Homeowner FAQ — Foundation Repair Secrets

Should I hire an engineer or call a foundation repair company first?

Call an independent engineer first, before you ever let a foundation repair company set foot in your house. A foundation repair company makes money by selling repairs, so the person doing your diagnosis has a direct financial interest in finding something wrong. An engineer who isn’t affiliated with a repair company or a home builder gets paid the same fee whether they tell you that you need $40,000 of underpinning or that you need nothing at all. That’s not a knock on every salesperson’s honesty — most of them believe what they’re telling you — it’s just math. You can’t get an unbiased opinion from someone whose paycheck depends on the size of the problem they find.

Is a “free foundation inspection” really free?

Nothing about it is free — you’re paying for it, just not up front. A free inspection is a sales call. The company sends someone whose job is to find a problem and close a sale in the same visit, and their salary or commission depends on how much work they can convince you to sign for that day. A genuine investigation costs money because it takes real time: gathering soil data, mapping floor elevations, understanding your home’s structural system, and thinking it through before writing conclusions down. If it’s free, ask yourself what part of the process got skipped to make that possible.

Why did the contractor tell me I need piers or underpinning right away?

Because piers and underpinning are usually the only thing most foundation repair companies sell, so that’s the answer you’re going to get regardless of what’s actually happening under your house. Most residential foundation problems, especially in dry climates, are heave, not settlement, and piers don’t fix heave — they can make it worse. A company that only sells one type of repair is going to see that type of problem everywhere, the same way a hammer sees every problem as a nail. If a company can’t explain what would make them recommend against underpinning, that’s worth noticing.

What is the “one-call close” and why should I be wary of it?

It’s when a salesperson shows up, looks around, tells you what’s wrong, and gets you to sign a contract and a down payment, all in a single visit that might last a couple of hours. No licensed engineer I’ve ever talked to would agree to diagnose a foundation problem and write a repair plan on the spot in one visit — every one of them wants time to review data and think it through. If someone with a fraction of that training is comfortable doing it in an afternoon, that should tell you something about how much rigor actually went into the conclusion.

How much should a real foundation evaluation cost?

Good engineering evaluations usually run somewhere between $900 and $3,500, depending on your market and how extensive the investigation needs to be — more than zero, and way less than you’d expect to pay for the repair itself. A proper evaluation involves site visits, soil research, floor-elevation surveys, and a written, sealed report from a licensed engineer — real hours of real work. Be skeptical of both extremes: a free evaluation that skips all of that, and a wildly expensive one with no clear explanation of what you’re paying for.

Is a crack in my foundation always a serious problem?

No — and in fact most of the visible signs of foundation stress, like hairline cracks in drywall or a door that sticks a little, are common in homes of almost any age and don’t automatically mean structural failure. Cracks are a symptom, not a diagnosis. The real question is what’s causing the movement, how much it’s moved, and whether it’s likely to continue — and none of that can be answered just by looking at a crack. That’s exactly why an actual investigation matters more than a quick look and a confident guess.

Does a lifetime warranty from a foundation repair company mean I don’t need to worry?

Not by itself, no. A warranty is only as good as the diagnosis behind it — if the underlying problem was misdiagnosed in the first place, a warranty on the wrong repair doesn’t fix anything, it just guarantees you’ll get more of the wrong repair, and usually not for free. Warranties also typically only cover the specific work performed, not the underlying condition, and many have exclusions that are easy to miss when you’re reading them under sales pressure. A warranty is worth having, but it’s not a substitute for making sure the original diagnosis was right.

What questions should I ask before hiring anyone to look at my foundation?

Ask whether they’re paid based on how much work they recommend, whether the analysis will be done on the spot or reviewed afterward, whether the findings and recommendations will be delivered in writing and sealed by a licensed engineer on the front end (not the back end with permits), and whether they offer solutions for problems other than the one they happen to sell. Their answers, or their reluctance to answer clearly, will tell you most of what you need to know before you ever get to price.

Can the same company that diagnoses my problem also be trusted to fix it?

It’s a real conflict of interest when one company controls both the diagnosis and the sale, even when the people involved are well-intentioned. The safer structure is to have an independent engineer diagnose the problem and write a sealed repair plan first, and then get bids from contractors to execute that specific plan — the same way it already works on commercial construction projects. That separation is what keeps the diagnosis honest, because nobody doing the diagnosing has a stake in how big the repair turns out to be.

My city issued a permit for my foundation repair — doesn’t that mean the work was done correctly?

Not necessarily. In most places, a foundation repair permit only confirms that pile spacing and similar structural details meet code — it does not confirm that the original diagnosis was correct in the first place. A contractor can get a permit approved for underpinning that was never actually the right fix for your problem, because the permit process usually isn’t set up to check the diagnosis, only the engineering of the proposed repair. That’s a meaningful gap, and it’s part of why some jurisdictions are starting to require a sealed engineer’s investigation report as part of the permit itself.

What kind of engineer should I call?

For foundation distress caused by soil movement, the right expert is usually a forensic geotechnical engineer, not a general structural engineer. Most people assume a structural engineer is the one to call, but geotechnical engineers are the ones who understand soil layering and behavior in detail — they sample and study soils in a given area regularly, in a way most structural engineers don’t. The exception is crawl space foundations, which a structural engineer is often better positioned to analyze.

My foundation repair specialist says my home will continue moving. Is that correct?

Take that prediction with real skepticism unless it’s coming from a geotechnical engineer, because a non-geotechnical opinion on future soil movement doesn’t have a reliable basis behind it. Past performance isn’t always a dependable indicator either, since underground soil layering can involve contributors that aren’t obvious from the surface — subsurface moisture movement, the overburden of existing soils, and how those soils react to changing conditions all play a role, and sorting that out takes real geotechnical analysis, not a guess based on what’s been observed so far.

How can I save money on the overall project if I’m paying additionally for engineering analysis?

In most cases, hiring the engineer up front actually saves money rather than adding to the bill, for a few concrete reasons. The project may not need serious work at all — in that case you save nearly the entire cost of the repair, which can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. A contractor working without an engineer’s plan may also over-specify the number of piers, at $2,000 to $3,000 each, so saving even one pier can cover the entire cost of the engineering. Getting bids from three contractors is nearly impossible to compare fairly when each one proposes a different scope of work, but a plan from an engineer gives every contractor the same defined scope to bid against, which sharpens their pricing through real competition. And when the engineer also acts as designer and special inspector on the job, they can catch contractor add-ons before they happen and seal the finished work as having been done to their specifications — which does more for your home’s resale value than a “lifetime warranty” that won’t cover a design error or something that was missed in the first place.

"...a great resource for homeowners that want to learn how their house foundations work and make informed decisions regarding foundation repairs. "

—Randolph Marwig, P.E. President Western Technologies Inc.

"Using anecdotes and real life experiences, Bob shared ideas and a vision in his book Foundation Repair Secrets that will likely save a lot of people time and money on their foundation repairs. "

—Clint L. Mueller, P.E.

"An easy-to-read guide for homeowners with distressed houses in need of repair."

—Chet L. Pearson, P.E.
Arizona