Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 02/18/2026 Ask the Expert with Foster Foundation Repair

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02/18/2026 Ask the Expert with Foster Foundation Repair · WCHS Network Podcasts

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Speaker 1: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
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Speaker 1: necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five ADWCHS it's
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Speaker 1: employees or WVRC Media, And.
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Speaker 2: A very pleasant good morning to you. It is twenty
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Speaker 2: two minutes about twenty three minutes past eight o'clock. You
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Speaker 2: are listening to ask the Expert WCCHS, the Voice of
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Speaker 2: Charleston on a Wednesday. Welcome into the program. Joining me
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Speaker 2: on the program this morning is the owner of Foster
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Speaker 2: Foundation Repair, Brett Brett Hashen is here. But this is
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Speaker 2: morning Bread, Good morning. How you doing this morning?
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Speaker 3: Good morning doing doing very well.
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Speaker 2: Always look forward to our conversations. We're going to talk
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Speaker 2: about a lot of great things this morning. You can
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Speaker 2: find out more information online Foster Foundation Repair dot com.
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Speaker 2: Foster Foundation Repair dot com. You can go on line
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Speaker 2: found more information there. We'll give you more information as
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Speaker 2: we go along here today as well as contact information.
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Speaker 2: Reintroduce you to Brett a little bit. All the Bret's
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Speaker 2: been on there airwaves quite a bit now, so you
1:01
Speaker 2: should be familiar with him. But we'll get into a
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Speaker 2: little bit with Foster Foundation Repair and everything before we
1:06
Speaker 2: get into kind of what this time of year brings
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Speaker 2: to us as far as our foundations and basements goes.
1:11
Speaker 2: How you doing, man, Everything going all right? Yeah?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, just happy to be through this ice, as everybody is.
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Speaker 3: It's made working very difficult. We were actually we were fortunate.
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Speaker 3: We had two projects that were above the road and
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Speaker 3: we were actually sledding bags of concrete down down into
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Speaker 3: the garage. So it was a unique opportunity to be creative.
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Speaker 2: And I know that that given your background and what
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Speaker 2: you do, when you see this kind of I mean,
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Speaker 2: that was unusual ice. I mean it wasn't. It wasn't.
1:41
Speaker 2: I lived in Michigan for a long time and this
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Speaker 2: was still unusual from anything that I saw up there.
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Speaker 2: The way that it came down was especially in the
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Speaker 2: Canall Valley here because of our unique situation. The ice
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Speaker 2: was very thick. I mean a week later or even
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Speaker 2: more than that, when I was trying to clear off
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Speaker 2: some areas of my porch, I was sick when all
2:00
Speaker 2: this went down, so I didn't get everything cleared off
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Speaker 2: to begin with. It was like glacial ice. I mean
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Speaker 2: you had to hammer it off with a chisel. You
2:05
Speaker 2: couldn't get it off with anything. This stuff was tough.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, yees, yeah, very tough. And not only was it
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Speaker 3: at the surface, but the ground was very very frozen
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Speaker 3: as well, which which can wreak havocs on a foundation.
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Speaker 3: My neighbor was an interesting story from last last winter.
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Speaker 3: I didn't I haven't checked it with them if it
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Speaker 3: occurred to them this year, but their back door all
2:28
Speaker 3: of a sudden locked up. They couldn't get it to
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Speaker 3: open and close. And it was during an extreme cold snap,
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Speaker 3: and where we had had a pretty heavy rain previously
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Speaker 3: and then everything frozen. But the ground had frozen and
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Speaker 3: heaved their foundation on one side of the door and
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Speaker 3: bound their door, and they couldn't get it open. And
2:47
Speaker 3: they were very concerned, obviously, and I told them just
2:49
Speaker 3: let's wait a few weeks and see what it does.
2:51
Speaker 3: And sure enough, as the ground thought out, the door
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Speaker 3: started working again. So lady I met with yesterday told
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Speaker 3: me that that these cracks that we were looking at
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Speaker 3: had had enlarged over the last few weeks, and around
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Speaker 3: this house was poor drainage, and so I'm guessing that
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Speaker 3: the frost heave was this was a lateral issue, probably
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Speaker 3: attributed to some of that, you know, the recent movement
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Speaker 3: that she was seeing. So it is, uh is. You know,
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Speaker 3: water and ice are very damaging and can be very
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Speaker 3: damaging to a house.
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Speaker 2: And I can imagine that. I don't know exactly. I'm
3:26
Speaker 2: sure it doesn't work exactly like this, but I remember
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Speaker 2: I was kind of got in my head a couple
3:31
Speaker 2: of months ago because I've never seen anything like this before.
3:33
Speaker 2: I saw. I saw a result of a it was
3:36
Speaker 2: a scientific study, but they were also looking at some
3:39
Speaker 2: some different things about ant colonies. And they had poured
3:42
Speaker 2: mold into an ant colony and then to find out
3:45
Speaker 2: how far it would reach, you know, And it was
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Speaker 2: amazing to me when they when they finally excavated this thing,
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Speaker 2: and they showed just how long this ant colony was
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Speaker 2: and how how much it had taken up the portion
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Speaker 2: of ground where it came out of and stuff. And
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Speaker 2: I can't help but to thinking like when when your
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Speaker 2: ground freezes and all the little pockets to water and
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Speaker 2: stuff like that that's under your ground when they freeze
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Speaker 2: and thaw and freeze and thaw. But eventually tom is
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Speaker 2: going to cause problems anyway, But when you have like
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Speaker 2: extreme weather, that can accelerate things a little bit, right.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, And this is this is this kind of
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Speaker 3: whole topic of water. I mean, this is a key
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Speaker 3: point why drainage, proper drainage around the foundation.
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Speaker 2: Is what we're going to talk about kind of primarily today. Yeah.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's critical, uh, storm water drainage. You know,
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Speaker 3: obviously the ice that fell and landed and frozen place,
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Speaker 3: it's it's going to stay there until the ground falls
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Speaker 3: out and it runs off. But that's that's it's very
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Speaker 3: important to have a good, good drainage around the foundation,
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Speaker 3: to around your foundation to prevent or reduce these the
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Speaker 3: effects of these severe conditions, whether it's the dead of
4:50
Speaker 3: winter or the drought of summer and fall. It's it's
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Speaker 3: critical on both ends.
4:55
Speaker 2: Talk about a couple of the things you can do
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Speaker 2: there as far as water seep beach into the house,
5:00
Speaker 2: there's a few different ways that you can approach that,
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Speaker 2: and maybe both ways depending I guess when on what
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Speaker 2: your situation is. But one of the things that that
5:07
Speaker 2: you see and my yard now, with all the soil
5:11
Speaker 2: erosion that I have, I'm sure as a prime example
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Speaker 2: of this, I have tons of puddling and things like
5:16
Speaker 2: that in my yard when it when it rains and
5:17
Speaker 2: stuff like that. I'm assuming depending on how bad that
5:20
Speaker 2: could be, it could be an indicator of some backgrading.
5:23
Speaker 2: If if your yard isn't isn't graded right, if you
5:25
Speaker 2: don't have the drainage put together right and you have
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Speaker 2: all that puddling and stuff, that could that could be
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Speaker 2: some problems.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's very common. Shortly after a house is built,
5:33
Speaker 3: the contractor backfills the yard, and then and then the
5:37
Speaker 3: soils that they backfilled will consolidate. Essentially, the air and
5:40
Speaker 3: the water that are in the soil will will evaporate,
5:43
Speaker 3: or the voids within the soil will will consolidate and compact,
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Speaker 3: and oftentimes you'll end up with some negative drainage toward
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Speaker 3: toward the foundation as a result of that consolidation. I mean,
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Speaker 3: that's something you know, we definitely want to keep water
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Speaker 3: draining away from the house at the surface. That's that's
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Speaker 3: step number one. Long term poor drainage issues can result
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Speaker 3: in water entry foundation movement, whether it's lateral displacement of
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Speaker 3: the foundation or settlement from various reasons. Whether it's differential settlement,
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Speaker 3: it's softening of the soils that support the foundation, Excessive
6:20
Speaker 3: cyclical movement, which is the seasonal movement from the expansion
6:23
Speaker 3: and contraction of the soils, the freeze thaw that we
6:26
Speaker 3: talked about it earlier, or even the erosion. Sometimes footing
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Speaker 3: is shallow, the soil can be eroded from around the
6:32
Speaker 3: footing and allow movement to occur. But if you're getting
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Speaker 3: if you're getting water entry, there's essentially two ways water
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Speaker 3: entry either into your basement or a cross space. There's
6:42
Speaker 3: there's essentially two ways to address it. You're either going
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Speaker 3: to address it outside outside with a new waterproofing and
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Speaker 3: drainage system. Those two go hand in hand. You really
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Speaker 3: can't do one without the other, or or install an
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Speaker 3: interior water management system, which is not a water proofing system.
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Speaker 3: It is often in the industry it is often referred
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Speaker 3: to as a waterproofing system, but that is is truly
7:06
Speaker 3: a water management system. Basically, you let the water in,
7:09
Speaker 3: you collect it, and you run it over to some
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Speaker 3: pump wortz then pumped out. In my opinion, the exterira
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Speaker 3: waterproofing is really the gold standard. If you're building a
7:18
Speaker 3: new house, you've got to set a blueprints. You're going
7:21
Speaker 3: to see a waterproofing and drainage system detail on those plans.
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Speaker 3: You're not going to see an interior foundation drain on
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Speaker 3: those plans. That is a it's a retrofit. We do
7:31
Speaker 3: that too as a cost saving the measure to manage
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Speaker 3: the water. But the waterproofing, in my opinion, the exterior
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Speaker 3: waterproofing is the gold standard in foundation repair.
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Speaker 2: And the important thing with that is you're really addressing
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Speaker 2: the water issue before it even gets to your house.
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Speaker 2: I mean, if you're able to do that, then that
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Speaker 2: I mean, obviously that's going to make things easier on
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Speaker 2: the back end of things because you're not gonna want
7:53
Speaker 2: to have as much to worry about around your house. Yeah.
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Speaker 3: So when when we do a waterproofing system where we're
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Speaker 3: excavating the soil from around the foundation and we're applying
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Speaker 3: rubber membranes to the foundation, a rubber self adhering rubber
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Speaker 3: membrane and then a drainage matt, so essentially it's a
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Speaker 3: double ayer of protection. We've got a perforated pipe at
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Speaker 3: the bottom, just like a lot of people call it
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Speaker 3: a French train, so a collection pipe at the bottom
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Speaker 3: of the foundation, and then it's all back filled with gravel.
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Speaker 3: So essentially, if water gets near the foundation, it is
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Speaker 3: dropping vertically straight down to the pipe where it is
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Speaker 3: then then has a path out to daylight. So it
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Speaker 3: doesn't allow water to accumulate around the foundation, doesn't allow
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Speaker 3: water to pull next to your foot, or doesn't allow
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Speaker 3: excessive hydrostatic pressure to build up and create lateral pressure.
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Speaker 3: So it is, it is, It is truly addressing the
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Speaker 3: problem and not just a symptom of a poor drainage system.
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Speaker 2: What kind of home owner would be a good candidate
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Speaker 2: for that type of repair you mentioned? Obviously, with new builds,
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Speaker 2: you want to make sure that you're getting your exterior
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Speaker 2: drainage system and all of that stuff put together correctly
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Speaker 2: when you're doing your new build. But what elseway has
9:09
Speaker 2: an existing home? Is there is there any barriers that
9:12
Speaker 2: they that it's going to keep them out of that?
9:15
Speaker 2: Is there always some sort of exterior thing that you
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Speaker 2: can do, even if it has to adjoin with something
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Speaker 2: on the interior. What are you looking at as far
9:20
Speaker 2: as the purpor not maybe not the perfect, but the
9:22
Speaker 2: type of people that can take advantage of this.
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Speaker 3: So anybody that anybody that has a basement or crawl
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Speaker 3: space or any below grade portion of the foundation. Ideally
9:32
Speaker 3: every house would have a foundation drain. Many many homes
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Speaker 3: built in the nineties and two thousands. Tays Valley area
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Speaker 3: is a great area for this condition, but they were
9:42
Speaker 3: built on crawl spaces without a foundation drain. But as
9:48
Speaker 3: far as what houses are best suited for, really access
9:52
Speaker 3: access will drive. Access onto the property will drive whether
9:55
Speaker 3: we can do a foundation drain or just do one
9:59
Speaker 3: of at a reasonable cost. Access to I mean, there's
10:04
Speaker 3: a lot of houses in the Charleston area that were
10:06
Speaker 3: built right back up into a hill. There's a retaining
10:10
Speaker 3: wall two to three feet behind the house, and there's
10:12
Speaker 3: really just no access to get equipment, and there's a
10:14
Speaker 3: lot of risk if we were to attempt to do
10:18
Speaker 3: that type of drainage system on one of those houses.
10:20
Speaker 3: So access is one of the things that we discuss
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Speaker 3: with the owner. If it's if it's moderate access, whether
10:27
Speaker 3: maybe it would be more appropriate to go with the
10:28
Speaker 3: interior drain, because we do install interior drains, but we
10:33
Speaker 3: also do the exterior waterproof and it really just depends
10:35
Speaker 3: on the situation, the individual's budget, the goals of what
10:40
Speaker 3: we're trying to achieve, whether we do the outside or
10:44
Speaker 3: the inside. But again, if possible, I my recommendation is
10:48
Speaker 3: if we can is to do it from the outside,
10:50
Speaker 3: if at all possible. It is a little bit more
10:52
Speaker 3: costly than the interior drain which is why we probably
10:58
Speaker 3: install more interior drains as well. And really the industry
11:03
Speaker 3: is pushing that. My competition is really pushing these interior
11:07
Speaker 3: draams because they are less expensive, but also they don't
11:12
Speaker 3: require as much skilled labor to install the interior drainstone.
11:17
Speaker 3: It's more physical labor than operators and people that can
11:22
Speaker 3: drive dump trucks and operate equipment.
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Speaker 2: That's got to be a little frustrating too, when you
11:27
Speaker 2: know that there's a sort of a best practices solution
11:29
Speaker 2: that you can deploy, and if somebody gets there first
11:34
Speaker 2: and pitches a price that seems to be considerably lower
11:38
Speaker 2: and using the right sales tactic, suddenly it looks like
11:40
Speaker 2: that you're comparing apples to apples, when really you're not.
11:42
Speaker 2: You're comparing apples to rocket ships. I mean, what you're
11:45
Speaker 2: trying to put together is a much if feasible, is
11:47
Speaker 2: a much better plan. It's just suddenly now you're having
11:50
Speaker 2: to talk around somebody that's selling a lesser inferior product
11:52
Speaker 2: or inferior service.
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Speaker 3: Well and that's not I don't have an issue an inferior.
11:57
Speaker 2: Yeah that might not be right, but.
11:58
Speaker 3: Well, yes, I'm sorry.
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Speaker 2: How to to put words in your mouth is what I.
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Speaker 3: Mean now, and that's not an issue with me. I'm
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Speaker 3: going to discuss the pros and cons with every client
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Speaker 3: of the exterior of the interior if if they're if
12:13
Speaker 3: the homeowner is dead set on the less expensive option,
12:17
Speaker 3: we we will quote that that option. But I'm going
12:19
Speaker 3: to go through the process with them to understand what
12:21
Speaker 3: the pros and the cons are of each of each option.
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Speaker 2: Uh.
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Speaker 3: A very good example of that is all the things
12:29
Speaker 3: that the exterior waterproofing does. It's going to it's going
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Speaker 3: to do all these it's going to manage the water outside,
12:34
Speaker 3: it's going to reduce the potential for movement. I've kind
12:37
Speaker 3: of touched on all these. It does a lot of
12:40
Speaker 3: things other than just prevent water entry into the basement
12:43
Speaker 3: or the cross space. The interior drain the only thing
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Speaker 3: it does is manages the water. It's not doing anything
12:50
Speaker 3: to reduce the risk of foundation movement. So there's there.
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Speaker 3: You know, that's one of the the big I guess
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Speaker 3: cons of an interior drain is all you're doing is
12:58
Speaker 3: managing the water. You're key in your basement dry or
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Speaker 3: your cross space dry. You're not preventing hydrostatic pressure. You're
13:05
Speaker 3: not reducing the risk of foundation movement. So yeah, I
13:08
Speaker 3: explain all those things to them and allow the owner
13:12
Speaker 3: to direct the path that we go down in what
13:15
Speaker 3: repair we're going to approach to perform, assuming it's going
13:19
Speaker 3: to be it's not going to put me in a
13:22
Speaker 3: live liable situation. It's going to fix the problem that
13:24
Speaker 3: they're having.
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Speaker 2: But under certain circumstances when you look at it, in
13:28
Speaker 2: certain situations like that, you're literally only addressing the symptom
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Speaker 2: and not addressing the problem at all. If all you're
13:35
Speaker 2: doing is doing the interior drain in that case.
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Speaker 3: Yes, that's correct. That and the symptom is the failed
13:40
Speaker 3: waterproofing and drainage system. I mean, think about all these
13:44
Speaker 3: older homes that have that. We're built in the fifties.
13:47
Speaker 3: There's thirty forty fifty year old trees around them. So
13:49
Speaker 3: those roots, those roots have seeked the place where water,
13:53
Speaker 3: oh yes, is collecting, and they go to the foundation
13:55
Speaker 3: drain they go to they'll break right into a downspout
13:59
Speaker 3: drain and It's amazing what a root will look like
14:03
Speaker 3: inside a drain. It just looks like a big sponge
14:05
Speaker 3: and completely fills the pipe in a perfect round shape.
14:08
Speaker 3: It's it's quite quite interesting to see what that looks like.
14:11
Speaker 2: It's a little creepy too, honestly. I've seen some of
14:14
Speaker 2: that stuff, and I mean it's just like wood, you know,
14:16
Speaker 2: It's just like it's just the growth. But there's something
14:18
Speaker 2: about that that's it looks a little weird.
14:19
Speaker 3: Looks like a horse's tail it does when it's pulled out.
14:22
Speaker 2: I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah, it looks
14:23
Speaker 2: very not what you'dn't necessarily expect from that situation. We're
14:26
Speaker 2: talking this morning. Brett Hatching is here is the owner
14:28
Speaker 2: of Foster Foundation. We're talking a little bit about water infiltration,
14:31
Speaker 2: how you can keep that from affecting you, and the
14:34
Speaker 2: various solutions that there are to that. A couple of
14:36
Speaker 2: different levels there that you can look at depending on
14:37
Speaker 2: what your situation is. Every situation could be unique, though,
14:40
Speaker 2: So you can give us a call this morning if
14:41
Speaker 2: you have a situation for yourself or maybe a loved
14:44
Speaker 2: one that you want to ask about. You know, maybe
14:46
Speaker 2: you're at mom's house recently and you saw an issue
14:49
Speaker 2: and you wonder how to address that, where to go
14:51
Speaker 2: from there, or one of your own homes, whatever it
14:53
Speaker 2: might be, You're welcome to give us a call this morning.
14:54
Speaker 2: We'll take a break here and then when we come back,
14:56
Speaker 2: you're welcome to give us a call with any questions
14:58
Speaker 2: that you might have about your found foundation or water
15:00
Speaker 2: infiltration into that foundation, or any questions you might have
15:03
Speaker 2: for Brett with Foster Foundation Repair. You can find more
15:05
Speaker 2: information online. It's Foster Foundation Repair dot com. Foster Foundation
15:09
Speaker 2: Repair dot com. I'll give you the rest of their
15:10
Speaker 2: information in just a little bit. We'll go ahead and
15:12
Speaker 2: take a break right now and be back right after this.
15:14
Speaker 2: You're listening to ask the expert this morning. I'm Dale Cooper.
15:16
Speaker 2: Brett Hashing is here, owner of Foster Foundation Repair, and
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Speaker 2: this is fove ADWCHS the Voice of Charleston.
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17:01
Speaker 2: It is eighteen minutes until the top of the hour
17:03
Speaker 2: you're listening to asked the export w CHS the voice
17:06
Speaker 2: of Charles and Brett Haschen in studio with this this
17:07
Speaker 2: morning from Foster Foundation Repair. Before we get back to
17:11
Speaker 2: what a infiltation that we were talking about, before we
17:13
Speaker 2: do have a call. Jennifer from Hurricanes called in this
17:15
Speaker 2: morning and has a question or comment for Brick. Jennifer,
17:17
Speaker 2: good morning, how you doing this morning?
17:19
Speaker 7: Good morning, Thank you for taking the call. And I'm
17:22
Speaker 7: in the tornado aery.
17:23
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, not the hurricane tornado, one of those.
17:28
Speaker 7: I just yeah, and I want to say hello to Brett.
17:31
Speaker 7: I just wanted to call in. I tried to call
17:33
Speaker 7: last month, but the call wouldn't go through. I can't
17:37
Speaker 7: say enough good things about Foster Foundation. We had a
17:42
Speaker 7: major problem crop up beginning in February of last year
17:46
Speaker 7: with a torrential downfloor Brain that just went on for hours.
17:50
Speaker 7: I think it was four inches of rain in four hours,
17:53
Speaker 7: and we already knew we had a problem that this
17:55
Speaker 7: really exacerbated things pretty quickly, so we got two estimates.
18:02
Speaker 7: Foster was not the least expensive, but in looking at
18:08
Speaker 7: the plan to fix our problem, it was absolutely the
18:11
Speaker 7: most comprehensive and long term solution to our problem, so
18:16
Speaker 7: we chose to go with that one. It took a
18:20
Speaker 7: few months to get scheduled out because they're very busy,
18:23
Speaker 7: and the project, if I remember correctly, took about six weeks.
18:28
Speaker 7: Major equipment in the driveway crews, different crews in and
18:33
Speaker 7: out over a period of about six weeks. But when
18:36
Speaker 7: they left Christie, everything was cleaned up better than it
18:42
Speaker 7: was before they came, and we just feel very secure
18:46
Speaker 7: in our home. And in addition to that, they found
18:50
Speaker 7: a problem with the vent work in our H five system.
18:57
Speaker 7: So we were able to get that fixed currently of
19:00
Speaker 7: course through through through our h By company. But had
19:04
Speaker 7: it not been for them discovering that, we'd probably still
19:07
Speaker 7: be dealing with a loss of some major heat, which
19:09
Speaker 7: would have been, you know, pretty dramatic this past winter.
19:13
Speaker 7: So I just wanted to express the folks are wonderful.
19:18
Speaker 7: They explained things, they didn't mind my hanging out and
19:21
Speaker 7: watching them do things and answer questions, and I have
19:24
Speaker 7: nothing but good things to say about Foster.
19:28
Speaker 3: Thank you, Brett, Jennifer, thank you very much, And it
19:30
Speaker 3: was it was a pleasure working with you, and I
19:33
Speaker 3: know the guys enjoyed, enjoyed being out there with you.
19:38
Speaker 7: Thank you, Thank you, Jennier.
19:40
Speaker 2: Appreciate the phone call. Thank you very much. Thank you. Hey,
19:42
Speaker 2: we like testimonials. Three are four, three, four, five fifty
19:44
Speaker 2: fifty that works as well. We've had some folks that
19:47
Speaker 2: call that's called it in the past and talked about
19:49
Speaker 2: some of the work that Brett's done. I've done some
19:51
Speaker 2: a little looking around on some of your reviews and
19:53
Speaker 2: things online, and there's people that are very complimentary about
19:57
Speaker 2: the scale of work, how comp cad it was, and
20:01
Speaker 2: how happy they were with the results. I mean, nothing
20:03
Speaker 2: better than customers that tell you how well you're doing.
20:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, those reviews are tough to get online. Reviews are
20:08
Speaker 3: very difficult.
20:09
Speaker 2: They really are.
20:10
Speaker 3: We certainly try try to get them, but they you know, yeah,
20:13
Speaker 3: we've got a we've got a few out there.
20:15
Speaker 2: I have a theory on that, not that that's what
20:17
Speaker 2: this show is about, but it's another one of those systems.
20:19
Speaker 2: The crowd sourcing for reviews had a sweet spot maybe
20:22
Speaker 2: ten or so years ago where they were very useful.
20:25
Speaker 2: People did them that, they gave their time graciously to
20:28
Speaker 2: take care of it. And I think the infos the
20:29
Speaker 2: infosystem for that was fairly robust. But it became like
20:33
Speaker 2: anything else, it became like sort of predatory and monetizing
20:36
Speaker 2: all these different things. And suddenly, yeah, and suddenly people
20:39
Speaker 2: no longer wanted to spend their time to give a thoughtful,
20:43
Speaker 2: nice review like they like they once did. It's really
20:45
Speaker 2: a shame because I think at one point that was
20:47
Speaker 2: a very very very good service. Crowdst sourcing reviews and stuff.
20:50
Speaker 3: Monetized as an interesting term for.
20:52
Speaker 2: That, it is, but it is that truly is.
20:54
Speaker 3: There's some companies will give discounts for a review.
20:57
Speaker 2: Yep.
20:58
Speaker 3: When I was doing home inspection, a new inspector, brand new,
21:03
Speaker 3: been in the business for a month, starts his business
21:05
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden, he's got one hundred reviews.
21:07
Speaker 3: And I've been working for like ten years to get
21:09
Speaker 3: reviews and I had fifty or something. It's just it's
21:13
Speaker 3: definitely got to be careful with reviews. Ours are all
21:16
Speaker 3: one hundred percent true clients, I can certainly say that,
21:20
Speaker 3: and fortunately we have only had good ones at the moment.
21:24
Speaker 2: I mean, very very briefly. The last thing on this,
21:26
Speaker 2: there's what there's tools you can go in for the
21:29
Speaker 2: sites like Amazon where you go and you type in
21:32
Speaker 2: your product, the link to your product, and it will
21:34
Speaker 2: go through and it will give you a result on
21:36
Speaker 2: how many of those reviews that are on that product
21:38
Speaker 2: are actually fake. Yeah, you know, it's just it's it's
21:41
Speaker 2: stupid that we've had to monetize this system that's supposed
21:44
Speaker 2: to help clients out, you know, and not to mention
21:46
Speaker 2: good business owners. It helps them out as well because
21:48
Speaker 2: it points people to their direction. And we've we've monetized
21:51
Speaker 2: this thing up to the hill. There's no doubt about it.
21:53
Speaker 2: But let's continue the conversation. Jennifer called in. It was
21:56
Speaker 2: nice enough to talk about how you handle complex projects
21:59
Speaker 2: and like that to come about. And that's really very
22:02
Speaker 2: very important because you do give I just wanted to
22:04
Speaker 2: take a moment to talk about this. You do lay
22:05
Speaker 2: it out all for your clients up front. Here's your
22:09
Speaker 2: different options you have, here's the way that you evaluate things.
22:11
Speaker 2: And again, as as being an engineer, being a project
22:14
Speaker 2: engineer on this, you have that extra layer of expertise
22:18
Speaker 2: that you're lending to that situation, so folks can feel
22:22
Speaker 2: extra secure in that they're getting all the options and
22:24
Speaker 2: exactly how it's laid out for them.
22:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, So any project that we do, unless unless somebody
22:30
Speaker 3: comes with a third party engineer, which we love working
22:34
Speaker 3: with other engineers. That's a very important part of the process.
22:38
Speaker 3: But if somebody comes to us, does it not have
22:41
Speaker 3: has not engaged an engineer, I will I will generate
22:43
Speaker 3: the drawings necessary if we for permits or for the transit.
22:50
Speaker 3: Basically to give the owner a document to show them
22:53
Speaker 3: what we're going to do. Gives my employees a document
22:56
Speaker 3: to execute the project we're working on in Huntington right now,
23:00
Speaker 3: which is a very unique one, probably an eighteen hundred
23:04
Speaker 3: late eighteen hundreds house we found we tore the entire
23:07
Speaker 3: floor system out because it was sitting on the ground,
23:09
Speaker 3: and we found in nine foot cistern under the house
23:12
Speaker 3: that nobody knew was there, and so we've had to
23:14
Speaker 3: come up with a creative way to address that. We
23:17
Speaker 3: did that on the fly and came up with a
23:19
Speaker 3: good a good option, and now we're going to execute that.
23:23
Speaker 3: So that's certainly a benefit of working with us is
23:25
Speaker 3: if there is any you know, very I mean that
23:28
Speaker 3: that would be far outside of a standard you know,
23:31
Speaker 3: building code application that this situation that I'm talking about
23:36
Speaker 3: where you really would have to have an engineer involved,
23:38
Speaker 3: and we were able to just handle it within basically
23:42
Speaker 3: a day. I had set of plans drawn up and
23:45
Speaker 3: change order over to the client and they were not
23:48
Speaker 3: happy to sign it, happy to do it, but they
23:50
Speaker 3: were happy they knew what they were going to get
23:52
Speaker 3: and that it was going to be a good, a
23:53
Speaker 3: good solution.
23:54
Speaker 2: And that's really I know that you're very customer forward
23:58
Speaker 2: when it comes to that, making sure that you give
24:00
Speaker 2: people the options and what they're able to do. But
24:03
Speaker 2: that's really kind of powerful when you think about that
24:07
Speaker 2: from the homeowner or whoever the perspective is, because sometimes
24:10
Speaker 2: you have somebody that comes out and they give you
24:12
Speaker 2: one solution, Well, this is your fix, this is how
24:14
Speaker 2: we'll get this is how you can repair your home,
24:16
Speaker 2: and you might feel a little bit you might not
24:19
Speaker 2: feel the pressure, but you might feel like, well, I
24:20
Speaker 2: guess if that's what I have to do, that's what
24:21
Speaker 2: I have to do. And you don't know that there's
24:23
Speaker 2: other options or there's other things you can do, or
24:25
Speaker 2: you might not even know that there's actually a better
24:26
Speaker 2: way to do it. Some people are willing to spend
24:28
Speaker 2: a little more money if it means that better piece
24:31
Speaker 2: of mind down the road that the fix is going
24:33
Speaker 2: to be put into place, that you're taking care of
24:34
Speaker 2: the problem and not the symptoms. Some people want to
24:36
Speaker 2: invest in that. They just have to be presented with
24:39
Speaker 2: that option.
24:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, and made it basically explain to where they can
24:43
Speaker 3: understand the process and the why. I think the why
24:47
Speaker 3: is the most important why we would go this route
24:50
Speaker 3: above instead of this other route. Some people it's all
24:53
Speaker 3: about the money, and that's fine, you know, not every
24:56
Speaker 3: business is for every individual client. That's perfectly fine, but
25:00
Speaker 3: we certainly try to try to explain it all. I
25:03
Speaker 3: would like to talk and how much time we have time,
25:06
Speaker 3: so I'd like to talk. So the end back to
25:08
Speaker 3: the interior drains, there's a sense so there's kind of
25:11
Speaker 3: two ways to handle the water entry. One is outside,
25:13
Speaker 3: one is inside, and then once you get inside the building,
25:16
Speaker 3: there's a there's essentially two different options, at least as
25:19
Speaker 3: it relates to a basement. There is the the the drain.
25:24
Speaker 3: The industry, a lot of the industry is pushing which
25:26
Speaker 3: is the top of foot or drain. Most of these
25:28
Speaker 3: companies they have their own propriet proprietary, fancy name they
25:32
Speaker 3: call it. But it's an interior foundation drain that's sit
25:35
Speaker 3: in on top of the footer. It is the it
25:38
Speaker 3: is the the way everybody's pushing it because it's the
25:41
Speaker 3: least expensive. It's the least it's the it's there's very
25:45
Speaker 3: little labor can be done in a day or two.
25:49
Speaker 3: But essentially what they do what what What is done
25:52
Speaker 3: in this top of foot or drain scenario is about
25:55
Speaker 3: four inches of the basement floor is removed in a
25:58
Speaker 3: rectangular shaped drain is installed on top of the footer,
26:01
Speaker 3: and then about an inch of concrete is put back
26:04
Speaker 3: on top of that drain. And the idea is water
26:08
Speaker 3: seeps through the walls collected by this drain and it
26:10
Speaker 3: drains over to a some pump. The problem with this
26:13
Speaker 3: this type of drain is there's various issues with this drain.
26:17
Speaker 3: It's sitting on a which is presumably flat a footing,
26:21
Speaker 3: so it has no pitch. It's the footing is not
26:25
Speaker 3: realistically flat. It has typically a top of a footer
26:28
Speaker 3: has a lot of ups like ups and downs. It's
26:31
Speaker 3: just imperfect. So realistically, what's what happens oftentimes is water
26:35
Speaker 3: just drains underneath that drain and saturates the soil next
26:38
Speaker 3: to the footing. So never I don't know how many
26:40
Speaker 3: of these systems I've we've torn out that have never
26:43
Speaker 3: collected a drop of water. Oh, So oftentimes water will
26:48
Speaker 3: just drain underneath it. It's flat, so it doesn't if
26:50
Speaker 3: water does get in it, it tends to just lay there.
26:54
Speaker 3: But most importantly in my opinion, is foundations. In our region,
26:59
Speaker 3: most probably ninety nine percent of foundation's basement foundations are
27:03
Speaker 3: what is called a restrained retaining wall, and essentially the
27:07
Speaker 3: basement floor slab that your foundation wall is being restrained
27:11
Speaker 3: by your floor system above your head and the concrete
27:14
Speaker 3: basement floor that you're standing on, so that those two
27:18
Speaker 3: components keep the wall from moving laterally, When you take
27:21
Speaker 3: out four inches a concrete and replace it with a
27:23
Speaker 3: four inch piece of plastic, you've removed the lateral restraint
27:29
Speaker 3: at the base of the wall, and you've now opened
27:30
Speaker 3: yourself up to the risk of the foundation wall sliding
27:35
Speaker 3: or shearing at the base. I've seen it happen. It
27:38
Speaker 3: does happen. It's a significant risk that if that type
27:44
Speaker 3: of drain is installed that you are opening yourself up
27:47
Speaker 3: to a very large I mean, I don't want to
27:51
Speaker 3: Every situation is different, but it could be tens of
27:54
Speaker 3: thousands of dollars just because you elected to go with
27:57
Speaker 3: this the top of foot or drain. The other option,
28:00
Speaker 3: the way we install a intier foundation drain is we
28:03
Speaker 3: remove a wider amount of concrete. We dig a trench
28:06
Speaker 3: next to the footer, just like you're outside footing foot
28:09
Speaker 3: or drain, and we put our collection drain a perforated
28:12
Speaker 3: pipe four inch round perforated pipe adjacent to the footer.
28:15
Speaker 3: We're able to control the pitch of the pipe because
28:18
Speaker 3: we're digging in soil to the extent that the footer.
28:21
Speaker 3: The depth of the footer allows us, so we can
28:24
Speaker 3: pitch our pipe from the one end to the some pump,
28:27
Speaker 3: so you're actually getting drainage. And then when all things
28:30
Speaker 3: are said and done, we're putting a full four inch
28:33
Speaker 3: concrete slab back in place, so we're restoring the lateral
28:37
Speaker 3: restraint at the base of the wall, which in my opinion,
28:39
Speaker 3: is critical the engineer. We do the most work with
28:45
Speaker 3: this is the same method that he requires on his
28:47
Speaker 3: projects as well. He and I see this, We see
28:51
Speaker 3: very eye to eye on this. I mean we he
28:53
Speaker 3: and I see on a lot of things when it
28:56
Speaker 3: comes to foundations, but that that's one of the to me,
28:58
Speaker 3: is one of the most important things. And you can
29:01
Speaker 3: I mean, you can get a you can get an
29:02
Speaker 3: into your drain, probably fifteen percent cheaper doing the top
29:07
Speaker 3: of the foot or drain, but then you could create
29:09
Speaker 3: this other condition that very much increases your risk of
29:13
Speaker 3: foundation issues.
29:14
Speaker 2: That sounds like such a I don't want to assume this,
29:18
Speaker 2: but my assumption here would be that if you have
29:21
Speaker 2: a company where this is like sort of your primary
29:23
Speaker 2: thing and all of your ads are like, we're cheaper
29:27
Speaker 2: than the competition, and you know, all those things, that
29:29
Speaker 2: there might be people that aren't being made aware of
29:32
Speaker 2: these other options and the potential problems that there could
29:35
Speaker 2: be with with with not looking at at it a
29:40
Speaker 2: little deeper, so to speak, you know, to take a
29:42
Speaker 2: different to take a different view of those things. Yeah.
29:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, the goal is always to be the cheapest. That's
29:47
Speaker 3: the industry.
29:48
Speaker 2: I think we have a caller that just called in.
29:50
Speaker 2: We had to take you straight on the line, good morning.
29:52
Speaker 2: What's your first name?
29:53
Speaker 8: First name's Jay.
29:54
Speaker 2: Well, what's your question, Jay?
29:55
Speaker 8: Question is back in the fifties and early sixties, a
29:59
Speaker 8: lot of fly a shout of the power plants were
30:02
Speaker 8: used for back fell around the foundations. Are you having
30:05
Speaker 8: problems with those?
30:07
Speaker 3: Yes, flash is there's a lot of issues of fly ash.
30:13
Speaker 3: It once it gets wet, it just it just runs.
30:16
Speaker 3: I mean it's very flowable when it's when there's flowing water.
30:20
Speaker 3: There's a lot of garage floors that were you know,
30:23
Speaker 3: eight eight, eight, nine, ten feet a back fill of
30:26
Speaker 3: flash that that were, and then you put a garage
30:29
Speaker 3: floor on it, and then the driveway drain fails and
30:32
Speaker 3: now water's draining underneath the slab, and now the slab drops. So, yes,
30:37
Speaker 3: fly ash is. We deal with flash quite a bit.
30:40
Speaker 3: It's a mess to work with. Now it's kind of
30:42
Speaker 3: miserable to work with and I don't know what to
30:45
Speaker 3: do with it. I've tried to deal with the state,
30:47
Speaker 3: try to contact the state, and I can't get a
30:49
Speaker 3: good answer on what can be done with it if
30:52
Speaker 3: it's pulled out, so oftentimes it's just left in place.
30:55
Speaker 8: Do you have any disintegration of metal piping or rebar
30:58
Speaker 8: or wire that calls it's in contact quid.
31:02
Speaker 3: I I'm sure, yes, but whether I can't necessarily say
31:07
Speaker 3: that it's the fly ash or just the water, I mean,
31:11
Speaker 3: I'm sure it has a lot to do with deterioration.
31:15
Speaker 8: Okay, thank you, Yes, sir, Thanks.
31:17
Speaker 2: Jay, appreciate that. What I love about our listeners is
31:20
Speaker 2: we have people with very specific knowledge sometimes that listen
31:23
Speaker 2: to the program that call in and I absolutely love
31:25
Speaker 2: that when when folks call in there, so that's uh,
31:28
Speaker 2: that's uh. Is that some sort of a fill that
31:31
Speaker 2: was used because of the just what was available in
31:33
Speaker 2: the area from all of the building that was going on.
31:36
Speaker 2: That was like remnants that was left over that we
31:38
Speaker 2: used to fill in and it just wasn't very good quality. Yeah.
31:41
Speaker 3: So fly ash is a byproduct of coal combustion, and
31:45
Speaker 3: it was obviously with amous and all the chemical plants
31:48
Speaker 3: being here, it was abundant and cheap. And yes, I
31:53
Speaker 3: don't I don't know if they were given it away,
31:55
Speaker 3: but I mean that's the new Kroger's completely built on
31:58
Speaker 3: fly ash and they've taken the founds for that. All
32:01
Speaker 3: the way through the flash, I looked at I looked
32:03
Speaker 3: at the plans for that as a potential to potentially
32:06
Speaker 3: do some foundation work there. It's it's that the type
32:10
Speaker 3: of foundation they installed is not the type of foundations
32:12
Speaker 3: we do. But they went I think they went forty
32:17
Speaker 3: some feet through the flash down to bed rock, I
32:20
Speaker 3: would assume. But yeah, that's it's it's all over the valley.
32:25
Speaker 3: There's a lot of it in Charleston up on the
32:26
Speaker 3: South Hills Fort Hill area. We run into to it
32:29
Speaker 3: quite a bit.
32:31
Speaker 2: Never it's just amazing to me all the different things
32:33
Speaker 2: you have to run into. We already have a relatively
32:35
Speaker 2: unique geological area anyway when it comes to these things,
32:39
Speaker 2: and that's just yet another complicated layer to add on
32:42
Speaker 2: top of that.
32:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it doesn't compact well either, But fortunately we
32:45
Speaker 3: don't other than us having when we find it, we
32:48
Speaker 3: don't really it's not a we don't use it in
32:52
Speaker 3: backfield today around foundations, at least the.
32:54
Speaker 2: Last ninety seconds or so that we have here. I
32:57
Speaker 2: think the bottom line is on what we've been discussing
32:59
Speaker 2: is that first and foremost that when you call foster
33:02
Speaker 2: construction means that you're going to get a full evaluation.
33:05
Speaker 2: Your problem is going to be evaluated, addressed, and if
33:08
Speaker 2: there's other options for things you need to do. It's
33:10
Speaker 2: a conversation first and foremost. You're gonna you're going to
33:12
Speaker 2: talk to the homeowner and and talk about what's best
33:15
Speaker 2: for the property and not just put a piece of
33:17
Speaker 2: paper and from and say hey this is our special
33:18
Speaker 2: the month or whatever it might be.
33:19
Speaker 3: Yes, I will, I will be the individual coming out
33:23
Speaker 3: to evaluate the foundation. You'll have my cell phone number.
33:27
Speaker 3: I am a professional engineer. I have oversight of all
33:32
Speaker 3: of our projects. I'm not on site every day, but
33:35
Speaker 3: our guys have take photos every day and upload it
33:37
Speaker 3: to a system where I can review the progress and
33:40
Speaker 3: any questions or conditions that pop up. So yeah, we're
33:44
Speaker 3: we're very much about quality control. I have two individuals
33:47
Speaker 3: that that's their job is to keep the guys in,
33:50
Speaker 3: you know, moving along, but also checking there make sure
33:53
Speaker 3: everything's getting done correctly. So that's that's us in a nutshell.
33:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you have to make this decision, make it
34:01
Speaker 2: the smart way, give yourself plenty of options. And you know,
34:04
Speaker 2: the folks advertising the cheapest aren't always the best necessarily,
34:07
Speaker 2: although if the work needs to be done, it could
34:10
Speaker 2: be done the correct way is the bottom line, and
34:13
Speaker 2: bred HODGM with Foster Foundation Repair can help you along
34:15
Speaker 2: those lines with whatever the skill is that you're looking for.
34:18
Speaker 2: Try to give them a call first and make sure
34:20
Speaker 2: that you're in good hands. You can find out more
34:22
Speaker 2: information online. It's Foster Foundation Repair dot com. Foster Foundation
34:25
Speaker 2: Repair dot com. You s about the whole thing and
34:27
Speaker 2: put a dot com after it and you'll get right
34:28
Speaker 2: to the website. Very nice website. Find all kinds of
34:30
Speaker 2: information over there. The phone numbers three zer a four
34:33
Speaker 2: seven seven six sixty two sixty three, three zero four
34:35
Speaker 2: seven seven six sixty two sixty three. One more time
34:38
Speaker 2: three zero four seven for seven seven six sixty two
34:41
Speaker 2: sixty three you can found Foster Foundation Repair. And then
34:45
Speaker 2: every month right here on five ad WCCHS Bret comes
34:48
Speaker 2: in to share some of his knowledge and to take
34:50
Speaker 2: your phone calls as we did today to try to
34:52
Speaker 2: help folks out when it comes to foundation repairs, waterproofing
34:55
Speaker 2: and the whole list of services. When you go to
34:57
Speaker 2: Foster Foundation Repair dot com you can take a look
34:59
Speaker 2: at all the services they are off. There's tons of
35:00
Speaker 2: them over there. Maybe do a little prep work for
35:02
Speaker 2: the next time bretts In and then if you have
35:03
Speaker 2: any questions about some of those services, you can give
35:06
Speaker 2: him a call and ask your question. Then, Rett, thank
35:08
Speaker 2: you so much for your time again today. We really
35:09
Speaker 2: appreciate it.
35:10
Speaker 3: Yep, thank you and would love to just have an
35:12
Speaker 3: opportunity to explain and teach you about your foundation's.
35:16
Speaker 2: That's good stuff and nothing like being taught and having
35:19
Speaker 2: all the information at hands. And once again, Foster Foundation
35:21
Speaker 2: Repairs seven seven six sixty two sixty three three zer
35:23
Speaker 2: A four seven seven six sixty two sixty three. Have
35:26
Speaker 2: a great day everyone. Dave Allen five e AD Live
35:29
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Speaker 2: cross landess Ay, WVRC Media Stition. We are proud to
35:44
Speaker 2: live here too,