Foundation Repair

When you are looking to get foundation repair on your home, there are many issues that you should be aware of about the foundation repair industry. So, before we attempt to get you signed up for an estimate, we want to take a minute to make you aware of some of the industry practices the we feel are less than honest, and explain why. We do this because you deserve to make a well informed decision which starts with a basic understanding of foundation repair and industry practices.

Based on the Foundation Repair Association's own website, about 90% of all foundation piers sold are not necessary. This is a very bold statement. Now this statement makes me a bit nervous about the industry as a whole when I consider that the top representatives of this organization are the owners of many major foundation repair companies. Make of that information what you will, but you can verify it for yourself on their website.

With this in mind, we should take a look at how this happens.

When you request an estimate for foundation repair, you are going to be visited by a sales person, not an owner or an engineer. This sales person is generally paid solely on his commissions of how much he has sold. Therefore, it is in his best interest to sell you as many piers as he thinks he can get away with, or send you away if he thinks that you can't afford the service.

Now, I will explain how these foundation repair salesmen are able to sell so many unnecessary piers.

If you have already had an estimate, or an engineer's inspection, then you are probably already familiar with the computerized level or compu-level for short. They bring in this tool and start taking measurements on your floors (most engineers will measure at the top-plate as much as possible). Then they sit down with you and show or tell you what their readings were from the level. This can be off by several inches throughout your house, and works great as a scare tactic selling point of foundation repair.

Don't be fooled by this slide of hand magic show. It is solely intended to make the person look important and give them numbers that you can see to scare you with. Taking these readings makes it look like they are doing something and are getting reliable results.

This is not the truth. Technology is great, but limited to its proper use. Before you could rely on the readings of the compu-level to tell you how much your home has moved, you would first have to know where each exact point of measure was when the home was first built, and you would need a reliable bench mark from where the original readings were taken.

All of these factors just are not possible. A bench mark would have moved independently from the home, and there are not original readings to compare the new readings to. This makes it impossible to use a compu-level to determine the amount of movement in a home's foundation, or where movement has occurred, if any at all. The technology is limited to the parameters of its design and programming. This is to say that a compu-level is not capable of adding and subtracting. The program just wasn't designed for the use of determining movement.

There are, however, ways of determining movement, where it has occurred, and how much it has moved. These answers about your foundation movement or settling can only be answered in an understanding of the home's original construction, and a brief amount of mechanics and physics.

By studying the bowing, cracking, and other signs of movement, you can determine the direction of settling or heaving of the home. For instance, when looking at a crack in a wall, it will either open (get wider) toward the top or the bottom of the wall. A crack that gets wider to the top, is likely to have heaving under that specific area or one or both sides have settled. A crack that gets wider to the bottom, is going to be just the opposite, but is most likely to be settling directly at that point. There are ways to determine which is the case. It requires more information from other parts of the house, plumbing locations, trees, and the outside readings.

One of the best tools for checking movement around the perimeter of a brick home is a string-line and set of line-blocks. Now this may sound silly, but it goes back to the original construction of the home.

I have never in all my years in the construction industry (about 30) nor have I ever heard of a home being built completely level or square. These imperfections in the foundation are left to the framers and brick masons to hide or make un noticeable. This is exactly why you cannot completely level a house and expect the foundation repairs to be correct.

In the attempt by the framers and the bricklayers to hide the imperfections, the framers generally level the top-plate of the wall so that the ceilings are level, and the bricklayers story their brick coursing from the top down so that any cuts are at the bottom of the wall and not in front of your eye level. When they lay these courses of brick, they use a string-line not a level to keep their lines straight, and as level as the top of the wall.

These are honest methods of determining movement in the foundation of your house. Don't settle for the magic show. They will almost always sell you foundation piers that you don't need, or place them in the wrong spot.

Thank you for your time, and if you would like to get an honest foundation repair estimate, please fill out the form below.

Foundation Leveling Symptoms

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Brick and Foundation Repair

Alamo Certified Mortar Matching - Lab tested and confirmed mortar matches perfect for any masonry repairs.

Foundation Piers: at affordable prices, costs may vary from state to state. Get your Estimate and see what we can do for you.

Brick Repairs: Repairing cracking in the mortar is a free service with the installation of piers in most cases. major re-lay and major repair projects may be at additional costs.

Foundation inspections will come with a pier plan as needed.

Dallas: 214-295-4742