From JD.
Lostra Engineering
Went to this company in desperate need of help as they were “highly recommended” by the three people I had talked to asking about structural engineers.
What a HUGE mistake!
It wasnt Lostra himself although that is who I was expecting. Instead his partner Tom showed up.
I paid him the $450 fee which was outrageous as far as I was concerned for the little bit that amount would cover.(He would look at the house, take some pictures and come back at a later date to take more pictures for comparison and then write me a report.)
My foundation was cracking, roof breaking in multiple spots, trusses pushing trough the ceiling in places, joists had popped up making large lumps in my upstairs floor in multiple places, foundation walls were bowing in and I was and still am able to sit and watch waves ripple through my ceilings, walls, windows, every part of my house as if it was a boat instead of a brick house.
I was in a major stressful situation. Especially considering this all began only slightly more than four months after buying this house for a steep $236,000! Actually I still am in the same situation and it is still incredibly stressful. However I have basically given up.This is the only way I can even sleep at night.
There is apparently no one in the area that is NOT a part of the “good old boy network” and few around here seem to care about their clientele at all.
I digress. So he comes by listens to my story while I walk him around the house showing him things that have appeared in the last month or two and explained to him why I was in a panic.
He seemed to me to be relatively intelligent.I mean he wouldnt be licensed if he wasnt right?! He seemed to listened well.
He put me at ease and told me what he was going to do was to take a bunch of pics Mark certain areas of interest and hed come back in one month to do it again and compare the pics to see what had changed if anything.
Said then he would have a better idea of what was going on and could give me a more solid professional report of findings which he would be happy to put on paper for me.
He told me if “anything big” happened before the month was up to call him and he would come by and take a look and add that to his report. Free of charge.
I felt a little better.
Well two weeks goes by and my basement without warning or apparent cause begins to flood through the floor drain. I have no idea how or why but suddenly there was sewer water in my basement and god only knows where it came from.
So I called him and asked “is that big?”
He said he would come by that morning and take a look. I was on the road for work and my boyfriend was able to be there so I said okay.
He went to my house this time with Mr.Lostra and my boyfriend showed him around and explained probably pretty animatedly and half panicked.
In my boyfriends words “He just stood there staring at me like I was nuts! He didnt even look at the house! He wouldnt even touch the walls that I was showing him were moving! He did absolutely NOTHING!”
So my angry boyfriend told him to get out and don’t bother coming back except to wash his stupid single line pen marks off our walls.
Ok, I understand how he gets and how he could look crazy when he’s upset but he had GOOD reason!
Keep in mind the house is MINE.Not my boyfriends. I, knowing how men tend to work made SURE that this “engineer” KNEW AND UNDERSTOOD that he was working for ME NOT my boyfriend! I made SURE he KNEW that if there were to be different arrangements at any point in time since I was the one footing the bill they would have to be made and agreed upon by me.
So my boyfriend tells him to leave and he did.
I called him that afternoon to apologize for whatever happened and explained on voicemail that my boyfriend couldve handled it differently and asked him to call back because I wanted to know what his take was on the house and set the appt.for the second set of pics.He NEVER called or texted me back but he did to my bf to name call like two children.Ive called and texted Lostra and Tom.NO replies.Just out $450. Bullsh$t! Bad business! ZERO stars.
