All is well that ends well... or... Foundation 'After'

After posting last Friday about the ‘during’ of foundation work, I feel it is only fair to post about the ‘after’ as well. 

Friday, the foundation foreman called and told me our house would be done at 6:00pm on Saturday.  So, LJ and I kept ourselves busy most of the day (saw Dark Knight Rises…loved it) and got there at 6:00pm. Well, the guys weren’t quite done. They had finished getting all the piles of dirt everywhere cleaned up, but they still had to pour the cement in a lot of the holes. (To be clear, they were done with the actual pier and it was covered with dirt, but our driveway/slab still needed to be made whole again.) While I was there I snapped a picture of the trash in the back of their trailer. Here is what my old pipes looked like….ewwww.

This makes me SO glad we got them replaced. I wouldn’t want to drink or even bath in water that ran through these.

Anyways, LJ and I started the walk-through, even though they weren’t done. The first thing the guy did was bring out a chart of the piers installed. As he’s sitting there talking about them, I did a quick count: 27 piers were installed, the majority of them interior. This is the point where I flipped out inside my head. The original quote said they would be installing 18 piers. They didn’t tell us they would install more piers and I was worried that the extra 9 would mean a 30% rise in price. I pretty much spent the rest of the walk-through worried and just waiting for them to tell us the bad news.  Well, at the end the guy just asked for the check for the amount originally quoted. I was so surprised and happy. But they weren’t quite finished yet, lots of holes still needed filled and the toilets need to be re-attached.  So, LJ and I told them we’d go grab dinner while they finished up and then we’d pay. (Don't every pay for a service until it is complete.) They said it would only take an hour more. We were a little skeptical that they would actually be finished in only one more hour given the amount of work left. But we went ahead and ran some errands nearby and grabbed a quick bit to eat. During dinner I got a call that they were done so we headed back.

To our delight they actually were completely finished. 

We happily wrote them a check for the original quote and wished them a great evening.

So what does a house look like after foundation work? There are spots of new concrete all over the place. These were still wet, so walking around the house was like a weird game of hop-scotch.

The holes in the above picture aren't from piers, they are from replacing the pipes. They basically dug a dotted line of holes and then were able to replace the pipes underneath. It's way different than I expected, but it works!

We used Trinity Foundation Repair and I would say that if we were to do it all over again, I would definitely still use them. They were half the price of the competition and they didn’t jack up my price half way through the job. They don’t put back flooring, which would be an issue if we had liked the carpet, but for our situation it was perfect. If any Houstonian needs some foundation work and is moving into an empty house with crappy flooring, I would totally recommend these guys. However, if you already live in your house and you want someone who will re-install new carpet to replace the old; these may not be your guys. For us though, they were pretty great. If price is your main concern, like ours, consider Trinity Foundation Repair.


(Sorry if I sound like a commercial... I just want to make sure to give them credit for their work.)