ANCHORSTRONG CONSTRUCTION

Our little 1920 Craftsman bungalow had needed foundation work for a while. Floor sinking in 2 or 3 places (the worst was 3-4 inches) and perimeter concrete had cracks/holes in a few spots; just to mention the main issues. We were finally in a place financially where we could get some of the work done, so we did a ton of research, read countless reviews on various platforms and contacted the top 5 companies in our area to get some quotes. Anchorstrong was one of them. And after meeting with all the companies and getting quotes from them, we decided to trust Anchorstrong with this (very important) job. We hired them partly because their quote was very competitive, but mostly because the prompt, thorough, kind and communication, as well as the extensive knowledge of our contact person (Eric) made us feel very taken care of. He took the time to reassure us and answer every single question patiently. That changed the minute we signed the contract. I could go on forever, describing in great detail the reasons and situations that left us feeling extremely disappointed and constantly frustrated, but for the sake of the readers, I will condense and summarize. Eric remained our contact person through the duration of the job, and he flat out lied to us. Repeatedly. So much so that at one point we refused to communicate via phone as we wanted everything he said in writing. Just to give an example: we flew back from a trip because the work was scheduled to start the following morning (after being rescheduled a couple of times already), and reached out to Eric at 7pm to confirm since we hadn’t heard anything. His response: “Oh, I was just about to reach out to you…” Then he said another job was taking longer; that he could send another team, but really wanted his best foreman for our job, and he would only be available in a couple of days. The foreman never showed up for that first round. The whole time it was just the same 2 worker guys (for this big job). Very disorganized too. The first day my husband had to lend them a shovel because the one they had was too long to work in our crawl space. They also asked to use some pavers we had sitting on our side porch (meant for another project) to set down and lift the house against. They didn’t seem to have a plan. We refused as that was definitely not the right material to use, or way to do it. Another day hubby had to run to Home Depot because they didn’t have the materials for what needed to happen. COMPLETELY UNPREPARED. It felt like we had hired a couple of guys from the Home Depot parking lot, NOT having a professional and reputable company working on our home. The person giving the workers orders/instructions was Eric, and he had never even seen the work site. Never been to our house. We contacted Eric’s boss, Steve, to try and get things moving in the right direction. We were told he was the owner of the company (even though another name is listed on all public records), and he too was very nice. But didn’t seem to care at all that we were having issues because he (admittedly) never read any the emails we cc’d him on. If it were my company, I would want to read/hear what my clients have to say… They did a decent job on the retrofit since that’s the part they got a permit for (and would be inspected), but even that was missing a few components that were listed in the contract. My husband noticed it when he went under the house to check out their work and called them on it. We also had them do 4 underpins, which we “think” were done fairly well. But no way to verify once the concrete had been poured… They saved the floor leveling part for last (which was our MAIN concern and the reason we contacted them), and basically added a short girder beam and then tried to jack the house against mud. Got about ¼ inch of lift and it sunk right back down. Then they came out and said they were done with the (whole) job. We gave them each a hefty tip and I even baked them cookies to say thank you. And then my husband crawled under the house again… He is in the building/construction business and does a lot of his own work, so he knew exactly what needed to happen… The job was NOT DONE. At all. We could tell even from inside the house as our bedroom door frame was still super crooked and the door still didn’t close. Basically no change on that aspect. And several other things listed on the contract were either not done or half-done. Finally, after making major waves and insisting the job be completed properly, a foreman showed up. On the very last day of the 2nd round. He did get things moving; and they were able to lift the house (only in the worst spot) about an inch - not the 2-3 they had mentioned. My husband had to crawl under the house a total of 3 times. That last day, he saw there were still 3 loose posts that they were supposed to replaced, some holes/cracks in the foundation wall, and a bunch of dirt right up against wood in several areas… All things they were contracted to do. But didn’t. But we did not want them back at our house. We were done with them. Especially after hearing them insult us (in Spanish) through the floor. So instead we asked for a discount for the items that were not completed. And they agreed. If you choose to hire them after reading this, I would suggest that you protect yourself by making sure EVERY DETAIL of the job is well described on the contract, as any vague wording will likely result in things not getting done or getting charged extra. Like if they say they can/will lift your sinking floor 3-4 inches, have that in writing. As well as HOW they are going to do it. Have EVERYTHING IN WRITING. Verbal assurances mean absolutely nothing. Everyone we communicated with was super nice, kind and calm, even when we were getting frustrated. But after a while, it felt like they were just laughing in our face. They always said “yes”, “sure”, “absolutely” and “we’re on it”, but then turned around and ignored the whole thing. Over and over again. Don’t be fooled by the smooth talking. I think they don’t expect the homeowners (or even the city inspectors) to go under the house, so they CUT A LOT OF CORNERS. It seemed completely habitual. If you hire them, make sure you have a third party available to verify that they actually did the work they were contracted to do. It was a long and incredibly frustrating experience, and we hope to save someone else the nightmare we just went through.