Andersen Basement Repair

They did a wonderful job.

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The weather caused understandable delays for the start of the project but once they got started they were here every day, on time and worked hard. They were respectful of the yard and went out of there way to minimize any damage and keep as much of the landscaping as possible. They excavated two walls completely to the footings and put in bigger diameter drain tile for the three walls that had a problem. Two walls were cracked and bowed in at the top almost 6 inches. The front frost wall under the cement porch was also bowed in which caused the front porch to sag bad enough to distort the vinyl siding under the roof overhang. When the house was built there was no backfill placed behind the porch frost wall that allowed it to tip in. No drain tile to drain off water was originally installed along the footing of the frost wall and the frost wall was backfilled with clay. These three poor workmanship issues were the cause of the front porch movement. The freezing and melting caused the frost wall to bow in which caused the sagging of the porch and the cracking of the three layers of brick under the porch (decorative). Some of the bricks below the porch slab actually fell out. There were also cracks in the front brickwork above the porch slab especially where the two front bowed windows met the front brickwork on the house proper. To support the cement porch they built a commercial block wall in front of the existing tipped frost wall. The wall extended to the footing for the three fourths the length of the porch. The base footing at each end of the frost wall cracked causing the ends to settle more than the rest of the frost wall. This repair required a pier at each end of the frost wall to raise and support the footings and level the entire span below the front cement porch. A laser was used to insure the frost wall repairs were straight. Bricks were replaced via new mortar as necessary and any cracks in the brickwork were retucked with new mortar. Four inch drain tile was added along the length of the porch frost wall and the three repaired walls were back filled with clear stone to insure no drainage problems in the future. The two full length walls were jacked out straight, cracks filled with hydraulic cement and sealed with epoxy sealing compound on both sides (inside and out). High density foam sheets were stuck to the rolled on epoxy seal coating. Rectangular steel tubing reinforcement beams were added on the inside of the walls as necessary. They were bolted at the top to the floor joists and embedded in new concrete in the basement floor. Additional work included re-plumbing the two existing sub pump discharges that were originally Y'ed together, adding PVC lines for three eve trough downspouts to the storm drain connection. These were added for minimum additional cost (parts only). The yard was also grading for proper drainage away from the house. The grading had to be redone as some water would still puddle between the house and the neighbors. This minor issue was done hassle free without any resistance. The final bill came in $1K below the estimate quote (not expected with the additional things they did for parts only cost). ABR cares about the quality of their work and the satisfaction of their customers. They did a very professional, cost effective repair. Lessons learned; all the basement foundation issues were caused by the walls being backfilled with clay when the house was built 31 years ago. The clay retains water which because of its weight adds pressure to the outside of the walls. Freezing and melting for over 30 years caused the wall movement. These were poured walls not block but no wall will survive these stresses forever. The repairs are guaranteed for 20 years (transferable) and the clear stone will insure no water buildup against the walls and I'm confident any problems in the future.

This was a bad situation that Mr. Anderson and his crew made it as easy as it could possibly be.

Jim worked along side his crew every day, to oversee the job. He arrived every day promptly, and stayed until it started getting dark. He and his workers were very professional, polite and courteous. They kept me updated on their progress, and asked for input with specific things such as: where to place the sump pump, basement windows, and basement entryway. They removed all shrubery around the house prior to starting the excavation, and cleaned up the work area, and any debrie left in the yard after the job was completed. I was very pleased with the results, and would recommend his work to anyone who has basement issues.

Overall, it was amazing! They were excellent! They are also conciderate, clean and made sure they took care of everything. He is still coming back to do repairs for us. We had a Structural Engineer report done to tell us what we actually had to have done since it was a big job and he was right on with that. They were very reasonable.