I started taking bids on the foundation before the sale closed since that was the largest unknown.  I budgeted $8k for foundation plus $2500 for brick, mortar and concrete repairs.  The driveway and back patio were in poor condition so I wanted to replace those if the budget allowed.

Below are the three foundation bids I received:

Bid #1 – Jim – $11,325 – 34 pilings, mud-jacking, engineer report, plumbing test and cleanup.  It did not include brick/mortar repairs, caulking, or replacing driveway/patio.  Yikes - my foundation budget was already blown and it didn’t even include brick and mortar repairs.

Bid #2 – Vince – $7500 - 30 pilings.  It did not include mudjacking, plumbing test, mortar repairs or concrete driveway/patio.  I had used Vince before with success.  The bid was more reasonable but I’d also need bids for mudjacking, mortar repairs and concrete.

Bid #3 – Joe – $16,450 - 38 pilings, mud-jacking, mortar repairs, caulking, new driveway and patio.  This was high but I liked that Joe could handle everything including a new driveway and patio.  I told Joe that this was way too high but I’d consider just the foundation, mudjacking and brick/mortar for $10k.  He came back and said he could do this as well as the foundation for $14,400k.  This was $3500 over my budget for foundation and brick/morter but it includes a new driveway and patio as well.  I had to admit that I liked Joe because he called me several times to find out where I was with the process.  I’ll always prefer to work with a contractor hungry for my business.  I took it.

Originally Joe wanted half payment up front and half when finished.  While he was highly recommended by the next door neighbor I had never worked with him before so I agreed to 1/3 up front, 1/3 mid-way and 1/3 upon completion.

We agreed to the deal on 11/4/06 and before I could get over to take pics on the house they had started tearing up the concrete driveway.  In 4 days they had all the concrete hauled off, 34 holes dug and pilings set.  Another 5 days to complete the 4 pilings inside, raise the foundation and back fill the holes.

I knew I’d have an issue the street level side of the driveway slightly higher than the garage.  In talking with Joe he suggested we create a swale at the garage end and lay pipe under the driveway so I could add a sub-pump at some point in the future.  He just charged me $20 for the pipe.

We started the demolition inside during the last few days of the foundation work and I noticed a few large cracks under the carpet.  These would obviously need to be fixed before we could put hardwoods down.  I pointed them out to Joe and he fixed them the next day.  Joe also pointed out a hole in the bottom of the sewer drain the uncovered when digging.

Two days later (13 total), Joe called and asked me to inspect the work.  The pinkish mortar, normally difficult to match, looked good.  They pulled all the old caulk from the windows and between the bricks and re-caulked everything.  Joe gave me the lifetime warranty document and I paid him the final 1/3 payment - $14,420 total.