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..

.

unknown

unknown

unknown

unknown

unknown

unknown

.

unknown

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.

unknown

unknown

unknown

unknown

.

unknown

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

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.

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.