"One thing that has remained constant has been my curiosity and willingness to explore how we can provide better foundation repair solutions for our customers. The other thing that has remained constant is the propensity of people to copy us."
- Bob Brown
We have been in business – continuously - for 33 years by August 2020. Over that time, we have evolved our services and have even changed names a couple of times. One thing that has remained constant has been my curiosity and willingness to explore how we can provide better foundation repair solutions for our customers. The other thing that has remained constant is the propensity of people to copy us.
Over the years I have innovated the following foundation repair solutions:
Using push piles in Arizona… we were the first to popularize it here! - Separating Sales and Engineering functions… Others may be trying to copy this right now!
- Repair of Concrete Stem Walls - We originated this service 18 years ago
- Concrete Crack Stitching with polyuria and carbon fiber - we originated this combo in 2004!
- Soil Venting to reduce moisture below foundations…. We innovated this and patented The MoistureLevel Smart Foundation System in 2015
- Using Professional, Licensed Engineers to recommend structural repairs (not Salespeople) - we hired our first in house engineer in 2010!
- Under Excavation to lower heave foundations - Our first project for this was in 2005!
- Using Push Piles in below Crawl Space Support. We first innovated this in 2018 (more about this in a future blog).
- Spiral tips for helical piles… We invented this in 2016. This is now the standard for all Supportworks helical piles!
Look for more of our ideas to be copied; both products and processes (like in house Engineering Services for foundation repair plans).
Over time our competition has copied many of our ideas. Copying our service offerings, our forms, our management structures, as well as many of our product offerings such as the polyuria carbon crack stitching and stem wall repairs. Many of my initial ideas I never patented (https://www.foundationaz.com/blog/crack-repair-another-quiet-revolution) such as the polyuria carbon crack stitching and excavation lowering.
After a while I decided to start protecting our time and efforts with the United States Patent office. I have 4 patents currently under my name 2 of which are currently offered. The MoistureLevel Smart Foundation system and The NeverRust Stem Wall Repair System. While I currently have about 5 additional products that I am working on, the products services that we cannot secure a patent on continue to be adopted by our competition. Look for more of our ideas to be copied both products and processes (like in house engineering services)!
We consider it a compliment to blaze a trail that others follow.
As our competitors follow our trail blazing exploration, we continue to innovate. For example, as competitors offer engineering services, we will have already moved beyond our original ideas to the next innovation. We have developed custom software to make our engineering services more effective and efficient making it so difficult for others to copy and emulate in a cost effective way. We consider it a compliment to blaze a trail that others follow. Meanwhile look for more amazing advantages from us to you!
