We received a notice that we were eligible for the Earthquake Brace + Bolt Program and decided to do it. I looked through the contractors listed on the EBB web site and researched them fairly thoroughly. Many of them did not appear to really be home foundation contractors, they just were trying to cash in on EBB. But E&F looked like they did a lot of this work and knew what they were doing.
I called and spoke to Tony and only became more convinced that these guys were quite experienced, knew the whole EBB process very well, and seemed to apply a quality standard towards their work. so we decided to go with them.
Tony was VERY helpful in informing us about and guiding us through the process, not just with E&F, but with EBB, as well. Yeah, I had to follow up with him a couple of times when I hadn't heard anything in a while, but nothing that made me feel concerned. We are fortunate that our house has a foundation running down the center, in addition to the main foundation around the perimeter, and we decided to pay the extra money to have the center foundation bolted, in addition to the standard job, which is only the perimeter. The cost to do that was not insignificant, but we felt what E&F charged was well within bounds.
The process is not a fast one, of course, because EBB has to do their thing and, especially, the city is slow in the permitting process, even when everything is done right. I had to jump in and push the city, but finally everything was in place. E&F sent out a team of two guys, and they were the shizzle. Carlos was really friendly, but, more to the point, he really got the job done. There was an in-process inspection by the city and a post-construction inspection. On both occasions, the city building inspector made a point of telling me what quality work had been done. He said that he often saw sloppy work that he had to call out, but that Carlos had really done an excellent job. Carlos had said he liked to go beyond what was required, and the inspector's unsolicited feedback confirmed that he, in fact, had done that.
Although Carlos' partner was out sick for two days, they nevertheless completed the work in the time they told us it would be done. A week or so later, Tony followed up, not only to collect E&F's payment, but to, once again, inform of us of what we needed to do to complete the process.
I can be very wary of contractors; many of them are sloppy to do business and sloppy in their work. So I was pretty picky in choosing our contractor for this, but I feel I made absolutely the right choice with E&F, and I would definitely recommend them for foundation work, or anything else they do, frankly.
Thanks Tony! Thanks, Carlos! read more