Everybody loves diagrams, right? *one lone cricket chirps and then blinks* So . . . I guess it’s just me then? You’ve had a recent assessment visit of your house leveling issue and now you’re studying this repair plan like a pig lookin’ at a wristwatch. In other words, this repair plan is confusing and why do you care anyway, amirite?
At Anchor Foundation Repair, after 35+ years in business in the Brazos Valley, we have learned that the best way to communicate with homeowners about repairs is with consistent and accurate planning. We want to be as transparent as possible about what your home needs and what we plan to do with your house leveling repairs.
This article will break down the essentials of reading and understanding your house leveling repair plan and explain why some of these details might be important to you.
What Is Important to Homeowners in a Repair Plan and Why?
The formal proposal, scope of work, and repair plan are our way of making sure you know that we do have a plan and aren’t just making a bunch of stuff up. We see specific issues that need to be repaired and have a clear idea of how we are going to do it.
These documents also explain what we will and won’t do and how much money it will cost. You need to know when payments are supposed to be made and about our house leveling warranty policy. We try to keep it straightforward and without a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo (full disclosure, there could be a little mumbo-jumbo but it’s light on the jumbo).
We know these are not the most exciting documents on the planet. But they are important to read and understand because we don’t put them together for *funsies* or as just busy work for our inspection team. They are for you!
What Is Included in a House Leveling Repair Plan?
You will find a few elements in every house leveling plan from Anchor Foundation Repair. There should be:
- A greeting and brief description of your issue,
- A “scope of work” listing,
- A total cost for the proposed repairs,
- Payment terms,
- Conditions and special provisions,
- A diagram of your home showing key repair plans, and
- Photos of specific issues around the home.
Wow, that’s a longer list than I thought it was going to be. Let’s break down these items a little bit for you. But I promise to try and keep it short and sweet. In fact, your repair plan might be shorter than this article but we are trying to further explain things in simple terms instead of that fancy *contract-y* language.
1. The Greeting and Description
This is probably the least important part of the package. Just trying to be nice and let you know what your main problem is and how to get started. Don’t you feel properly greeted now?
2. Scope of Work
This itemized scope of work listing is probably the second most important thing about your repair plan. The scope of work explains specifically what things we plan to do on your home. It also gives quantities and lengths of things that we already know that you need. The scope of work also identifies the main goals we are trying to achieve with the repairs i.e. what problems are we planning to fix.
3. Total Cost
Most people want to know the price and probably consider the total cost of house leveling to be the very most important thing about this repair plan. Everybody wants to know how much money this is going to cost.
4. Payment Terms
The payment terms tell you when and how much you need to pay towards your total bill and when. We don’t ask for all the funds upfront. We break up the payments for your comfort level instead. For a crawl space home foundation repair or house leveling, the payment terms are as follows:
Pay 25% right away (upon proposal acceptance) to get on the schedule
Pay 50% when we start the job
Pay 25% when we are done
If you have any questions or concerns about your options and ways to pay for house leveling, we have an article just for that here: How Can I Pay for Foundation Repair Costs? 7 Best Options.
Just a quick note: Our payment terms are slightly different for our other services like slab foundation repair, tunneling, or concrete raising and leveling. So these particular payment terms are specific to house leveling.
5. Conditions and Special Provisions
Conditions and special provisions tell homeowners about warranty terms, as well as things we will and won’t fix. We also discuss a little about the materials and labor we use. In a nutshell:
- We have a 3-year warranty for house leveling. The first year is no charge, year 2 and 3 is set at a service rate that is established annually per crew hour for warranty work.
- We will furnish all the materials we need to do the job.
- If we need more materials than we thought, we charge at a certain rate and only with your permission to do the extra work.
- We don’t repair plumbing or drywall. You must get someone else to do those types of repairs. We have lists of drywall contractors and also of plumbing professionals that we recommend when folks ask. You are also more than welcome to choose whomever you like to do this follow-up work that can come up.
- We do the house leveling repairs using employee team members. In other words, we do not hire out unknown and unvetted sub-contractors for the work on your home.
- Changes to the original repair plan result in additional charges.
- We will do a good job for you – It’s our *permanent condition* to treat you and your home as if it were our own.
We have another article about the terms and conditions of our proposals if you want things broken down further for you. (Please note: this other terms and conditions article is written for slab foundation repair projects, but many elements are the same.)
6. The Diagram
The diagram shows you where problems are identified, what *home parts* will be repaired or replaced, and give you a general idea of where on your home we will be fixing things up. Do you know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, a diagram is worth a gazillion words because it shows you everything we are going to do in one nice neat little road map.
What Do the Symbols and Colors in a House Leveling Repair Plan Mean?
Most maps have symbols and your house leveling repair plan is no different. The symbols are generally marking where problem points have been identified. We mark any:
- Door Issues
- Loose Floors
- Low Spots, and
- High Spots
Plotting all of these issues on the diagram gives us (and more importantly you) a real visual of the big foundation problem picture happening with your home. You will see which walls and areas of the home have been most affected. It will also make some sense as to why we need to work in certain areas of the home and not others.
The colors on the diagram have meaning too as follows:
- Red = Not Good, Needs Replacement
- Purple = Adding New or Extra Support Materials
- Brown = Good Condition
The color indicators are found on the sill beams that support your home and on the pier stacks under the home. If you have a symbol on your diagram that basically looks like a fluffy cloud outlined in red, that is considered an “area of emphasis” where many issues appear in that location and special attention will be given to that area during the repair process.
All these colors and symbols will be accompanied by a short list of general notes, a basic scope of work description, and arrows pointing to various needs.
We highly recommend that you place both the diagram and the detailed scope of work listing in front of you at the same time for best understanding. If you have any questions about your repair plan diagram or symbols, be sure to let us know and we will be happy to explain anything unclear to you.
7. Photos
The photos help to document the known visible issues around your crawl space home. This is some of the evidence we use, along with your thoughts and feelings, to determine that house leveling is needed.
How Will I Know How the House Leveling Is Going?
We give you that diagram and scope of work so that you know what our plan is and what work we are going to do. We do more than that to keep you informed all along the repair process. We will tell you and show you the work that we accomplish each day too, which includes more photos and videos too.
At Anchor Foundation Repair, we have been helping homeowners with house leveling since 1985 and have learned that people want to know what is happening with their repairs. We use a premiere communication system so that you can stay completely updated and informed about how the work is going, including if we run into any problems.
We use a system called BuilderTrend that is useful to homeowners in many ways. Read all about how it works and benefits you next: What Is BuilderTrend and How Does it Help Me With My Anchor Project?