I would like to see if anyone has any experience with home foundation repair to give me any advice.

The area I live in is a typical neighborhood development and the soil is clay. Basically every home around me has had to have their foundation repaired. With the weather of Texas between extreme heat, rain, and drought the clay soil expands and contracts causing havoc to a foundation. I know I have a problem as I have cracks in the Sheetrock wall, ceiling, and ceramic floor tile all in a specific area.

A year ago I called out two companies for their opinion. The first to my surprise said I did not need any repair yet, but my foundation was indeed shifting. The second company said the measurements of the level of my foundation differed by about 3/4 of an inch which was a point they recommended to fix the foundation before it got worse. I called out the second company a few months after the first. The second company gave me a quote of around $8K for cement piers with limited warranty and $12K for steel piers with a lifetime warranty.

Both companies said it seems to be affecting just one side and area of my home.

I have learned of a third company a neighbor used that in addition to doing the piers, also did soil injections around the house to prevent any further damage. I have saved up about $14K since last year to get this done and plan to call all three companies out for another bid/measurement/quote and then get this fixed. Pisses me off to have to spend this much money on something so I want to make sure I do it right.

I am curious if anyone has recommendations on things I should be looking for, expecting, or asking about as I get ready to go into this. I appreciate any advice and input.

Watching this thread…

I have limited knowledge, but what kind of repair, what kind of “piers”? Some foundation repair companies add cement to “shore up” the foundation, but that doesn’t seem to be a permanent solution, as the additional cement can shift with the soil as well. Or make it worse due to additional weight.

Some companies drive pipe down until it hits bedrock, then jack the foundation footings to level using the pipe. I don’t know how that could happen with cement “piers”, so I’m questioning whether the cement or steel “piers” are driven to bedrock. If not, it seems like an iffy solution.

And I would give a lot of credence to the company that said you didn’t need a repair yet- that sounds like an honest answer. I know it’s not what you want to hear, but small cracks are probably not something that can be economically dealt with. If doors still function and it’s just cosmetic Sheetrock and tile cracks, you might have to live with it.

Yeah I was impressed with the first company saying I didn’t need anything done yet. They said if another company said I needed work, then to get their measurements and they would come back out and measure again so I am going to do that. The second company said I was right on the edge of needing it, but it would only get worse so I guess we will see now that a year has gone by.

All my doors close fine. Other houses around me that had their foundations fixed were having problems with doors or cracked water lines. I surely would love to not spend that kind of money if I don’t need to.

Are these slab or perimeter foundations?

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
Are these slab or perimeter foundations?

Good question and one that depending on the answer could affect the choices.

When we were called on to inspect homes with foundations (built by others, of course) we used a foundation repair company with a licensed PE on staff. Every repair he drew up used steel anchors that were hydraulically driven into the substrate until a certain pressure was attained (maybe 75K PSI) and then it was anchored to the foundation. The work was warranted for the life of the structure and was transferable for a marginal fee.

Hope this helps.

I had a house that started shifting causing cracks in the ceiling. The next door neighbor was worse; the builder bought them out; brought in a "family" but at night, people would be working. After a year, they resold the house.

As far as foundation repair experience, the house I just bought had a corner of the driveway sloping back towards the house and water was pooling in tat corner.

I called AZ foundation repair and what they do is they drill holes through the slab, pump Styrofoam under the slab to fill the voids and it lifts the whole thing. They said they do this for slab foundation houses too. You can also watch youtube videos on the process.

I too like the OP live where the soil is Red Clay. 99.9% of homes here are on a slab foundation. Basements are extremely rare, etc. Brick is the choice of siding. Strong, maintenance free, no painting, no caulking, etc.

Red Clay expands and shrinks as the water content varies. Around here the best advice to to make sure your foundation is watered all the way around on a consistent basis to keep the Red Clay pretty consistent.

I had a Foundation Repair guy out about 4 years ago. I noticed the South side of my house had a crack running in the brick (brick sides are extremely common here). I contacted some of the well known (advertise a lot) foundation repair companies. Prices were extremely high IMO.

I have a retired General Contractor friend who still stays active (he's 83) doing minor house repairs and such, and asked him for his advice.

He called me back and referred me to a guy who had started a foundation repair company, does not advertise, and thus keeps his rates low, depending on the customers giving him word of mouth advertising.

The crew was the owner/supervisor, 2 guys digging, one guy with wheelbarrow running back and forth, and 1 guy who was doing the actual work in the hole/trench putting in and raising the piers. Owner was constantly measuring, busy guy.

The 2 guys digging and 1 wheel barrow guy were I'm sure not highly paid, the other guy was paid reasonably well.
I looked at the pier things they installed and figured they could NOT have cost very much. I figure the crew labor expense was not much, the piers didn't cost much,and the owner made a good profit. I don't see how the big well known tv advertising guys can charge so much, the actual costs just don't seem to add up to much, and labor is not a whole lot either.

Guy came out, looked, came back in a few days with his crew. The crack was near one corner, on both sides of the corner. They ended up putting in 7 piers. I was worried about the bill until he gave it to me, it was just under $1,900. I was very happy for that. The "big boys" gave me quotes ranging from $5,500 to almost 10 Grand.

They were here, start to finish, a little under 4 hours. Cleaned up their mess nicely and left. I grabbed a lawn chair and sat back to watch, it was interesting.

The crack that was in the brick was no longer noticeable. (Actually most of it was in the mortar part of the brick wall, only 1 brick was cracked). If you didn't know what you were looking for/at, you'd have an extremely difficult time noticing it.

So, my advice is to ask around for referrals.

Having said all that, slab leaks are a very common thing here. When these houses were built the builders did not do a great job clearing out the rocky soil (red clay rocks fracture into sharp edged ones) and bringing in nice smooth clean soil. The red clay moves, abrasion happens and water pipe leaking occurs under your slab.

In both of my slab leaks the copper water pipes leaked due to abrasion. The 1st repair they brought in a jackhammer and tore out part of my entry bath/living room, dug down with shovels to find the copper pipe leak, and replace that section. This is an expensive pain in the butt. Once the repair is made and new concrete is poured and leveled out, then you have to go back with new flooring etc.

The 2nd one the plumber decided the best repair, and cheapest, was to run some new fancy kind of pex that lasts long and expands better to prevent water leaks, he ran this up and through the attic and just simply bypassed the old line which was under the slab. This was a heckuva lot cheaper than the 1st repair.

After that, I asked my old friend the retired General Contractor if he were to build a new house how would he handle this? He replied, spend a few more bucks, have the existing soil taken out and fresh new clean, no rocks of any size at all in it, then run the copper pipe plumbing through PVC pipe underneath to protect it.

To clarify, around here homes are built after the grade is leveled off, stem walls froms are put in, plumbers come in and run the plumbing by laying it on the ground, then the concrete slab is poured. Then the house building commences.

When a slab leak occurs (it's usually not a question of, but when) you won't notice it at first. Your 1st clues are water coming up inside the house, this becomes a very expensive repair if not taken care of right away. And the thousands and thousands of gallons of water leaking underneath the slab causes bad other problems too. Water does not compress. After thousands and thousands and thousands of gallons of water accumulate under the slab and the soil is saturated and won't take any more water, the water WILL find a way to go up, any seam or spot will do, just a tiny one, and water comes up into the house.

I now have the habit of looking at my water meter every few weeks. With everything turned off, if the meter is turning, you've got a water leak. Call your plumber immediately!!!

I looked at house for sale, fixer-upper, a few years ago. Beautiful home, great neighborhood. All the tile and carpet was gone and there was a crack in the slab from one side to the other of the house.
It had been on the market for awhile, no offers and no sale. I asked my retired Contractor Guy about it, he went over and looked, came back and told me the house was basically broken in 2, and was not economically repairable. No loan would be given after inspection was done, so you'd have to be a cash buyer and still have a house that was not repairable. After some period of time I saw the house was torn down, scraped and hauled off, and a sign "Lot for Sale".

Best wishes to you, good luck.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
Are these slab or perimeter foundations?

It is a slab foundation.

Here in Temple they scrape the lot, add crushed limestone and use that under the slab. My builder also uses steel cables in the concrete that is tensioned after the concrete cures. When I asked what it was all about the concrete guy told me it’s because all the brown dirt(clay) moves and will ruin a foundation.

A lady who lives in the county doesn’t have that in their slab and she said they make sure that no matter what, they use the sprinklers around the house ( it’s a special zone)during the summer just to keep the soil wet and to keep it from drying and creating gaps. When I was walking around looking at her horses, there were cracks several inches wide such that you could fall in and break an ankle. She has several feet of the brown soil there, where I live, there is very little soil and the builder have learned the costly way how to fix it before it becomes an issue.

Good luck with you repairs-you should video it so we can all see how it goes

OKCGene,

I meant to say thank you for the great amount of information you took the time to provide. I sure wish your retired contractor guy did work here in Austin!

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
Here in Temple they scrape the lot, add crushed limestone and use that under the slab. My builder also uses steel cables in the concrete that is tensioned after the concrete cures. When I asked what it was all about the concrete guy told me it’s because all the brown dirt(clay) moves and will ruin a foundation.

A lady who lives in the county doesn’t have that in their slab and she said they make sure that no matter what, they use the sprinklers around the house ( it’s a special zone)during the summer just to keep the soil wet and to keep it from drying and creating gaps. When I was walking around looking at her horses, there were cracks several inches wide such that you could fall in and break an ankle. She has several feet of the brown soil there, where I live, there is very little soil and the builder have learned the costly way how to fix it before it becomes an issue.

Good luck with you repairs-you should video it so we can all see how it goes

We were going to build a home on 5 acres we own in Bastrop, TX just before COVID hit. We had done site surveys, septic tests, and soil tests for the foundation. The recommendation was that for close to $20K they were going to do soil injections to stabilize the sandy soil there before pouring a foundation. Now we don’t know if we will still build or not as I am sure today the house would cost a TON more.

I will keep you guys posted as I call the three companies out for quotes again and as I go through this process if I need to.