The Process

Slab Foundation Repair Process

Your project will be scheduled once you sign and fax, or email the contract to our office. No payment is due until the crew arrives on day one and we start the project. 50% of the job cost is due upon starting the project. We try to keep to a fixed schedule, but some jobs take a little longer than planned due to individual circumstance or changing weather conditions so our schedule is very dynamic and can change quickly. We will keep you informed of any schedule changes as your start day approaches.

How long does a job take? As a rule of thumb, plan on us completing 8-10 piers per day to get an idea of how long your job will take. Large jobs can add a day just for final clean up and concrete patching. Interior piers can add time because of prep work and final clean up.

Landscape care, what can you expect? Installing exterior foundation piers requires digging holes next to your foundation, approximately 36 inches square and 4- 5 feet deep and about 1 foot under the slab. Many home owners have bushes, planters, trees or grass next to their homes and this will be affected by our work. We will make an earnest attempt to prune bushes back to access our pier locations or to dig and remove your plants as best as possible. We can replant these items but we can offer no warranty that they will not be affected by this work. We are happy to do our best, but we are not landscapers so if your plants are important to you, we suggest you have them removed and replaced by your landscape company.

Plumbing/AC/Gas/Electrical lines: One of the first questions that comes to our clients mind is: “What happens to my mechanical lines like the plumbing and Gas lines? Will they be affected and who will pay for the repairs if they are”? The answer is, unless we carelessly break a mechanical line we are not responsible for the repair. If there is a mechanical line break, we may assist you to locate a professional repair person but we do not pay for these repairs. We have years of experience doing foundation repair, but we do not know where your plumbing lines are below the ground or the slab. We dig with extreme care but without knowing what is below the ground exactly, there is no way we can avoid ever having an issue of breaking a pipe. We are conscientious and cautious but pipes do occasionally get broken during the digging process. When we actually raise the home, plumbing lines typically come up with the house and there is no problem.. Since we are lifting to the original slab position, there is hardly ever a pipe breakage scenario from the lift. In fact, when a drain pipe does appear to break, it is usually at a coupling or joint and when the plumber repairs the pipe it is obvious that it has been a poorly glued joint for many years as the ground is wet or stinky from waste. Please understand we are cautious, we understand how houses are plumbed and we use common sense in all our efforts. To explain what is meant by us being careless and financially responsible for the repair, an example would be cutting the exposed A/C coolant line by swinging a shovel too close or breaking a hose bib off by the wheel barrow banging it. Please understand that we cannot see below the ground or under the slab and are not responsible for the cost of these repairs if they are required.

Getting your home prepared for the project; to prevent damage to personal items, we ask that you remove items from walls that may come loose or fall off from the work we will be performing. Not throughout your home but mostly in the area where we will be working. You will need to remove exterior items that may be in our way like hot tubs or items in your yard that need to be protected, outside grilling equipment or exterior furniture for example. When we are only doing exterior work, there is no need to be home for the project, but we will need access to the interior to monitor our lift and to check on the structure as we press piers. Interior piers will require access to the rooms in which we will be working and in general all the pathways to the interior and the exterior doors. It is not necessary to move out to do interior piers, but it can be a dusty invasive project to a normally clean and quiet home. If it is best to move out and stay in a hotel, we will work with you to ensure you are back in your home as soon as possible. We will personally review what will work best for you on an individual basis.

What will happen to sheet rock, tile floors and exterior wall surfaces from lifting my foundation? It may have taken years for your home to settle and show signs of stress on your wall and floor finishes. But actually your home is always under some form of stress due to the hydration fluctuations in the soil below the foundation which include weather changes and load/lift scenarios. As your foundation settles out of level, the lowest part of your home’s foundation actually starts to take on more of the load of your home, because the center roof fulcrum is shifting, causing the lowest part of your home to carry more load. Similar to a boat that lists to one side, more of the total weight goes to the lowest area of the structure. This is one reason a home that starts to settle usually starts settling faster and faster as it gets lower and lower. During this process, lots of energy is created and absorbed by the foundation, walls, roof rafters and finishes of your home by the tilting of the structure. Sometimes the stress on your home becomes obvious by cracks appearing and finishes popping off, or doors jambs that are out of square and windows that do not work. Other times the entire home moves as a unit and even though it is tilted, it shows little or no stress issues.

When we raise and level your foundation, we do this in a matter of hours. We lift for the purpose of closing cracks in your finishes, squaring up your door and window jambs, and leveling the floor. Our purpose is to bring your home back to its original as built condition and not cause additional or collateral damage by the lifting procedure. It is possible that the components of your home will cooperate and no damage will occur, but it is also possible that sheet rock and other finishes will show some new stress issues caused by the relatively rapid way the finishes are forced to go back to their original installed position. Furthermore, if you have been repairing the cracks in the drywall and bricks/stone veneers by filling and patching them, these surfaces will not be able to return to original positions and may cause stress and pop outs. Exposing all the cracks is recommended because we will close them with the lift process. If you have tile floors that were installed when the house was out of level, these can pop off when we raise the foundation, because the floor actually becomes shorter causing less space for the tile and grout. Sometimes removing some grout lines will allow the tile to be compressed and will be just fine after the lift. If the tile was installed before the slab settled, then usually it goes right back to where it was when it was installed and no tiles pop off. We can make no predictions of what will happen to your home’s finishes during the foundation repair. We will do our best to be safe and considerate with your home.

**Note: It takes time for all of the finishes in your home to release the stored energy caused by the stress of foundation repair on tilted surfaces. We recommend that you wait one month minimum, before patching and repairing cracked sheet rock. We recommend patching all exterior surfaces right away to prevent air, insect and water penetrations.

Final elevations: We took elevations of your home’s foundation to know what level condition it was in before work began, that is how we could plan the repair and bid your project. Once the home is raised, we will take new elevations showing the final post-lift elevations. We will keep this record on file to compare to future foundation checks on your home. You will get a copy of this document for your records.

Final payment: Final payment is due at the job site upon completion and final clean up.

Warranty issued: Upon receiving this final payment, we will draft the warranty document for your records. Final engineering documents will come from an independent engineering firm and may take two weeks to receive from the date of completion.

Douglas Foundation Repair - 12510 Edwards Hollow Run - Austin, Texas 78739