Rootabater Inc

Having no idea as to what was to be expected, it went well. Our yard is in the recovery mode. I wish that I would have noticed that they were hauling away good dirt and using the hard "clay" dirt, but that was my mistake. Overall, it is very labor intensive work and no problems with our sprinklers or any other underground pipes.

Have seen improvement in foundation level since installing root barriers

AMAZED AND IMPRESSED.   Wally and his crew did excellent work.  Our root barrier was 60 feet long and 4 feet deep.  It was dug all by hand.  The were able to work around our sprinkler system because they did it all by hand.  They completed the job in one day.  Very professional from start to finish.  They replaced the soil nicely and completely cleaned up the work area. I would highly recommend them to anyone who needed a root barrier system put in.  

We had Wally's team come out and install a tree root barrier around our red oak in the backyard at the suggestion of a structural engineer due to our house shifting.  We were told that we did not need foundation repair but that a tree root barrier would fix the problem.  They did all of the work in one day.  They worked hard and were very professional.  The dug a 4 foot trench by hand so as not to break electrical lines, etc.  This was done in January, and I was concerned about the long term health of the tree, but it it June now and it looks great and healthy. Also, our doors are no longer sticking, and they all close smoothly....yea!!  The tree root barrier has worked great!  Only thing...there is a long scar on the ground where they had to dig.  But that is to be expected, and I assume it will even out over time and grow new grass.

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Took 2-3 days, dug down 4 feet by hand which was impressive, installed barrier as recommended by engineer. Also installed soaker hoses as recommended by engineer. Would recommend having engineer check house for right approach to dry clay soil (which I did before doing the barrier). Easy to work with Wally and his crew. Cleaned up good.

They were there two days. We would not use again because of three reasons. 1. they cut through three sprinkler pipes and did not tell us we just happened to be looking at their work after the first evening they left. We called the owner to inform him and it was news to him as well. The pipes were repaired upon our request. 2. They made no attempt to save the grass they dug up for the trench which was annoying as we now have to purchase new sod for a large semicircle in our front yard. 3. The black plastic barrier was left sticking out of the ground 1-2 inches in places which was dangerous as it was covered with soil and easy to trip on. We did ask the owner to trim the plastic and he in turn asked the worker to do it, in the end it was partially done. Over all the finished project was not left as we would have liked.

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They did a great job!!! Very professional and it was done in one day. Since, the work has been done, there has been no movement in my foundation.

I will need to use this service again early 2015, for the back yard. I have a Shatung Maple tree and also my other neighbor's oak trees in the back (by my fence). I don't want to have issues in my bathroom.

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While we was inspecting the tree to potentially put a root barrier on, he also told us about various shrubs around the property that are huge moisture suckers and recommended them for removal to prevent foundation problems. He also inspected the area around the house and tree to see if a root barrier was needed. He found that a root barrier was not needed because there was solid rock about 3 ft underneath the house and that the rock would keep the foundation from moving too much. 
He was great, provided some useful tips and did not try to sell us services we didn't need.

Installed a small oak tree 15 years ago, not realizing how far the roots would spread. The roots were sucking up the ground moisture under my garage slab causing the walk out door to stick. They installed a thick plastic root barrier four feet deep between the tree and slab. After watering the ground again and two months of a hot summer, my door does not stick anymore from ground shifting and my tree still looks good.

I would highly recommend Rootabatr INC to anyone thinking about installing a root barrier. 

It went really well.  The company has a lot of experience doing this type of work.  They needed to come back to repair some damaged and disconnected irrigation lines but they were able to fix it with no issues.

I was putting my house up for sale and had a structural engineer come and evaluate so I could fix anything prior to the sale. I had one front corner of the house slightly lower than the rest of the house. The biggest oak is in the front yard and as I found out,  too close to the house.  It was not foundation trouble that lowered that corner. It was the roots from the big oak that suck out all the water in the ground and that affects the house.  Rootabater was recommended by both the engineering company and my realtor .
There was a home inspector that came as requested by the first person offering to buy the house. He said it was a foundation issue. I have no other cracks in the house, no door jams were crooked, I never felt like I had a foundation issue. I went with Rootabater as that made more sense to me that the tree was causing the issue. You really need to investigate before you just take the word of a foundation repair company.  The Rootabater team was  very fun to work with. This is a job that is best left to professionals. Its hard work and they know what they are doing.   I had no problems what so ever.   It took little over 2 days to dig  the barriers on all the trees and takes some time to let the grass grow back.  I have no regrets that I did the barrier verses cutting down the trees. This is not an inexpensive project but I feel worth the money. I highly recommend Rootabater .

Our 26 yr old  house's concrete slab is built on terrible clay soil.  We have had foundation issues for a few years with sticking doors and  cracks in the ceiling, walls, even cracked tiles in the kitchen.  The biggest contributing factor to our foundation problems lay in our next door neighbor's trees which sucked up the moisture from our frequent waterings.  No matter how much we watered the house, especially during the dry summer of 2011, our  foundation got worse and worse.

Before calling a foundation company to come out, we wanted to address the root problem first.  I decided to call Root a Bater (run by a guy named Wally) since they are not affiliated with any specific foundation company which I was trying to avoid because I didn't want a hard sell for foundation work at this time.  We may still have to have foundation work done in the future, but I had wanted a third party to do the root barrier.

Wally was knowledgeable and courteous from the beginning.  He was punctual and did exactly what he said he would do.  There were no surprises.

He did not do the actual digging - he brought another man to dig the trench and install the barrier but it was all under Wally's supervision. (Wally was not always on site when the digging was being done but he told us ahead of time this would be the case)    The other man was very polite and professional as well, though I didn't interact with him that much.  It only took a couple of days to get the root barrier installed.    Wally was always willing to explain what was being done and why. 

Wally knows what he's doing in terms of root barriers and the affects of tree roots on foundations.  Not only that, but he has a lot of experience with getting even moisture around foundations and knows the best ways to do this, using soaker hoses, water injections in some cases, recommending bringing in soil where needed, digging up overgrown bushes too close to the foundation, etc.... 

He does not claim to be an engineer and readily admits if a question is out of his sphere of knowledge, but he does have a working relationship with a structural engineer and even consulted with this engineer on his own about our house just to make sure he was giving us the right advice, which I greatly appreciated.

Wally went above and beyond the call of duty - he followed up numerous times on the phone regarding the foundation watering and even brought us some surplus soil to put around our foundation at low spots, free of charge.  I would highly recommend him to anyone needing a root barrier installed.  Not only that, but I think it would be worth it to have him come out to address foundation/soil  moisture/dryness issues before anyone called a foundation company - he might just save you some money in foundation work if you can fix foundation problems by restoring the moisture level of the soil your house is built on. 

The jury is still out on whether or not we will need foundation work  - we are giving it more time to see if the continued watering is correcting the level of the foundation.  We have noticed some doors that are now closing whereas before they could not so it seems to be improving, albeit slowly as we knew it would.  Our next step will be to get an engineer out to our house to get an unbiased report on the condition of our foundation.

This gentlemen came out from out of town to provide us an estimate. He did everything he could to obtain the most accurate estimate. The estimate was reasonable, but we decided to go with another company. However, I would highly recommend this company.

We tried all kinds of things, but it did not work. He came in and said that he would save our trees and put in root barriers. They hand dug 3 feet down and were very careful cutting the roots and they did a bang up job. I would definitely give them all A?s. It has only been 2 weeks and I have noticed a change in the house in that little bit of time. We spent $4400 for that work they did. It was hand digging in the heat and was pretty much 100 plus degrees. He worked 8 hours a day and 5 days a week and actually I think he came out on a Saturday, so it was 6 days a week. He very carefully dug around the sprinkler system and taped it back and I can?t even say enough good things about him. He called today and asked how we were doing and how things were going. He just followed up. He is a laid back kind of guy. He is just unbelievable and, in fact, said that I can pay when I am satisfied with the work. He is really good and has been in business for a long time and deserves all the business he can get. I don?t know him any better than just from the work that he did, but I know that he was a real good person to work with. He was easy to work with and did what he said he was going to do in the time he said he was going to do in. He is just amazing and is actually suffering from brain cancer.

Wally is a super guy. He has a helper who is amazing to watch - he digs the trenches by hand. I have two large live oak trees in my front yard. The work began in August when the soil moisture was lowest. The tree roots grew beneath the foundation drawing moisture from the soils and causing settlement of an interior door. It took Rootabater about 3-days to install the root barrier, which consisted of a 3 to 4 foot deep trench lined with thick poly. Following completion, Wally installed a soaker hose. The soils regained moisture within 24 hours. I could shut the interior door immediately for the first time during the summer months in 10 years. It is nearly a year later now in the summer and I can still shut the door. If your foundation problems are related to settlement (not heave), then call Wally at Rootabater.