pay attention to detail. When they dug the sod up, they did so very carefully so they could put it back the way it was, and it still looks very good. I have 54 year old Bruce Spruce with humongous roots that they asked me about before they cut. I had a husband and wife team. Rory and Julie are very pleasant people!