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    Bolt Down The Bay Area

    4.9 (76 reviews)
    Open 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

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    Response time

    20 minutes

    Response rate

    100%

    Services - Bolt Down The Bay Area

    Earthquake retrofitting

    Foundation construction

    Foundation inspection

    Bolt Down The Bay Area Photos

    Recommended Reviews - Bolt Down The Bay Area

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    Reviews With Photos

    Geoff J.

    We were so impressed with just the inspection on our home that we had them also start the process at our daughter's home which she rents from us. Both 1950s homes within a few hundred yards of the Rogers Creek Fault. The inspection photos both before and after are plentiful and of high quality. I would recommend this to anyone who has an older than 1980 home regardless of whether you have Earthquake Insurance or not. The cost was around $5,000 for each home, the total time from initial inspection to work done was 2 months (scheduled for 3 but they had openings) and the actual work took 3 hours or so as they have very efficient crews, (different crew at each house). The office staff and field staff are first rate and I've dealt with tons of contractors over the decades as we built restaurants and have rental homes. The CEA dashboard for those with insurance was a bit difficult to navigate at first but they helped me through it. They are out of Sebastopol and have done many of these unlike some of the other fly by night "contractors" on the website; one of which never contacted us again (thankfully) after a sloppy inspection by a poorly trained person. Very courteous, professional and efficient. Can't recommend them highly enough.

    Bracing

    Bolt Down the Bay Area made the entire earthquake retrofit process very easy to understand and complete. Their employees on site explained what they were doing and completed the job in one day. The office staff were also extremely helpful in navigating the entire process. Best of all, they were significantly less expensive than the other two bids I received. The other two bidders didn't bother to enter the crawlspace but made bids significantly higher (one 50% higher, the other 100% higher) The building inspector was very impressed with the work that was done. I recommend them without reservation.

    North wall blocking posts and header to support floor load.
    Jack R.

    Bolt Down the Bay Area (BDtBA) did a fine job two years ago to replace a damaged section of perimeter foundation, and did a seismic blocking with holddowns retrofit to strengthen the north wall. We recently noticed a 1/4 inch hump in a bedroom floor. Sean of BDtBA brought in Luis, who trimmed several floor joists so the floor would level out. I'm impressed BDtBA stands behind their work, even after time has passed. The plan is for BDtBA blocking and holddowns for the south wall, and sheathing to complete the seismic retrofit. This is an update to the recent BDtBA joist trim: Four days after the work was done, the floor is level.

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    3 years ago

    They made the entire seismic retrofit process easy and seamless. I heartily recommend them, as their work was excellent.

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    Page 1 of 2

    Ask the Community - Bolt Down The Bay Area

    Review Highlights - Bolt Down The Bay Area

    Jason kept us informed of what was required at every step, making the whole process smooth and trouble-free.

    Mentioned in 19 reviews

    Read more highlights

    NorCal Foundation Support - CleanSpace Systems including vapor barrier liner, drainage and sump pump.

    NorCal Foundation Support

    (88 reviews)

    My specialist was Scott Cone. Although I did not work with them for foundation work or repairs, I…read morehad a great experience having Scott do my initial consultation. He showed up on time, was very respectful of my home and professional. Not pushy at all, and very easy to speak with. High compliments for Scott!

    Working with this company was one of the most frustrating experiences I have ever had. I signed my…read morecontract in August and today on 3/22/26 the work is finally complete. The communication is absolutely horrible, if you get any at all. With repeated attempts to follow up on my project, I kept getting the same answer that they were waiting on permitting, but on two separate occasions, over two separate issues, with two separate time spans, that was incorrect and the delay was a failure to complete the correct paperwork to even submit to the city. This caused months of delays that were unnecessary. They did damage to my electrical, but only would accept responsibility when I pushed back. The work took weeks longer than originally anticipated. All of these things I can understand, but again the terrible communication made the situation so much worse than it needed to be. The technicians who performed the work were very nice and worked their butts off. They walked onto my project totally unprepared for the work involved, even though two representatives were under my house on two separate occasions and could have assessed the work needed. I could keep going, but no one reads long reviews and I am hoping to save someone the headache I went through.

    Groundworks

    Groundworks

    (83 reviews)

    I needed a proactive estimate to check the foundation leveling of the home along with repairing…read morelight cement cracks. Shane was the estimator and he did a great job in assessing the site, providing recommendations, educating me on how it all works, and best of all -- adapting to baby quiet hours in the home. I look forward to working with Groundworks in the near future (and will provide a more updated review then)!

    I would not recommend Groundworks for foundation drainage work. I hired Groundworks in the bay…read morearea, California. When I agreed to finance this 15k job, I was told the drainage from the crawl space sump pump would and could be connected to the main, but when the crew arrived they were not sure where the drain exit should go and said the city of Santa Cruz doesn't allow them to connect and they could not get a permit. Why was I not told this prior to scheduling the work? I made the mistake of trying to figure out the discharge area with the workers who showed up. They asked me where I want the discharge pipes, but I am not qualified to make that decision. That is why I hired them. The workers were nice and tried to be helpful and this is not a complaint about them. I called the representative who originally came out, inspected, and estimated the job, which included connection to main, and that is when he told me that he could not get permits from Santa Cruz county. This is when I should have cancelled the job. The completed job by Groundworks has discharge pvc lines on the side of the house and terminating at the front right corner of the house and I have to figure out how and where to drain all of the water! I thought that was the point of hiring an expert drainage company. After work was completed and after first rain of season, I get flooding in my garage on two separate occasions. I spend the day clearing everything out and drying the garage out. I call and a technician comes out to inspect a day later and tells me that the sump pump under the master bedroom was installed backwards and wasn't working. Groundworks installed two new pumps as part of the drainage plan. Mistakes can be made, sure, but I would think for such a pricey job they would have it inspected prior to signing it off. Now that the second pump is up and running, it is so loud that it is difficult to sleep at night, but at least my garage isn't flooding. The noise disturbance now is unsustainable. Now, after groundworks installed this drainage system, if that second sump pump is not on, the garage will flood. Prior, I had one old sump pump under the kitchen and never had this flooding issue. I don't know why, but now my garage floods. Follow up was horrible. The supervisor Wyatt never got back to me when he said he would about the concerns I had and how to resolve them. Initially, Wyatt asked how they could make me feel better. I asked for a discount because at the time I thought the flooding was resolved, but I was put off for over a month and in that time realized it is not exactly clear why the garage floods. My concern is the flooding issue and not the discount, but no follow up to discuss. The General Manager did not call me or reach out as Wyatt said he would refer me to the GM. I had to make contact many times for any reply. At this point I am told by Wyatt that the GM wants receipts of the damage to my garage. I don't have receipts for me clearing out my garage to the driveway and drying out the garage. I called you all when it happened and you sent a technician the following day who told me it was i stalled backwards. A month later after waiting with no return call, I had to call again and was told they came out and fixed it already and would I like it to be inspected again. At this point, by whom? Can I trust this company to tell me what is actually going on? They don't even call me back. Why is the garage flooding now if it doesn't have two sump pumps running when it only had one prior? This treatment feels horrible. I am not out looking for something for free and a discount. I am looking to protect my home from water damage and that is not happening This was a 15k job and I now have to hire another company that can actually tell me why my garage floods. This is not ok. After I seek assessment elsewhere and get a good idea of what is actually going on with the drainage system that was installed, I will be following up with Groundworks. This is a company that stands behind putting out this quality of work and charging for it. 100% disappointed. This situation was improperly handled in many ways. Communication nonexistent.

    Perma Level

    Perma Level

    (27 reviews)

    I can't say enough good things about the work that was done and the great people who did the work…read moreon leveling my home. Levi Sanchez made the process seamless in its execution and follow through. Francisco paid close attention to every detail along the way. The whole process was fascinating. Never have I have any work done on my house where the workers left the place cleaner and more picked up than it was when they arrived. And things looked pretty darn good when they got here. I told them they made the neatest mess. Even the stones along where they dug down for the project were replaced better than I had arranged them. I could go on and on ... Considering how everything went so smoothly before during and after the construction, I don't think I could beat the service and value that I received. I passed Perma Level's info on yesterday to my handyman who sent it to a client of his who may give you all a call. Thank you for a great experience overall.

    We hired the PermaLevel Team to level and stabilize our 3 story, 87 year old home foundation. They…read morewere very professional and easy to talk to. I had no doubt that our home was in competent hands. The workers worked very hard for about 18 days. We had 33 push piers in total. Francisco took the time to show me how the push piers worked and shared with us all the steps. Both Levi and Francisco were patient in answering all of our questions. The team was thoughtful and showed up on time every day. They secured our home when they left for the day. Our home is noticeably level now. To add, they were priced fair. The icing on the cake is when they mailed me the certification that the construction done meets all the structural requirements for structural pier placements and copies of all the pier logs and their measurements all nicely put in a folder for our records. We are all set for the roof top deck now! Thank you Levi Sanchez and Francisco for a job well done.

    NorCal Ram Jack

    NorCal Ram Jack

    (54 reviews)

    We removed a wall in our two story house a couple of years back and started to notice uneven floors…read morethroughout our house. I was worried that the beam supporting the roof was not adequate and that was leading to foundation issues. Most online advice suggested to hire a structural engineer to inspect the foundation, as contractors may blow minor issues out of proportion an suggest unnecessary repairs. The structural engineers quoted me $500 for an inspection and they wanted pictures from a foundation repair contractor anyways, since they wouldn't go into crawl spaces. I was losing sleep thinking about my uneven floors, so I decided to reach out to NorCal Ram Jack for a free estimate. What was there to lose? After filling out their online request form they reached out within a couple of hours and scheduled an appointment the following week with Adam, their Foundation Specialist. Adam showed up early and I was easily able to communicate my concerns to him. He measured the elevation differential throughout my house, asked about details of the removed wall and installed beam, and answered all my concerns. He walked us through his thought process and what signs of concerns we should look for that would warrant a foundation repair. We are lucky that our house currently doesn't have issues of concern, but I wouldn't hesitate to contact Ram Jack again with the peace of mind they gave us.

    The work was repaired, the void under our slab has been filled(a total of i believe 8holes or more…read morein 2 rooms). They peeled the carpet back,drilled the holes and re-installed the carpets to the best of their ability (which actually isn't bad at all). Fence+gate have been fixed as well. They aren't fence guys or carpet guys so leaving a review about those not done to the quality of someone who does it professionally isn't necessary, although they did do a good job with both. We appreciate the 2nd visit, no one had contacted me to change my 1star review, this is of my own doing a week later. No refund,no pay out, no negotiating, we didn't sign anything stating the review would come down after work was done. We appreciate all your guys hard work and cheerful attitude. Hope your guys liked the cookies! Thank you !

    Bolt Down The Bay Area - foundationrepair - Updated May 2026

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