Two homes, same worse case scenario as far as scope of work needed, and one was twice worked on by…read moreLevel Check.
First story this year: I had Level Check out to my home in Houston after noticing settlement on one side. They came out quickly, very nice, but recommended 54 piers, or just about as bad as it gets. They pushed an engineer on me, claimed they were extremely thorough, and when I mentioned talking to another company or two since my home as "worse case" they again recommended an engineer to make sure the quotes were apples to apples.
I did not use their engineer since I had a relationship with another firm, and they reported that the home only needed about 1/3 of the work, and only about 1/3 of the house was affected. I passed this onto Chris, and I was argued with about how engineers don't know as much as them since they are "in the field". I took it further and called a couple of different foundation companies to check the engineer's findings and LC's, and blindly both companies came up with a similar conclusion to the one that the independent engineer designed without me providing them the report until after they provided theirs. Of course, I did not hire LC for this job over the summer.
Second half of the story, I hired level check on a home in 2013 that I sold to my brother in Montgomery County. They installed pillars around one side of the house, which was all that was needed at the time (according to them). The owner came out himself to inspect it. He was great, my dad used them as far back as the mid 1990's on his house in Montgomery. My brother hired LC to install additional pillars on the other side of the house in 2021, which I was unsure of since he passed in 2022 and I now manage the house for my niece and nephew, so we call them back out for an inspection. They refused, but wanted us to hire their recommended engineer for advice (after working on the house two separate times), so we did.
The LC recommended engineer's report showed the home needed 34 pillars, 20 exterior and 14 interior piers, which is amazing to me since they came out and performed work two other times. I decided to get an independent engineer today, who came out and inspected. He reported the home didn't need any work.
It's hard for me to believe that their engineer isn't working for them in some manner, especially with the discrepancy of the findings in the reports. Moreover, how can both homes be as bad as they were saying, and no other company reports similar findings?
I'm not in the foundation business, but I'm inspecting a third home tomorrow with the same engineer who does not moonlight in the foundation business, and I won't be calling Level Check to even quote the work.
My home in Houston was repaired by a company that wasn't trying to pipe me from the beginning, and I will try to get LC to warranty the needed minimal repair on my brother's house since they worked on it twice.
I can show reports, and quotes if needed but I would recommend calling someone else if for no other reason than a second unbiased opinion. Level Check is now a second generation company since the founder passed a few years ago. It's clearly not the same company, for I don't remember the old man trying to pipe customers. He even inspected my Houston home himself (with his huge level) before I purchased it in 2016 and didn't see an issue at the time.