Abalon Foundation Repairs

Excellent work on a major foundation problem, The job was completed on time and the staff were friendly and hard working. Brent kept us up to date on the various stages of the project.

I had a lot of water seeping into my basement every spring during the thaw. I called Abalon and was given a very prompt estimate and a detailed description of the scope of the work that needed to be done. They were able to begin the job within a couple of weeks. The crew was very professional and kept me informed of what was going on. The site supervisor, Brent gave me his cell number and was very proactive and responsive to any and all concerns I had. I would highly recommend Abalon to anyone with foundation issues!

I've been very happy with the work they've done for me over the last year, including waterproofing and leveling. I highly recommend them.

Had a problem with my foundation and called Abalon to investigate my problem. An agent came over and checked out my home. Within days he had an engineer to look over the situation and he gave me a detailed order as to what had to be done. This engineer was very thorough and once he completed the work I called Abalon to see about the work that needed to be done to rectify the problem. They gave me a starting date. They had a huge crew to dig out the soil, drill the holes for the pylons etc. Every once in a while I would ask questions to the employees and I could tell that they new their occupation. They very polite, knowledgeable, friendly and conscious of their work. Answered my questions and guided me through their work and the following steps to come in a very professional way. After the work was completed they cleaned up my yard to look new again. Very satisfied with the whole procedure.
Paul

There was a horizontal crack in our basement wall. I called Abalon. They came and gave me an estimate. Ron explained what had to be done. The engineer came and they sent their findings to Abalon. Came on May 6, as soon as the ground was no longer frozen. The crew Josh, Willie, and Jade were very polite and courteous. The site supervisor, Brent was very professional. He kept me up-to- date on what they were doing. He gave me his cell phone number if I had any inquiries. He was very prompt and professional. I would recommend Abalon to
everyone. Thank You for the great job!

Jan. 24, 2019
Re: Mr. Gerry***, ABALON
Property: ***
Mr. is fully aware that he did not fulfill his responsibilities in the matter of the foundation repairs he contracted to do at my house, ***
I am enclosing copies of some correspondence with him that pertain to this matter.
I am expecting a full refund for all monies paid to him and his company.
Since my last correspondence with Mr., I have further discovered as I attempted to address his damage to my house, that he did not in fact dig deeply enough to check the weeping tiles that he had undertaken to do as part of the foundation repair.
The light of oversights, failure to do what was stipulated in the contract, *** as to what was done, failure to properly address mistakes, and damage to my property has grown.
In addition, the attitude towards me from Mr., has been dismissive, condescending*** It should have been enough for Mr. that I was a paying customer and trusted his company to properly complete the job as agreed to. At this point, based on my experience with Mr., I do not trust him and thus require a full refund of money paid.
I have incurred substantial costs and have been immensely inconvenienced ***
Additional Costs Incurred by me:
1) Engineer consultation:
2) Finish insulation in floor joist area of basement.
3) Permit required for foundation work.
4) Jack up sinking entrance porch so could open door and enter house in winter.
5) Remove 2X4s in entrance porch that were covering screws attaching upper part of entrance porch to main wall of house and pulling it off vertical. Mr. had assured me they did not put screws in place. Removal of screws.
6) *** Abalon had promised to put dust curtains in place, especially at basement access to main floor, when working on basement interior but forgot to do so. The additional fine concrete dust spread to main floor and aggravated her breathing and health problems.
7) Clean up and temporary covering of massive hole under entrance porch.
8) Drainage problems as Abalon put some gravel near house that blocked spring drainage from side of house to ditch on other side of their gravel pad.
9) Damage and potholes to my lane increased as they returned to perform inadequate remediation, such as putting loose dirt under porch, putting small wooden pieces under porch, putting inadequately sized jacks under the porch.
10) *** the porch kept sinking, that they were not properly repairing the porch.

***
*** Upon consultation with ***, I was shown a permit application that Abalon had completed for a similar job near my property. *** told me that Abalon routinely applied for permits for their jobs. Why did they fail to do this in my case? *** I called *** when Abalon, on their 3rd visit to address the sinking porch, were going to put a bolt in basement wall. That was when I found out that Abalon should never have started the work without the required permit in place. *** permit. I would never have been advised to not consult with an engineer when it initially became obvious the porch was sinking and that the initial repair was not adequate. When Mr. came out to pick up final payment, he stated that the weeping tiles had been fully examined and that, also, there were no screws attaching the top part of the entrance porch to the main wall of the house. At this point, I have photos showing both of these statements are false. I fully paid Mr. based on his reports that the job was properly done and my concerns about weeping tiles, screws into main wall, and insulation were answered honestly. ***
*** He needs to admit that he did not do a proper and complete job to repair the foundation to my house and entrance porch.
*** I have sever difficulty using the entrance to my house, especially in winter and the screws seemed to pull the wall such that the door did not fit properly and I had to take additional measures to stop the cold drafts coming through the altered doorway.

I repeat, Mr. is fully aware of this situation. He may not realize that I now have additional photos further showing the extent ***. I also have a voice recording of his work supervisor telling me not to consult and engineer.
His approach to provide full written warranty and guarantees as to work done mean nothing *** first re: his not mentioning a permit and starting work without one, and then the other issues as previously described.

*** He and his employees are not to return to my property. I require a full refund for his failure to do this job properly ***
He can send a refund cheque for the full amount by registered mail to:
Elizabeth

Since Mr. does not appear to listen to my concerns, I see no further point in communications with him. He knows about this situation and has seen what was not done. At this point, a proper action showing integrity would be admit to his errors and provide the requested refund.

***

Elizabeth ***
CERTIFIED MAIL
965 Pacific Ave.
Winnipeg, MB R3E 1G3
July 12, 2018

Dear Mr.,
I am writing to discuss the contract I signed with your company, signed July 26, 2018 and updated Aug.31, 2018 for your company to repair my basement wall and raise and level the entrance porch to my house at***
You are in breach of contracts for the following reasons:
1) Both contracts state that "ABALON agrees to supply all labour, skill materials, tools, and equipment for and to execute all the work set forth below at the price or prices stated herein". After ABALON returned for the third time to address the inadequate leveling of the entrance porch, I was concerned when ABALON was intending to bolt a metal support into my basement wall. When I called *** to ask for guidance about proper procedures, I was told that not only was a permit required before this propose procedure was to be implemented, but that none of the completed repair work to the basement wall crack should have started without engineer plans and a permit. As this was the first time I was informed a permit was required for this work and I had never been told by your company that a permit was required, I was even more concerned when I was able to reach manager Gerry *** that *** was in doubt as to the efficacy of this false assertation, that is, they said why would I call them for advice if I was trying to go against proper legally required procedures, Mr. retracted his statement and then told me that since he had not been present at the initial meeting of the signing of the contract as supervised by ABALON employee Ron ***, he had likely misunderstood and then he somewhat apologized about his erroneous accusation. He offered to cover half of the costs of the permit. *** told me this was a questionable offer or solution to this oversight as the cost of the permit was now double. This, ABALON a company that advertises competence and lengthy experience, had started and essentially completed most of basement wall repair work without following required legal procedures and obtaining the necessary permit and engineer drawing and supervision. Upon further discussions with ***, I was told that ABALON had done similar work such as foundation repairs here in *** and they had submitted required drawing and had obtained permits before starting work.

One can only speculate as to why they did not follow *** required procedures in my project. *** noted the cost of the permit ($200) relative to the price I paid to ABALON overall, of $*** was relatively minor and thus the *** claim by ABALON that it was I who was not wanting to pay it is ludicrous.***
***
With further investigations upon my part, and after hiring an engineer of my own choosing at a further cost of $492.00, I was told that in fact the entrance porch repair was not approached properly from the beginning and thus it was expected that it would have quickly sunk again as did occur after each of the 3 attempts of repair by ABALON. I was told that the basement wall crack should have*** had support pins installed on both sides and not just one side of the crack. I was also told that ABALON should have filled in the space in the open crack rather than just left the gap. I was also told that since the work had not been supervised and inspected from the beginning, it was not possible to fully examine what had been done and if the permit and required engineer stamps were to be obtained, it was necessary to uncover and reopen the covered areas so the work could be observed. I understand that the exterior wall would have to be fully looked at.

2) Once the colder weather occurred, there were significant cold drafts in my basement. I hired another company to finish repairing the vapour barrier and insulation of the "repaired wall" that ABALON had refused to address. When this company completed this task, I no longer had to empty the dehumidifier. This effect was immediate upon that repair. Thus, the refusal of Mr. to finish this part of the job as requested is also a breach of contract.

3) At time of payment, I pointed out to Mr. that it appeared that the wall of my house adjacent to my door and the entrance porch appeared to be being pulled off level. I repeatedly asking him if ABALON had placed bolts in the upper part of the entrance porch to attach it to the house. Upon discussing this concern with another engineer, I was told that if the support of porch from below, especially on the south side was inadequate, and that there were bolts above eye level attaching the porch to the wall of the house, then yes, the pull of the unsupported porch could indeed be pulling the house wall of vertical. Upon looking at the porch, there were now 2x4s nailed to the supporting 2x4s of the porch and it was not possible to see if there were bolts to the house. Mr. assured me there were none. As the porch continued to sink (such that the door came to be below the ground level and thus could not be used: I put up 6 mil plastic over opening), the wall continued to be pulled. With my back and knee injury and lack of skill, I hired the aforementioned vapour barrier repair, done in November, was $***. in addition to efficiently repairing the vapour barrier and finishing the insulation at the floor joists properly, they removed the 2x4s in the entrance porch and this revealed several large metal screws were used to attach the entrance porch to the house wall. They removed the screws. By now the porch had shifted sufficiently that my door did not close properly and there was a very significant cold draft into the living room of the house. I found a carpenter who did a thorough temporary fix of both addressing the shifted doorway and installing weather stripping to reduce the newly occurring gaps around the doorway. *** He also pointed out to me that this porch was lacking proper support from below and hence my problems of the sinking and inability to use that entrance was dangerous and he attempted a temporary fix (it was December) to make the entrance somewhat safer. Thus, the failure of ABALON to not only get the required permit and engineer supervision in a timely manner but to *** put in high screws to pull and unsupported entrance porch out of alignment, caused numerous problems and difficulties that had not been there previously and caused potential additional damage and safety concerns to my property and residents.

4) When I initially dealt with ABALON they presented their company to me as one of experience, expertise and integrity. I asked them, when they were going to work on the exterior basement wall, to apply insulation to this wall. Later, they told me this would be of only cosmetic value and was of little value. They crossed it off the contract. Since my discussions with engineers and the National Research Council, I have been told that exterior insulation added to the basement wall is highly recommended and very good practice for energy efficiency. I am further looking into this aspect as it seems to be recommended for today's standards. Again, if ABALON had followed proper *** procedures, and exercised the skill and expertise they purported to have as long-term foundation repair experts, would my request for this additional external insulation have been changed and deleted?

5) *** ABALON promised to place dust sheets at the entrance to the basement when their work in the basement created dust. I told them I was very concerned about the health of a frail elderly friend staying in the house who had breathing problems. They assured me they understood and would place the sheets to block off downstairs as required. There were 2 vents to the upstairs which I closed and covered. I was out doing errands when they created concrete dust in the basement. My friend was at the house resting. AT NO time did ABALON ever use any of the suggest dust curtains. The amount of increase in fine dust upstairs was significant. ***

6) In my experience, *** ABALON not even mention a permit and accompanying papers were required, the numerous assertions by ABALON that they had the knowledge, skill, experience, etc to properly complete this project, and the *** response with which they acted once problems arose and lack on their part became obvious, they have breached the contract to result in damage, expense, and loss both to me personally, my property and the well being of my elderly friend staying here at present. Their guarantees and warrantied are perhaps as meaningless as their initial promises to meet my needs for proper repair to my house. They used my Roxul insulation to insulate the basement wall but gave not credit for such; they left garbage and plastic bottles on my grounds; they put down some gravel that added to drainage problems near my house. Both for relatively minor and for very major reasons, they have been a disappointment and not lived up to the expectations they presented as a competent company.

***

ABALON can contact me immediately to provide appropriate financial reimbursement. If I do not hear from ABALON by JULY 17, 2018, I will be pursuing any and all remedies to address the costs I have incurred.

Sincerely,
Elizabeth

My foundation had hairline cracks, water seepage, and was shifting. The rep from Abalon recommended I get an assessment from an engineer (which I really appreciated). The rep prepared an estimate based on the engineer's report & an approximate date was set for the work. The office called in advance to confirm the date. The crew showed up on time. They were polite, friendly and professional. Since they could only do the work in steps, they split the time between my house and another job. The dirt & stone that was excavated was piled on the street in front on my house & within a day or so of them completing the excavation, it was cleaned up and removed. In the middle of the job, the crew identified a potential problem, called the supervisor, work was put on hold & a solution found. Overall, I'm very pleased with the professionalism of Abalon. They also told me to call them in the spring (after the thaw) to top up the dirt around the foundation if necessary. In addition, Abalon also provides a robust written guarantee should anything go wrong.

I thought the site supervisor was professional and listened to what the problem was and new the answers. I felt comfortable with their approach to the job and felt secure knowing the job would be done properly. While talking to the employees who were responsible for my property, they were very courteous, professional and smart. I would recommend them to anyone.

The gentlemen came to work and they did. They worked as a team and were very professional and pleasant. They answered my questions and showed me the problem and what they were going to do to correct the problem.

Very professional, workers very accommodating and a job well done!

Fantastic work. Quick, tidy work site, friendly staff. Highly recommended.