ComplaintsforAce Pier and Beam Repair, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  05/10/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  In March of 2021, we had Ace Pier and Beam repair come out to do a job of excavating the dirt from under our house. He grossly went over his original estimates to which we cut ties and asked him to clean up what he had completed. However, since then we had to put the work on pause, and finally hired new contractors to come out and get new estimates. They came back with the following additional issues left by the previous digging crew, ******** and ****. Dirt that was supposed to have been excavated was pushed up onto the beams, this caused further damage to the foundation. Given he is a foundation repair specialist, this should have been called out or addressed with the work he had been doing. The trenching done by Ace pier and beam was dug deeper than what city code requires which would explain why they went over so much on their estimates. For the amount of money we spent and what was done, I want justification of the days spent working under the house and a refund. After going with a new contracting company this year, they commented how unprofessional the digging was, and that even with what would have been done, it would not have covered all the issues that were stated in the proposal.

  

  Business response

  06/02/2023

  **************** contacted our company on March 1^st 2021 to set up an appointment because he knew that there was bad wood and soil removal needed. We first inspected the home on March 4^th 2021 and at that time he had been the owner for only a few weeks and the house was built in 1928.  At the time of the inspection at the access port in the master closet there was approximately 8 to 10 inches of clearance to get under the house. His concern was at the living room.  It could be seen that someone prior to our visit had performed dirt digging to gain access to areas and had plied dirt up at various locations.  We have photos showing this to be true.  We emailed **************** a proposal to remove dirt based on what could be seen from the access port. He signed the proposal on March 16, 2021. We had scheduled the job to start *** 3^rd 2021.  It was raining on April 29 & 30^th 2021, so I went out to his house Friday April 30^th 2021 to check and see the conditions under the house. It was very muddy.  We discussed that muddy conditions would make trying to perform the work difficult. He agreed that waiting for it to stop raining would be best. In *** it rained on the following days 10,11,16,17,18,20,24,25,31. In June it rained on 5^th.  We scheduled to start on June 28^th however it rained again. We started the digging on June 29, 2021 and the soil was dry enough to perform the work.  June 30^th no rain so we were able to work. On July 1^st through to the early hours of July 2^nd it rained and we did not work as the rain created unsafe working conditions. We were closed 5^th of July. We started back up to digging dirt on July 6^th 2021 and late afternoon it began to rain again. **************** had a concern about the living room as the floor sloped and we focused on trying to reach that area.   July 7^th we discussed the challenges we were experiencing such as large tree roots, very muddy soil and working around the utility lines. We communicated via texts which included a drawing showing where we had performed the digging as well as showing that we discovered 2 sewer leaks. We asked for more days to remove the soil under your house but he would only approve 1 additional day.  On July 8^th **************** authorized ** to dig 1 additional day.  On July 9^th late afternoon it began to rain again.  We dug an additional day on July 12^th 2021, for which we did not charge him for. After we finished digging the days that had been paid for, we provide **************** a final packet with a photo disk (CD) showing the conditions of the homes crawl space. We also provided a 2^nd proposal in August of 2021 showing the wood work discovered with additional days need to remove more soil. The area where the soil was piled up was the area we did not perform digging. That was done by someone else prior to our company ever going under the house. The piled up soil should not have been a surprise because it was discussed with him prior to our leaving his home.  We charged him for 6 days of soil removal and we had performed 7 days back in 2021.  Again when we left his house in July 2021 he was aware that there was still dirt work that needed to be removed. At that time we gave him a 2^nd proposal in August 2021 with pictures (see attached pdf dated 8-4-2021) showing that soil needed to be removed. Then in *** of 2022 he contacted ** about getting an updated proposal for the work at his home, which we provided to him a revised 2^nd proposal that same month.

  Now fast forward to March 18^th 2023 when he called upset about the soil under the house because a plumber could not access an area to perform work (an area where we did not dig). That is when he accused our company of piling up the dirt. He then demanded photos of the work that we performed. I tried to tell him that he already had a photo disk. He did not remember ever getting a disk back in 2021.  On March 20, 2023 I emailed him some photos assuring him that we did not pile up the dirt, that someone else did that prior to ** ever going to his home, in the area where we did not dig. I offered to come over to see under the house and to discuss it with him. He declined giving us the opportunity to meet with him at his home and review the conditions in the crawl space.  He did demand that we give him the full number of photos we had of his home.  So I dropped off a photo disk (CD) of all of the photos regarding his home on March 22, 2023 and texted letting him know to look for it. He could not find a way to open the disk (CD) and texted me on April 6^th requesting to have the pictures emailed. I found a program and emailed on April 10, 2023 around 470 pictures.  If we had anything to hide why would we give him all of the pictures we had of his home, because we did not do anything wrong.

   

  Regarding; For the amount of money we spent and what was done, I want justification of the days spent working under the house and a refund.  

  We performed the amount of dirt work that he paid for and did not charge him for the 1 additional day of soil removal. It was made clear to him when we left his home (July 12, 2021) there was still a lot of work that needed to be performed. 

  It was also clearly stated on the signed proposal to; Remove enough dirt from under the house to gain access to areas that need to be worked on.  We will not be removing all of the dirt just enough to perform the work.

  We would never pile dirt up under any home. The piled up dirt was there prior to our work. General note: At the time of the inspection it could not be seen how much dirt had been piled up under the house in the back by the kitchen and hallway bath room due to the very limited access.  

   

  The afterwards that he mentions about having other contractors come out to review our work is almost 2 years later in March 2023.  These contractors that are making false accusations need to stop, as they were not there at the time of the work.  They know nothing of the conditions prior to and when performing any dirt removal at his home.  As for the digging ***********; the minimum code clearance under the floor joists is 18 inches and 12 inches under the wood beams. At the time of our inspection on March 4^th 2021, there where areas with about 2 inches under the wood beams not counting where someone else piled the dirt. At the living room the wood beam is a 2x4 in size and there was about 6 inches under the floor joists.  Code only has a minimum limit not a maximum limit. That stated we did have to dig a little lower to be able to get the dirt out going under original gas line, as the risk to get the dirt out over the gas line would have likely caused the pipe to get damaged.

   

  Our company did not cause the challenge under home.  It was there prior to you buying the house.  You knew when we left that soil removal was still needed and we provided you documentation of that. 

  There is nothing to be refunded for. 

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