Our Services
QUAKE BUSTERS is dedicated to assisting property owners protect their family and homes from Earthquake damage. All of us living in the Bay Area are interested in knowing that the homes that we live in and our families will be safe after a major Earthquake. We design a Seismic Retrofit specific to your property and your budget.
The steps to getting your home seismically retrofitted
Contact us for free inspection
We are available by phone and email. We work Tuesday through Saturday, to make it easier for working homeowners to have an appointment with out missing work. In some cases, it is possible to perform the inspection with out anyone home, depending on the type of house. Typically the owner of Quake Busters, Jerome Lenoir, does all the structural inspections.
The Estimate
We will provide a detailed and transparent proposal. Items will be listed clearly with a quantity , a description, and a figure for labor and materials for each item. This estimate will be emailed within 1-2 days of the inspection, and a hard copy put in the mail. In addition we provide a Field Inspection Report on your home, outlining existing Seismic strengths and weaknesses of your building.
The Contract
We will send out two copies of the itemized contract. Your copy will also contain information about where you will need smoke and carbon monoxide detectors for your final inspection. You will sign our copy of the contract and return it with a check for 10% of the project.
The Retrofit
Quake Busters will schedule the work for your convenience. Typically a homeowner does not need to be home for us to execute the Seismic Retrofit. Our crews are all long term employees, who can be trusted in the finest of homes. All employees are fully covered by Workers Compensation insurance. We have carried Liability insurance to a total of $2,000,000.00, for many years without a claim.
Final Inspection
When work is completed, we will leave the job site clean, and typically broom swept. We will then contact you concerning when you are available for your final inspection, and schedule that inspection for you. The morning of the inspection, the Building Inspector will give you a narrow (2 hour) window of when he will stop by that day.
Payment
We receive the 10% deposit at contract signing. Typically this check stays in our office, (not the bank) until we have started your job. We can legally get more money after each of the City Inspections, and we can ask for money every day that we bring materials to your home. Instead, we trust our clients, and we do not ask for any additional payments, until we have completed our work. On the last day of the job, we receive a payment of 50% of the balance. The other 50% of the balance is typically spread out for an additional 3-6 months, with no interest charged on those monthly payments