I first interacted with Foundation Technology in 2017. We had an issue uncovered during our home…read moreinspection that not only involved aspects of the foundation but a slider installed beneath our two-car garage, to a walkable crawl space ("basement"). The door was not framed in by the previous owner, who merely wedged it in on the back side of our garage. A project manager initially proposed adding support piers on the inside near the door but the wall wasn't going to be reinforced so we didn't hire. Meanwhile, we had Window World and similar companies out who would not address the slider, either, until it was framed. Then the pandemic hit so we put the job on the back burner.
In 2022 we made progress after the owner personally came out to do the walk through. He gave us a good impression and a better solution for the door -- but we had much work to do to get the area prepped. When at last we were ready in 2024, we received the same contract as was originally offered (but with many new "service fees"). It should have been a clue that it took months to make sure it read correctly, but we were reassured given he had plans bring in an engineer. Big mistake. We should have hired the engineer to work directly for us.
Next thing we know the steel framing we had been told we would need because nothing else would physically fit in the space had been replaced with cutting into the joists beneath our attached garage to make way for a small 3.5" wood header. On Day One, Foundation Technology workers knocked holes in unrelated areas of drywall and claimed the sill plate was wrong so, FYI, even after repairs we can't use our garage to park our cars! The reason we hired in the first place was to regain use of our garage, which had been flagged during the sale on account of this improperly installed slider and, second, with the intent of hiring Foundation Technology to do an earthquake retrofit, which we qualified for with a CA program last year.
Ultimately, we ran out of time to enroll in the State lottery program (Brace + Bolt) because the owner never provided a quote despite inquiring a full year in advance of State approval. He also promised to quote us for the sill plate issue that was never flagged in years worth of efforts to obtain repair quotes until after we were under contract. He failed to give us a quote for that too.
When we first questioned in November how our job so radically simplified after numerous site visits, access to our original architectural plans and having been told it would require exterior excavation, grading and steel framing only to end up with standard wood framing, instead of offering a "mutually agreed upon change order", as per his contract terms, the owner had a meltdown and began threatening a lien on us even though we were paid up for deposit, engineering and what had been completed to that point. We were NOT overdue on the payment schedule but nonetheless he prevailed upon my spouse in December -- saying he wouldn't come back and complete the job otherwise. Meanwhile, we kept reiterating that we wanted an "off the shelf" size replacement door. The sizing was not confirmed by Foundation Tech until earlier this year -- a custom size that set us back a huge amount of time and money given it took four months to manufacture and deliver.
At this point, we are 95 percent paid up for a project that started in October and still isn't complete. We hope and pray Foundation Technology will have the integrity to address our concerns because we now fully anticipate the work will be flagged in the event we retrofit or sell our home. We spent YEARS trying to line up competent help, stressing that repairs must be to code, and still we can't park in our garage after nearly $40K to repair the prior owner's DIY damage?
In December we had a walkthrough with the owner of a civil engineering firm who flagged incorrect aspects of the work. This concurred largely with Foundation Tech's own engineer prior to Thanksgiving. That engineer reviewed photos we supplied and also commented that when he was hired to draw up the plans he was NOT told that the slider sat below an attached garage. He also claimed he was never asked to provide plans for steel, either, even though Foundation Technology's 2022/23 proposals also called for steel framing! He said he would go back and check his load calculations but having concluded it was a "misunderstanding" he urged us to talk to the company owner directly. Instead, Foundation Technology ghosted us over these concerns. (Their sub-contracted engineer emailed once in November to claim his plans will not require any changes and that's it.)
So here we are, June 2025, stuck between a rock and a hard place: Continue pleading with the owner to do the right thing upon return to install the door. Get the State Contractor's License board involved knowing we no longer have the funds to hire someone else to fix Foundation Technology's non-code compliant work. Or lawyer up.