In what seems a never-ending stream of flaws that we view during the course of our inspections, here is a recent example of one that never ceases to amaze; behind a large heating duct, out of direct sight from a very walkable basement, are the metal plates installed by a very well-recognized local company that promote themselves as "foundation specialists".   Upon closer inspection, one can clearly see that though the metal plates are well secured to the wood framing in the picture, nobody ever bothered to actually install the bolts to secure it all together. During a noteworthy earthquake, these can be expected to perform along the lines of how a car with four perfectly good wheels / tires would drive if the lug bolts HOLDING the wheel onto the car had been left off prior to driving out of the service station...!

 

The real shame is that when we crawled deeper still into the foundation, we found that the "tough to get to" areas had been completely omitted in terms of any hardware having been installed!

 

Any time you are having service providers work on your home, it is a good idea to let them know that you will be having the work checked prior to final payment being issued; it is unfortunate that it is this way, but that one comment will tend to keep service personnel on high alert to be sure that they do the best job they can do and deliver fully on what was promised!

  

At your service,

 

Tom Pelletier, Owner

The Foundation Works