Services in Phoenix, AZ

From inspection to crawl space repair: every job covered in Phoenix

Water arrives in a small number of ways and leaves in a smaller number still. The pages below are grouped by which of those a job actually addresses, because the wrong category is the usual reason a foundation repair job gets done twice.

Three questions sort almost every inquiry. Has the floor or the slab edge moved, or is it a crack that has been there for years? Is it the slab itself or the perimeter it bears on? And has anyone measured it, or is it being read off the width of a crack? Answer those and the right page is usually obvious — and so is the wrong one.

First, find out what is actually happening

Foundation Repair Inspection in Phoenix, AZ

A foundation inspection takes relative floor elevations across the whole structure and writes them down, so the shape and size of the movement is a measurement rather than a description.

Then stop it getting worse

Foundation Drainage and Moisture Control in Phoenix, AZ

Water standing against a slab keeps the ground the house bears on wet, so the work is getting roof water and runoff away from the house before anything else is priced.

Repair what has already moved

Foundation Crack Repair in Phoenix, AZ

Cracks are repaired once movement has stopped. Sealing one that is still opening buys a season and removes the only thing telling you how fast the house is moving.

House Foundation Leveling in Phoenix, AZ

Leveling a house means installing support below the soil that is moving, then raising the structure back toward its original elevation as far as it will safely go.

Put the concrete back where it was

Concrete Leveling Repair in Phoenix, AZ

Concrete leveling raises a sunken slab by filling the void underneath it, either with a cement slurry or with expanding foam, and the concrete itself is reused.

Choosing between two methods you have been quoted

Pressed Piles vs Drilled Piers in Phoenix, AZ

Two ways of reaching support below the ground a slab has settled on. One is driven with the weight of the house, the other bored and poured to a designed depth. It is a common decision on a settled slab, and the two are quoted for the same house at different prices with different timelines.

Mudjacking vs Foam Lifting in Phoenix, AZ

Two ways of raising a sunken concrete slab: a cement slurry pumped underneath, or an expanding polyurethane foam injected through smaller ports. It is the choice on any flatwork that has dropped — a driveway, a patio, a garage floor — and both are offered for the same job at different prices.

Commercial and tenanted buildings

Commercial Foundation Repair in Phoenix, AZ

Commercial foundation work is priced from occupancy, phasing and engineered load before it is priced from area, because the building usually has to keep operating.

When you do not need foundation repair

Two things get mistaken for foundation failure more than anything else. The first is a hairline crack in mortar, plaster or a garage slab. If it has been there for years and has not widened, it is usually a shrinkage crack from when the material cured, not a structural one. The second is a door that binds for part of the year and swings free for the rest. That door is following the season. Wood framing takes on moisture and gives it back, and the door and its frame move with it. Neither one is a reason to put piers under a house. A contractor who quotes on either without measuring first is selling you the wrong job.

Two checks worth making before anyone quotes you.

• Date the crack. Mark both ends with a pencil and write the date on the wall beside it. Measure the width against something known: a dime is about a sixteenth of an inch. Look again in three months. A crack that has not moved is not an active one, and no pier will make it narrower.
• Watch one door through a season change. A door that sticks for part of the year and clears again when the season turns is tracking the weather. It is not a failing foundation. A door that has bound a little harder every year for two years is the one worth an inspection. That is the pattern to describe when you call.

If both checks come back quiet, wait a season and look again before spending anything larger.

Read what a Phoenix foundation repair job costs before calling anyone, and check the Phoenix Foundation Repair Co service area to see whether your street is covered.

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