One of the big selling points that foundation repair contractors often make with potential customers is the assurance of a lifetime warranty for any work that is done. While this may sound like a wonderful thing, it’s really not as good as it sounds. The contract that is signed between the contractor and the homeowner is full of get-out-of-jail-free cards and loopholes that allow the contractor to get away with whatever they want to. 

On top of that, as the industry continues to consolidate, many of these companies are now owned by increasingly larger conglomerates that make it very difficult for a homeowner to prevail in any kind of legal action against them. Before, when most companies were owned by mom and pops, it was significantly easier to get the owner’s attention and get them to do the right thing.

Examples of Exceptions

In this blog, I’m going to outline several of the loopholes that I am familiar with. However, this is not by any means an exhaustive list, as there may be new ones being introduced all the time that I’m not even aware of. 

Design

The first example is one of the design works done by the “design specialist.” The lifetime warranties provided by foundation repair companies specifically extend only to the performance of an installed pier and its ability to keep the house from settling at that location. Most contracts specifically call out that this is the only warranty, and that other claims and conditions are not valid and will not be honored.

Therefore, if the “design specialist” happens to come up with a faulty design, that design or its performance will not be covered under the warranties put out by the contractor. In fact, these designs are not even overseen by state contractor boards, as they only oversee workmanship standards, not design. So, if the piers are on the wrong side of the house, or if there are too many or too few, the warranty will not cover this eventuality.

Acts of God

Most contracts between contractors and homeowners specifically exclude acts of God. This means if there is a flood, whether it be natural or artificial through plumbing, or earthquakes, wind events, or other phenomena out of the ordinary, all warranties are now off the table as a result.

This means that even if the house was underpinned improperly and settlement occurred later on, if that settlement resulted in a pipe break that flooded under the house, all of the warranties would be null and void as a result of this pipe break, which, after all, was caused by an improper underpinning.

Only the Area Underpinned

Almost every contract I have ever seen excludes areas outside of the area underpinned. Most of them specifically state a distance, such as 4 feet beyond the pier. What that means is that if you have foundation settlement and it is more than 4 feet away from any pier, it will not be covered under any warranty whatsoever. This is important if interior bearing walls are not identified. See further below.

In addition, the contracts state specifically that the house must move a certain amount, usually 3/8 of an inch, before any kind of action is necessary by the contractor. I have even seen larger amounts. And, of course, proving this amount of movement can be problematic.

Heave vs Settlement

Most contracts that I have seen specifically exclude any damage to the house from expansive soil heave. This is a problem, as it may have been the only problem to start with, but was, in fact, misdiagnosed. See my previous blog here.

Five years after the work is done, the conversation goes something like this. The homeowner says, “Hey, I’m getting new cracks. You guys need to come out and honor your warranty.” The contractor then sends out his experienced troubleshooter, who promptly says, “Oh, these problems are from expansive soil heave, and it says right here in our contract that piers can’t stop heave, so therefore we cannot warranty any heave.” 

Then the homeowner says, “Hey, if this is heave, didn’t you misdiagnose it in the first place?” The contractor then answers, “Hey, what do we know? We’re not engineers. We’re just dumb contractors.”

Drainage Improvements

Often, the contract will include provisions that require the homeowner to make improvements to the grading and drainage around the house that are outside of the scope of this contract. If the homeowner does not make those improvements, the contractor then has an out for any warranties provided.

Non Refund

Be careful when signing the contract because most contracts say that they are non-refundable. After a certain amount of time, usually only three days, the deposit that is taken at the time of signing is now nonrefundable. Sometimes this is a significant amount of money, and still will not be refunded.

Must Have a Copy of Warranty

I have seen contracts explicitly state that unless the homeowner has a copy of the warranty, it will not be honored. Sounds crazy, but it is true, and I have seen it many times. 

Incidental Damage

Almost every contract excludes any responsibility for incidental damage, either during the work or from settlement afterward. Let’s suppose that somebody gets underpinning done by a foundation repair contractor and then buys all new tile work and paint, repairs the drywall, and cosmetically fixes all the problems in the house. 

Five years down the road, the house starts to settle for any reason. The contractor is not held responsible by contract to fix any of those problems. The contractor’s sole remedy, as stated in the contract, is simply to go to the house, excavate the piers, adjust them as needed, and that’s it.

Lateral Movement

Most contracts exclude lateral movement. This means any damage or movement as a result of horizontal movement. Be extra careful if your home sits on any slope at all, because this could cause lateral shifting, which will not be covered by any warranty that the contractor has. Foundation repair contractors and their sales reps don’t have the skills to understand, evaluate, or prescribe repairs for them. It’s another reason why a forensic design engineer should be consulted on every project to make sure that problems like this are accounted for and dealt with in a way consistent with engineering principles.

It is not just a matter of simple lateral movement. Often, layers can slip in ways that are not understood by non-geotechnical engineers.

Interior Bearing Walls

This assumes the contractor does not figure out that some walls in the house are interior bearing. Perhaps there is a wall between the garage and the house, as is commonly encountered. 

If the contractor does not realize that this is an interior bearing wall and proceeds to underpin the area on the outside of it along the perimeter of the house, but does not underpin the load-bearing wall on the inside of the house, that wall could easily fail. And since it is more than 4 feet away from the perimeter piers, it will not be covered under warranty and therefore must be fixed in the future at the homeowner’s expense.

See illustration below.

There are many more loopholes in these contracts. Even if there are no loopholes, enforcing them can be problematic, as it’s David against Goliath — and not in a good way. What is a better alternative? A forensic engineer. A forensic engineer understands the mechanisms of failure with the proper gathering of site data and develops a repair plan with specifications for contractors to install. That is a much better assurance than these flimsy foundation repair lifetime warranties.

In addition, the engineer can then special inspect the project to make sure that it gets installed per his design intent, and, in the end, the engineer can sign off on and seal that the work was done properly. This is something meaningful and has a much better chance of having the whole house foundation perform properly over a long period of time.