Charlie: Cheryl in Pearland. Tom, she says that she’s had much foundation work done on her house. When I say much foundation, I mean a bunch. She says there are no less than 80 piers under her concrete slab, and it’s a one story house, right? It appears to be sinking in the middle and she wants to know why would those piers not be holding? And before you answer, here’s a little more info from her: she says she spent a lot of money on plumbing and repair issue over the years. She’s wondering if she should just tear down the house and start over because she had two foundation companies that wouldn’t even talk to her, another one said 30 grand to put in 80 piers. What say you?
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Tom: Well, the reason the others don’t wanna talk to her is because they’d have to eliminate all the ones that are there first before they could do anything to do any kind of warranty or guarantee. So, they’re gonna walk away. The thirty thousand dollars is because it’s gonna take that kind of money to try to fix this thing. I can’t tell you if it should be fixed or not. Thirty thousand dollars I’m sure is a lot cheaper than tearing a house down. So, it’s like-
Charlie: Well, it’s certainly cheaper than replacing it.
Tom: That’s what I mean. So, it’s like a car repair. BMW, eighteen thousand dollars for a transmission. Okay, but what are you gonna do? Go by a hundred thousand dollar car? It’s eighteen thousand or a hundred thousand.
Charlie: This is why we keep our Expedition.
Tom: Okay. So, it’s gonna be up to her. I have a feeling she says why aren’t the piers holding? Well, it sounds like the whole thing was designed wrong to begin with so you’re dealing with something that was never designed to withstand apparently the test of time, which is a term I always use.
Charlie: Okay. So, that’s pretty much where she is. What does she do?
Tom: Well, I can’t tell her how to spend her money but if she wants to fix the house, then she’s gonna have to dish out thirty grand plus, and they’re gonna have to eliminate all the work that’s done before-
Charlie: I was gonna say it sounds like-
Tom: And then go back and do the whole thing under one warranty umbrella. It’s probably gonna be her best bet but it’s nothing that … I don’t wanna tell anybody to spend thirty grand. I’d go to Tahiti.
Charlie: Well, Tom, would you say if that’s the case … because it sounds to me, based on all the time you and I’ve worked with Du-West and everything, learned about that over the years, is it sounds to me like what that foundation company’s gonna do is exactly what you said. They’re gonna go in and they’re gonna eliminate what’s there-
Tom: They have to.
Charlie: And put their own stuff in.
Tom: They have to. And Du-West would do the same thing. They have to disconnect or take the tops of all the old piers, and then put their new piers in. And they gotta find a place to do it because she’s already got 80 under there, and you have to be at least three to six feet away from the other piers to put your own piers in. So, it’s gonna be an incredibly difficult job. Now I don’t know how long she wants to stay there, if it’s a tear down neighborhood like West Eure or something where you have the little homes and you got the big ones coming in. So, money wise, I’m not gonna tell her what to do but it’s a mess.
Charlie: Yeah, she didn’t tell us how old the house is. It’s an 1800 square foot house but-
Tom: 1800?
Charlie: 1800 square foot with 80 piers under it.
Tom: Well, 2,000 square feet, that would be … she could rebuild a new house for about two hundred to two hundred fifty thousand for the same size. So, there you go.
Charlie: That’s a tough … so our advice is to call Du-West. If nothing else, call Du-West-
Tom: Yeah, I’m not gonna tell her what kind of money to spend.
Charlie: And have him come … especially if she’s open, Tom, to doing the whole smash … the thirty grand kind of thing. Talk to Du-West because-
Tom: I’m amazing with 80 piers and 1800 square feet. That’s weird. But I’m not there.
Charlie: Well, it’s … we don’t know who put those piers in, and that’s what I was gonna say bout Due West. The good thing about Due West is they’re Permapile system drives so far down that … and it checks itself, and we don’t know that those pilings that were put in there weren’t put a certain way-
Tom: Yeah, bell bottoms are really not a way to go.
Charlie: Not the way to go.
Tom: So, the soil changes and all the subsidence is the word I was looking for, and all this stuff happening from the Harveys and stuff, the ground is changing constantly.