NW Seismic

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Took 15 minutes!

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Mr. Wieber arrived on time to do a walk through of the premises to evaluate the house for a seismic retrofit. He was pleasant and professional, and explained what would be needed to secure the house against possible earthquake damage. He explained what the retrofit was intended to do, and how the house structure ( walkout basement with windows along one wall and around two corners) would affect the installation and the maximum response to seismic activity. He also answered our questions and gave us some useful info about retrofits in general. Unfortunately, the basement is a finished basement, and, although he guaranteed to return it to original condition after the installation,he was obligated to point out that the panelling, being old, was potentially fragile. He also, again because of the wall treatments already in place, could not give us an estimate on the additional cost in time and material to complete the refinishing after the retrofit. The estimate for the retrofit was about $5000, not including the refinishing. Our budget did not allow us to engage his services at this time, although the interview certainly suggested the result would be a quality job.

Michael came over to view our home for seismic retrofit services. He was punctual and professional. He answered all our questions and also our follow-up questions via email promptly and clearly. His explanations made sense and he was great at clarifying information. His quote was reasonable and delivered promptly. Due to family illness, we did not have services performed yet but will do so in the near future.

Michael showed up promptly for estimate & produced a detailed bid within a day. I scheduled the work, which normally would take a few days, but he put extra people on the job so that my dogs didn't need boarding beyond one day. The only hiccup occurred when he had to delay the job by a day due to illness of staff.

They were courteous and professional and supplied very good information about the process and methods for retrofitting older homes. They arrived promptly at the time agreed upon, did the work with a minimum of disruption and left the area cleaner than they found it. They also gave me some advice on how to resolve some other small issues with the foundation.

Working with Mike and John and their crew was very easy. Mike provided a great deal of information about the technology and how it would be applied to our house. On the the basis of his expertise and the fair estimate that he gave us, we decided not to seek another bid. We were gone the day they did the work so that we wouldn't have to deal with the noise, and when we got back we found a very thorough job done. We are delighted with our experience with NW Seismic and would happily recommend them to anyone.

I contacted several providers, only this one and one other actually came out to give an estimate, this one was substantially below the other, for essentially the same services. The workman showed up as agreed, worked hard, and finished the job on time. We were quite satisfied.

I agreed by phone to have Mr. Wieber perform those upgrades, and he came to the house to confirm the plan and set a date. At that time, he clearly was chagrined that this would be such a small job (approximately $350 for the cut-off valve and perhaps another $300 for the washer replacements). We set a date, which then needed to be rescheduled. However, although I attempted to contact him by e-mail on three separate occasions to set a date for performance of the work, there was absolutely no response. My assessment is that, if your job is small, Mr. Wieber will have little or not interest in doing the work, and likely won't have the courtesy to say so. If his approach is consistent with my experience, he'll just disappear without a further word of explanation. Very unprofessional and disappointing. I would never work with him again.

My crawlspace ranges from @ 24 to 40 inches. When Michael of NW Seismic examined the crawlspace, he got to the farthest, tightest areas. His explanation of the job was thorough, and the company websight was informative. The crew was also knowledgeable. NW Seismic's estimate compared favorably with the other two companies I contacted, and the final bill was as expected. Work was punctual. The job was done in three days.

We were very pleased with the work overall. Michael was professionaland his crew showed up on time and cleaned up after themselves each day (there's a lot of concrete dust in the basement). One caution about the process: It is very loud! Not much can be done about quieting concrete drills, but since we work from the home, we had to plan our client phone calls around the added noise. Thankfully it's over in a few days and you have the added sense of security that comeswith the retrofit. One other thought... the brackets they install are positioned at the top of the basement walls, so they are not within reach and, if you have an unfinished basement but plan to finish it out one day, can be easily hidden. However, the brackets extend outwards about 4 inchesoff the wall, and when going down the stairs to the basement, it is easy to brush an arm against one of them and scratch yourself. So, we've covered the edges with tape to prevent injury.

I interviewed a handful of professionals before deciding to go with NW Seismic. This company is the best in their field in Portland. Michael came out and spent quite a bit of time explaining what needed to be done and why. He showed me the correct hardware and where it needed to be installed after taking measurements and doing calculations. He also showed me hardware that is being installed by some seismic retrofitters in Portland that's made to protect houses against vertical lift -- tornados anyone -- not earthquakes. So beware who you hire! His crew were professional and friendly from start to finish. They had to open finished walls in the basement, drill lots of holes, blast them clean, drive in lots of nails. It's a noisy somewhat messy job but when they were finished, my basement looked better than when they started! Also, they made sure my dogs were safe! I recommend them to all my friends. I can tell you, I sure sleep better knowing I've my house the protection I deserve.

This job was actually done on my friends' (Rohit and Jennifer Popat) house. See the comments from them below. We hired Michael, John and Oscar from NW Seismic to perform a retrofit on our 1940's home. They were very easy to work with, listening to my concerns and answering my questions promptly. They explained the process thoroughly and in language that I could understand, giving me confidence that my investment would be protected. At the end of each day of work, they left my basement clean and tidy allowing me to continue using it. The team is completely trustworthy, I had no concerns with leaving them in my home. I was so happy with their work and with the team that I hired them to help me with additional remodeling work, on which they also did a fantastic job. I highly recommend NW Seismicfrom!

Excellent. Michael was honest and easy to work worth. It took some time from initial consult to build. I think this was due to soft story retrofits not being common yet to the Portland area, even though they are extremely important. I was very happy with every stage of the work. I do not hesitate in recommending NW Seismic for any seismic retrofit you are considering.

Michael came out and gave me an estimate within a few days of my initial inquiry. I asked for some clarification on the T&M and Michael agreed to limit it to not more than $1500 over the initial estimate. The final billing was only $1020 over the base bid of $6120, so I was very pleased. That was very fair given the excellent work that they did. Once we decided to proceed, Michael had a team here the next day after I contacted him. We have a daylight basement home built in 1970. About 2/3 of the basement is finished. The wall on one end of the house if finished with wood paneling, so they attached the sill on the outside. The bedrooms are all finished with sheetrock. They moved and covered all the furniture, cut thru the sheet rock to attach the sill, resealed the holes, textured and painted,, matching the paint exactly, then cleaned it all up. You absolutely cannot tell that the walls were opened up. NW Seismic does an excellent job. The cost may seem a bit spendie, but given the amount of work it takes and given that I could not get earthquake insurance without it, it beats having my home fall off the foundation and be a total uninsured loss. I believe the price was very fair. The people who did the work were professional, courteous, prompt and diligent. They even dispatched a nasty yellow jacket nest next to the foundation. I highly recommend NW Seismic. They do excellent work for a fair price. I cannot recommend them more highly.

We have a home that was built in 1954 and was not bolted to the foundation. Our basement is completely finished. They came in and spent almost a full day putting up containments and protecting our finished floors. They explained the different types of brackets they would use and how they would be installed. The job took four days to complete. When they were finished everything looked as good as before they started the job. Both Michael and John and their employees were very professional, prompt and pleasant to have in our home. We were very satisfied with every aspect of the job. We would highly recommend them.

They were able to come out right away for a free estimate. I felt confident in their knowledge of the latest methods for seismic upgrading. They brought samples of the anchors they would be using so you could see what would be attached to your foundation. When they came to do the work, they were professional and I was impressed with the high quality of work done. They did a very nice job and cleaned up the work site before leaving. They were prompt in providing me with the necessary information to supply to my insurance company for earthquake coverage. There were some frustrations involved in having this work done but linked more to the high demand for this type of service than to this specific company (my initial appointment for an estimate was in April & the work was done in early July).

I wanted an inspection to determine the seismic worthiness of my structure. Michael's website was well detailed and used good engineering principles rather than fear factor to motivate and educate. Michael Wieber and his team came in and showed me that my newly purchased 1969 home was not attached appropriately to the foundation and spent over 7 days with a multi-person crew. They worked around my schedule, were very thoughtful, and they answered my many questions along the way in sufficient detail. While some might think this is costly, the value and quality of the work was excellent