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Atlas Restoration : Chicago Contractors
Atlas Restoration (aka Mix-On-Site) is located in Lincolnshire, Illinois.
For our Chicago-based foundation problem, we chose Atlas as recommended by our
structural engineer.
Salesperson and Initial Estimates
The salesperson seemed well-informed on all aspects of the project. He recommended
10 piers, 40 feet deep, to shore up the foundation. Estimated work was 3-5 days per
pier, which included digging, rebar installation, temporary supports, concrete, and
finally attachment of the bracket and pier. We expected the crew to be on the job for
3-4 weeks.
City Permits and Plan Approval
We met with the CDOT managers four times over a span of six months. CDOT made
somewhat trivial changes to the plans, which doubled the cost on the
engineering side (extra sections and pages were required).
Atlas did not send a representative to any of the meetings - except for the last
meeting at which the plans were finalized.
Price Increases
Atlas came back and increased the invoice by 30%, due to the additional work
entailed by the CDOT changes, and the higher price of steel.
Construction Work
Finally construction commenced, in October. The crew (4 workers) seemed to progress much
faster than the sales person had explained. The sales person did not visit the
site during construction. A foreman was on site for about 4 hours total, he did
not seem familiar with the plans ...
The entire project wrapped up in just seven working days - the final phase was
the Lift. The goal of the Lift portion of the project was to correct the settling effects
on the buildings structure, i.e. making windows square and window sills level.
For this project, the lift (10000 psi jack) had little or no effect. We noticed a large
crack in the floor of the porch as the crew was packing up ... they had attempted to
lift the porch by mistake, and the result was a major crack in the limestone floor.
We later found the cost to repair the damage exceeded $39,000!
We videotaped the construction work. Upon viewing the video, we found several
shortcuts were taken by Atlas during the project: temporary supports were absent, rebar
was insufficient, and non-galvanized piers were used. Some additional settling
did indeed occur, due to the absence of the temporary supports.
At the close of the project, which took only seven days, we were left with
a building in worse condition. Also, with the abbreviated construction schedule,
the company made a nice profit on the project. After subtracting materials and
overhead costs .. the crew was making over $150 an hour, per person!
The piers went down an average of 25 feet (not 40 feet) .. yet Atlas Restoration insisted
on charging us full price for the material.
More details to follow regarding the final outcome of this project - stay tuned.
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