Serving Houston and Harris County, TX

Open 7 Days: (346) 521-5331
(346) 521-5331 Get Free Estimate

How does foundation repair work? — Answered for Houston, TX

Reach ground that does not move, transfer the load to it, and recover what movement the house will safely give back.

Free Inspection The visit costs nothing and books nothing.

Free Estimate No cost, and no obligation to book.

Insured Contractors Ask to see the certificate before work starts. Every contractor we pass an address to carries one.

Local Crews Work is done by a local contractor, not a national call center.

A deep pier excavation against a house slab edge showing a stack of driven concrete cylinders down the hole and a hydraulic ram seated on the top cylinder.

Support is installed down to ground below the layer that swells and shrinks, the weight of the structure is transferred onto it, and the house is raised toward its original elevation as far as it will safely go.

How deep support has to reach under Houston

Support has to bear below the layer that moves. With mapped soils running to 51% clay and the shallowest mapped seasonal water table at 4.7 inches, that depth is a local measurement rather than a standard figure, and it is established during installation by driving to refusal or by boring to a specified stratum. It is the single largest unknown in any quote written beforehand.

Working on ground that is largely built over

Everything begins with readings, since both the number of support points and their positions are taken off the movement itself rather than from a rule of thumb. Without them, a house is handed the same scope as the one before it.

Then access, and access is where a dense city differs from a subdivision. The largest mapped unit in the Harris County clip is the Clodine-Urban land complex, 0 to 1 percent slopes. The urban land half of that name is mapped ground already built over. Perimeter points are dug from outside, which in a built-up city frequently means lifting a driveway, a patio or a paved side passage before the first shovel of soil moves. Interior points mean opening the floor. Both belong in the quote by name and by count.

Support is then driven, bored or turned down to competent ground. Driven segments are pushed against the building’s own weight until they stop advancing; bored and poured piers go to a specified depth and must cure before taking any load. Jacks hand the weight to the new columns. The lift proceeds in small stages at several points together while somebody watches how the building answers. The ceiling on a lift is set by what the structure tolerates that day. Backfill, patching and any agreed drain test close it out. The drainage that would slow the ground’s cycling is a different trade on a different invoice, which is most of the reason it goes undone.

Every question, in one place: Houston Foundation Repair Co questions.

Check the Houston Foundation Repair Co service area to see whether your street is covered.

Back to Houston Foundation Repair Co.