28 Aug, 2011 → by ClaimboUser334214
Alabama Foundation Specialists (AFS) gets an F!

We were sold a complete crawl space waterproofing system, and reassured that the lifetime warranty would address any and all subsequent water issues. The salesman told us that they would install a sump in our crawl space, in any location we wanted it (we wanted it under our kitchen, not our bedroom). He told us that they would install pipes in the interior and exterior of the crawl space to address all pooled water, and would completely re-grade the crawl space so that water naturally drained to pipes. He told us the water discharge pipe from the sump would be placed outside at the perimeter of our yard with a pop-up valve that would be not be visible above the level of the grass unless it was in use. We had a long discussion with the salesman, with our home builder present. The price seemed extremely high for the quantity of materials and required man hours, but the salesman told us the price was due to the re-grading, as they would bring as much grave and fill dirt as was needed to re-grade, and that the work would probably take a team of 6-8 men at least one full day. He also commented that the work would be much cheaper if done during house construction, but costs more once the house was already built due to the nature of working in a crawl space (although we have 3-4 feet of space in all areas). So, we agreed to service. Scheduling was a nightmare. It took almost two months to get scheduled. After the first visit when the work wasn't done properly, we couldn't get a quality control person to come out at all, but the salesman came back out. After the salesman's second visit, it took approximately three weeks for another crew to come out. The quality of work was terrible. Instead of a 6-8 man crew, we got a three man crew that showed up late, and did shoddy work (they were present about 3 hours). They only installed a perimeter pipe and sump pump - no interior pipes, and absolutely no grading to the pipes. They didn't even bother replacing the vapor barrier. The discharge pipe was places at the perimeter of the yard, but they left the white pipe about 12 inches high, with no valve or anything on it. My husband had to cut the pipe himself, and call the salesman out to get the valve/topper put on the pipe (a second day off from work). The first time it rained, the sump worked, but because the crawl space wasn't graded, we still got water pooling. After dozens of phone calls and about three weeks, we were scheduled to get another three man crew over to install the interior pipes and re-grade. When the second crew showed up, it was two men in a pick-up truck with a couple bags of gravel. They didn't regrade anything, and they didn't install any interior pipes...when we called the quality control guy, he refused to answer our calls. When the crew called him, the quality control guy specifically told them NOT to regrade (even though that was the rationale for the extremely high cost according to the salesman, and the ONLY reason we agreed to pay that amount). The salesman apologized for "misleading" us, and told us that the only way they would regrade or install interior pipes is if we could PROVE that the exterior pipes weren't working properly. So now we are left with having to go into the crawl space after every rain, pulling back the vapor barrier, and checking for pooled water so we can force them to do what they promised to do in the first place (we actually have a diagram from the salesman showing that they would install interior pipes). This company did not met their contractual obligations, and blatantly lied about the amount of work they would do in order to justify their extraordinarily high prices. We could have done the same work ourselves with a shovel, a couple bags of gravel, a sump pump and pipe from a home improvement store, in less time, for about 1/5 of the cost, with a lot less hassle and better results. Don't waste your time or money with AFS!
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