What you need to know

Something I would like to share

Are you buying a house with a concrete slab? Did the inspector tell the real estate agent to call the foundation guy to have the slab inspected for elevations? Maybe you can meet the real estate agent’s foundation guy at your prospective house? He will be there with his Zip level. They don’t lift to level, but they make a big deal about the house being out of level during the estimate. We hardly ever see these companies work for a buyer or homeowner? They are always recommended by the agent and work for the seller’s best interest.

Your real estate agent will recommend a company that will not lift the floors to  their original elevations. The re estate agents like these companies because they get their check QUICK.  This means your floors will be left low, but you will have all your engineer paperwork. Your floors will not sink anymore but they will just be 1 to 3 inches low.

These companies don’t dig up all the holes all at once and lift the entire house by checking the floors inside the home in the right order of operations? They just dig and install their work and cover 1 to 2 to 3 holes at a time and they never go inside to ctually see if the floor is level. Once the seller approves the job the real estate agent will call you and say they are going to STABILIZE! This means no lifting and not much repairs. Patch the brick? Big or bigger mortar joints to repair? They always work for the seller and agent to get the unleveled house sold quickly so they get their check with little and no repairs from the lifting. People call us and wonder why the dog’s ball always rolls that way! They will tell you “No, Don’t hire anyone but our guy.”

Some real estate agents are naive and just recommend these companies because the rest do. I don’t think most agents know that this goes on they just know that these certain companies are so smooth because they get paid fast and with little hassle. You will be able to experience your sloped floors like so many homeowners do. They say “well the real estate agent recommended them and the seller paid them.” They are the vacant house specialist. You hardly ever see them working for a homeowner or buyer and you hardly ever see them working on a house that is occupied. They prey on the deal.

Agents cannot figure out why when they hire us, they have all these repairs and headaches to make calls to fix everything that has been patched while the house has been sinking for the last 20 years. Most real estate agents at this point become the general contractor and have to run the repair job. This is usually very frustrating for them calling the sheetrock guy, the plumber, and the carpenter to fix all the cut off doors and readjust door frames. They can’t figure out why our company causes so much confusion with everything during the lifting. Most agents are too dumb to know or really care.

A professional job is done by digging up all the holes, then installing all the piles. As the piles are driven in the bottom of every hole we use water to surround the pile while it is drove to a depth of 20 ft. minimum under the house. We also encourage the homeowners to take off work if they can and actually watch the piles go in 20 to 30 ft. deep. We put a piece of tape on the house by each hole to mark depth on every hole so we know how deep each pile was driven. Then we need inside the house to level the floors. We don’t use the cheap ZIP LEVEL with the yellow cord that beeps when it is wrong and has to be regularly calibrated to stay accurate? These levels work great when they are wrong. We use a laser level with a stick or a measuring tape, so you can see how out of level the floors are with the laser level. We raise the structure to the original horizontal position! Then we call the engineer for actual pictures for inspections from a living breathing engineer and then we fill in all the holes.

Our company has an engineer come make a personal visit and map the depth of every pile and take pictures in case we ever need them. We have a real inspection and report with our lifetime warranty and of course you can enjoy your new house with level floors. The difference is that most real estate agents just want the house stabilized so they get their check, and you get to live in a house that is certified with floors 1 to 3 inches out of level.

Mark Streem. Streem Company.