Du-West Foundation Repair

Misty came out and evaluated our house for foundation repair. She was very thorough and knowledgeable in what she does. I found that du-west was honest reliable and fair price for the work that needed to be done. When they came out to do the foundation work Jose and Juan kept us informed as to what was happening. We have never been through this before so hearing all of this the snapping, crackles and popping sounds was scary!! They did a good job and left our yard back the way it was. Jessica at the office is very professional and willing to work and help us with some little mishaps with no problems. Overall I am happy with Du-west and highly recommended them to my co-workers and friends..

Absolutely pathetic, on the first day they talk to you as if your buddy Talking poorly about co-workers, calling you later after getting drunk They will agree with you about what you want to be done In the process of speaking with the city for a permit A piece of paper is needed to be signed to show they will be doing the work They only did half of the job Wanted final payment, I said finish the job Then I was told the retaining was not designed for that If I was told that on day one, this never would have started They lie to your face to get a sale from some fine print on a piece of paper. Stay away

Don't use Du-West if you want someone who honor's their warranty. Their "Lifetime Warranty" requires all kinds of things to happen perfectly when the home is sold. If not done to their satisfaction, Du-West will void their warranty. They have clearly created a process specifically designed to allow them to void warranties and get that liability off their books. When I asked their customer service representative about this, they got mean and nasty on the phone. There are tons of reputable foundation companies in Houston. Don't get sucked in by their pretty website. They don't want to standby their work.

Very impressed. They were honest, and did not try to sell me something that I did not need.

They did a good job. They were quite a bit higher in price and they were going to do it differently. It might have been a fair price depending on what they were going to do. I felt that I didn't that much and they were going to put in 27 piers. They were very responsive and came out very quickly.

The repair was done and a contract given with a lifetime warranty. The work they did was not completed well and some damage done. Seven years later we are having foundation issues again so we call Du West to come out and make any necessary corrections under the warranty. Gary came out and said there are no problems with the original work but now we need leveling under the slab further under the house at an additional cost of $4000 dollars. He stated they could do some shimming of the original piers when they come out to do the work. He also informed me it would be at least five months before he could get a crew out to do the work. After investing some time in finding out the causes of this problem, I have discovered that when the original work was done and the house was lifted, it created a void which was not filled nor was I notified of this being a potential future problem. I feel like Du West was counting on me needing to have them back out to do subsequent repairs at an additional cost. This is definitely not good business practice and I feel like the lack of information is very deceptive.

The sales man was polite and thorough. He was, however, more interested in upselling $10,000 more work than we wanted. I understand that's his job, but really? I know DuWest is big in Houston. But the only thing big about them at my house was their bid.

I did not receive a formal report or estimate from Du West, but the conversation with the inspector they sent out contradicted significantly with what another company said in that the Du West inspector believed that significant, expensive work would be needed. An independent inspection from an engineer revealed that no work was needed, in keeping with what I learned from the other repair company. Du West was way off.

Very professional, all work completed as per contract, property left in good state on completion. All questions and or concerns addressed to our satisfaction.

Du-West originally did foundation work on my home in 1995 with a lifetime warranty. Over 32 piers were installed around the perimeter of the house with a cost of about $8,000. Cracks in the house started appearing shortly thereafter. I have had Du-West come out several times since then, and each time was advised that more costly work had to be done. I thought I would try one last time to see if they would honor the warranty. I was advised that I would need to spend over $26,000 for additional repairs (tunneling which I was advised was the best option for me). I asked why the lifetime warranty was not honored and was told that the warranty did not cover the current problems. I was under the impression that lifetime meant repairs would be done as needed with no additional cost. I cannot afford this amount and emailed Kenny Dutton, president of Du-West, to see if they would work with me on the cost since I was a returning customer, and perhaps discount the work allowing for the lifetime warranty. Mr. Dutton did not even have the courtesy to reply either my email or phone. I had to wait 6 weeks for an appointment for the Du-West agent to come out and make the assessment which seemed way too long.

They picked the worse day to do the job and the yard and flower beds show it. I had to call to get a start date and I told them that they could wait due the wet conditions. They cancelled the first day due to rain and showed up the next day, still raining. The crews did the best with the flower beds and yard clean up, but it is still a mess. They were to show up to do a follow up clean up and have not been back since. They were to do a static test on the sewer system, both pre and post. I had to call them to do the static test and I figure that they owe me half the fee that I paid. No calls. The crews did the best they could, but I thing the management did not do their job. I am not sure I would really want them back. Their customer service is totally lacking

Several years ago, Du-West leveled my slab. They did a good job. So, I called them again for some additional work. 1. They installed the root guard between the front yard tree and the house foundation. There were no issues with their work. 2. They replaced a concrete pad base for the house centeral a/c condenser unit. The pad had been connected to the slab, but subsidence of the ground caused it to break away from the slab and was now on an incline. Du-West removed the old pad and installed a new pad. a. Du-West charged me $79 dollars for the ESTIMATE of the cost of replacing the pad ($485). No one could give me a satisfactory explanation why they were charging me $79 dollars--there was no fee for the estimate of the overall work I was asking/contracting them to do, just the pad replacement estimate. Be forewarned!! b. The estimator did not include elevating the new pad to the height of the house slab. I had to run to Ace Hardware and buy five cinderblocks on which the guy could place his lightweight slab. c. Otherwise, the guy did a good job. 3. The foundation watering system. a. There was a piece of concrete sidewalk at the back edge of the house where the backflow preventer and inline valves were to be placed that had to be removed--about 30and quot;x24and quot;. Once the new lines/equipment were installed and connected to the house water feedline, a new concrete sidewalk section was laid. That went well. b. On completion of the work, the supervisor gave me a tutorial and manual for the timer and control valve for the watering system. 4. The timer had been set for 2 30-minute watering sessions per day; once at midnight and once at 12noon. 5. Over the next couple of days, I found the ground near the system controller and around the house either under water or extremely soft and squishy. I called Du-West and the supervisor called me back to tell me to turn off the water to the system. He came out to check out the system the next day. He reduced the watering session times to 15-minutes per session. 6. While he was here, I pointed out ruts made by a wheelbarrow in my backyard leading to the back fence. On following the ruts to a pile of tree limb debris at the back fence, I showed him the broken-up concrete pieces from not only the small piece of sidewalk they had removed (item 3a, above) but larger broken-up concrete pieces from the house A/C condenser slab. They had wheelbarrowed the concrete debris and dumped it between the tree debris pile and the fence. In addition, they tried to hid the debris by pulling tree branches over. The supervisor had his crew (not the same from the watering system installation) remove all the concrete debris to .his truck. 7. The supervisor had told me that water consumption in the system was at 0.9 gallons per minute. That would equal about 14 gallons per 15-minute watering session, or about 840 gallons per month. I have calculated the water consumption is actually 30-40 gallons per 15-minute watering session, or about 2,400 gallons per month. Something has changed because I have recently noted the ground over the irrigation hose is more soggy and in someplaces underwater. 8. This past weekend, I got an electronic notification of excessive water usage from the City of Houston advising they noted my water consumption had jumped to over 600 gallons during a six-hour period Sunday night, Dec 8-Monday morning, Dec. 9. On checking my water system, I found no leaks anywhere--I turned off the foundation watering system and made it a point to NOT use any water in the house. After about 8 hours, the water meter had not moved. 9. I contacted Du-West to come out and check out their watering system. I was told their irrigation guy would be at my house on December 10, 2013 at 10:00am. At 11:00am, December 10, I called Du-West to find out where the irrigation guy was. I was given an apology and offer to reschedule to 10:00am the next day, December 11 (today, as I write this). Well, 10:00am has come and gone. No Du-West irrigation guy and not even a phone call. Near 11:00am, I called Du-West to find out where the irrigation guy was. I was again given an apology saying that the guy had been reassigned to another job and could I meet him on Friday, December 13, at 10:00am. Standby. There may be a part two to this debacle. I expected much, much better of Du-West than this very unprofessional conduct and poor treatment of their customers. Lesson learned.

I called to make an appointment for Du West to come to my house to determine if I needed foundation repairs or not and give me an estimate. He came on time on 10/2/2013. He took measurements and looked the house over for about 2 hours. When he finished he said he could not provide an estimate without me first having a plumber provide a hydrostatic test to see if the sewer piping under the slab was leaking or not. He said and quot;be prepared to reroute your pipingand quot;. I then hired his plumbing company to do the inspection on 10/17/2013. I was told this inspection could take up to 3 hours or so. The two men who came were here 50 minutes exactly. They charged the quoted price of $350.00 and gave me a written report that indicated no leaking in the piping under the slab. I called DuWest (the estimator) who first came out on 10/2/2013 immediately and left word for him to call me. He emailed me the next day and said he would be on jury duty the following week and did not know how long that duty would last. He said he planned to bring a and quot;principaland quot; from Du West 2 weeks later to meet with me. He gave no details whatsoever at this time. On the evening of 10/24/2013 the estimator called. He apologized and spoke for about 15 minutes on the phone, but giving me absolutely no information as to why I might need foundation work, or not need it, he said that he was going to provide me an estimate for raising the entire house founndation. He said some other foundation companies might only raise part of it, but not DuWest. Again he gave no reason for doing anything much less raising the entire foundation. I then spoke after listening to him and I said do not give me a quote as you have not sold me on why you want to do what you said Du West would do. He replied and quot;I guess I did not do a good job of explainingand quot;. I even asked why did he think I had a sewer leak which caused me to hire a plumber and pay $350 for 50 minutes. His reply was I thought you did based on my measurements or inspection. I cannot say the estimator was young at his job, I don't know, but this inspection and followup was not handled well in my opinion at all by DuWest. I have called another foundation company and will see how they perform.

The service was excellent. He was very professional. He left me a written statement about the condition of my foundation. He also gave me some promotional material about foundation problems. The inspection was at no cost to me.

Everything went well except they hurried up and finished in 3 days. They worked to well into the night on the last day to get finished. The job looks like they repaired the foundation issues that the house was having. The crew cleaned up well and were very courteous to us.

The representative came out right on time, looked and behaved very professional. He took time to explain everything to me. He showed me the materials that were to be used. He promised me that he would email me the estimate the next day. I waited until Monday, and due to no response, I called DuWest to get answers. The lady that answered the phone asked that I give her a little bit and she'd call me back with the estimate. As of this review, I still have not heard from them. I would not recommend DuWest.

Scheduling the work went much faster than expect, the crew arrived on time and completed work within expect time. The on-site supervisor took the time to explain the process as each step was being performed. The crew was professioal and respectful of our time and investment. The work was peformed exactly as described in the quote and sales pitch. I am very happy w\ith the results.

Du-West tested our home for foundation issues on the east side of our home. The test results indicated we needed 16 perimeter piles and 3 interior piles to level our home. The engineer also suspected a leak under the master bathroom and a small leak near the hall bathroom; causing the floor to slightly bow. We scheduled the job for June 3, 2013. The workers were prompt, and moved through the work quickly, by Thursday, the house was leveled and the plumbing work was scheduled to begin. In between the leveling of the home and the backfill, plumbing work was completed by another company. Before the plumbing work began, I called my contact, Bo Seals, asking him to have the crew come back and fill in the tunnels the plumbers didn't need. I didn't hear anything from Bo, but the crew showed up at my home a few days later to backfill tunnels and holes the plumbers would not use. After the plumbers were done with the work, I contacted Du-West again and asked them to come fill the remaining tunnels and holes. In their defense, I had a misunderstanding with the plumbing company, thinking the plumbers would backfill the holes and Du-West's work was done. Bo told me Morgan would contact me to schedule a time to backfill the remaining tunnels/holes; that was last Wednesday, June 26th. No follow up at all. I called again this morning to schedule an appointment, and I'm hoping the crew can get out to the house this week. Overall, the experience with Du-West was great. They have a great reputation here in Houston and they've been around over 30 years. However, I'm left at this point feeling like the customer service ended once the money changed hands. **UPDATE*** Du West scheduled an appointment to fill the tunnels and remove dirt/debris for July 5th. The crew arrived promptly and the backfill was completed to my satisfaction.

I was pleased with the foundation repair and it was explained very well. They put the dirt back properly and cleaned up well. They dug a spot out on my front stoop to install a pier but when they poured the concrete to close the hole, it did not match. I have contacted them several times to make it match, but I wasn't sure if they could just apply something to it or if they would need to redo my whole stoop. They said they would come out and do the repair on 6/14 and that I didn't need to be home for them to do it. When I got home from work that day, there appeared to be nothing done and when I have called since then I've only been able to leave voicemails and they have not called me back. ***Today(7/9/13) I reached Tomika, who pulled my file and Allen got in touch with me regarding my issue. They are supposed to come out tomorrow(7/10/13) to refinish the surface of the entire front porch to make the whole porch match. Assuming they show up and take care of this issue, I will be making further adjustments to this review in the near future. I will also use them in the future for their underground water system if they fix this issue!***

They were very professional and responsive. They are awesome people, we love them.

Du-West showed up at the appointed time and was courteous. The assessment conflicted with assessments by other foundation specialists. We did not use them because other contractors stipulated that no work needed to be done. I would consider using them in the future, but was a bit concerned that their assessment was not aligned with others which is why I gave the overall rating and professionalism a and quot;B.and quot;

I called seeking an estimate for having my water meter replaced. I left a message with the receptionist. No one ever called me back.

Du-West showed up on time and did the work without any issues. Work was done on schedule and without any additional expense. Mom was happy with the work and the wall cracks are fixed. We recommend using Du-West.

1. Original visit and review was prompt and on-schedule. A reasonable work plan was initially given as well as a proposed schedule. 2. Time frame initially provided to conduct work was optimistic, in reality it took 3 additional months before they conducted the work than what was originally proposed. 3. The company never did communicate planned date for work after contract was signed. I personally called numerous times requesting the schedule for the work and never received a response. Finally, after contacting the original sales representative, a and quot;roughand quot; service date was provided. 4. As the month neared, I called and requested a specific date and was given a date which conflicted with our schedule. They promptly adjusted the schedule to accommodate our availability. 5. Once this date was set which was over a six weeks before the service date, no other communication was provided by the company - even the customary day before the scheduled work confirmatioin. 6. The company showed up the scheduled date. 7. The work foreman asked what I wanted done with excess dirt after the job was completed. I told him to remove the dirt from the site which he sad they would do. In reality, upon completion they spread the dirt over the flower beds around the house against my wishes. Some areas had more than 6 inches of additional soil that had to be removed. This was not discovered until after they left and we had to conduct the work ourselves. 8. Shrubs were not carefully removed and several plants had their roots cut too short and did not survive. Additionally, the plants were re-planted too deeply (roots more than 6 inches below normal root line.) Afterward, we had to have the excess soil removed, the soil beneficiated, and the surviving shrubs replanted. In all, we lost 3 of the 9 shrubs removed during the work effort. 9. It is clear that no one on the crew including the foreman knew anything about proper planting or replanting of the shrubs removed during the work. The company's restoration of the site to prior conditions was poor and had to be completely redone by knowledgeable workers to restore the site after the company left. 10. Several holes were not refilled properly with soil and after a few weeks, the soil settled excessively and caved in requiring additional work to provide additional soil to re-level the soil and replant shrubs in the immediate area of the cave-in. 11. The leveling of foundation was done two months ago. It is too early to determine how well the foundation work hold up. 12. In summary, it appears the leveling was conducted properly. The restoration of the site was not properly conducted requiring extensive rework by the homeowner. Several plants root systems were destroyed beyond viability during removal and they did not survive. Requests to remove excess remaining soil from the worksite were ignored and the soil was spread over the flowerbeds with some places over 6 inches in depth. Restoration of the site was completed by homeowner.

Because many houses in this area had drought related foundation problems, it took approximately 3 weeks for the engineer to arrive to evaluate the problem. However, he arrived slightly earlier than his appointment. He was very professional and personable. After measuring and examining the entire house, he told me that he would recommend seven piers on the southwest corner of my house because it was two inches lower than the rest of the house. Also because of the back up, it took almost five weeks for the crew to get here to perform the repair. They arrived as scheduled and planned to complete the job in one day. However, as they began leveling the house, cracks in my brick began to appear. They stopped immediately and called another engineer. He arrived quickly and remeasured the floor using the same equipment the first engineer had used. He determined that the entire back side of the house needed to be raised and this would require four additional piers. When they jacked the southeast corner of the house up, most of the cracks closed up. They determined that the measuring error was theirs and there was no extra charge for the four additional piers. When they finished, there was excess dirt. They asked me where I would like it and spread it in low areas of my lawn. The crew of about six men and a foreman worked from 7:30 am to 5:00 pm one day then returned at 7:30 am the next day and finished up about noon. This was constant very hard physical labor for the crew. However, they were very professional and friendly and seemed to enjoy their job. Not only did they leave the yard in good condition at the finish but cleaned up very well before going home the first day, knowing they were going to come back the next day. I would definately reccommend Du-West to anyone who needs foundation leveling and I plan to go to Angie's List in the near future to find a contractor to do sheetrock work on the inside now that the house is level.