Cracks getting wider or doors starting to stick? We find what's moving your house, fix the cause and set it on firmer ground.
Foundation repair in West Palm Beach usually means underpinning, which takes the weight of your house off soil that gave way and moves it down to firmer ground or onto piers, so a settled wall rests on something solid again.
Most people call us when a crack they've lived with for years starts to look wider, or a door that always closed fine starts to stick. Not every crack needs piers, and I'll tell you which kind you've got. When it does need work, the price turns on how much of the house has moved, how many supports it takes, whether we dig inside or outside and whether an engineer has to design it. The schedule turns mostly on that design, the permit and the weather. If your job needs a permit, we check with the city's Building Division, pull it and set up the inspections. Your own number comes from the estimate, after I've seen the house.
I come out to look at your foundation and give the estimate, and I'll tell you up front if the job is smaller than you feared, or bigger, and what can wait.
The people digging along your footing are our own masons, so the plan I lay out at the estimate is the same plan the crew follows at your house.
I ran schedules for a busy construction company before I started this business in 2017, so we set a start day you can plan around and we show up on it.
Before anyone talks about piers, I look at where the water's coming from and how your cracks have changed over time, because a crack that grew last year tells a different story than one that's looked the same for a decade. When the job calls for a design, we bring in an engineer before we dig, which is also what one field guide advises, finding out why the foundation moved and having a structural or geotechnical engineer design how the weight gets moved. With the plan set, our masons dig down to the bottom of the footing, the concrete strip your walls sit on, set the supports the design calls for and backfill. We fix the water problem in the same job, because new supports under soil that keeps getting soaked are only half a repair.
When a house settles, the masonry on top of it feels it. A chimney that has cracked or pulled away from the wall may need chimney repair once the base is stable, and stair-step cracks running through brick joints usually call for tuckpointing, where we rake out the cracked mortar and pack in fresh. We do the foundation first. Pointing a wall that's still moving just means it cracks again.
Florida's certified contractor licenses cover the whole state, but registered ones only cover the cities or counties where the contractor holds a local certificate of competency, so ask which kind someone holds before you sign.
We're licensed and fully insured. Ask us which kind of license we carry at the estimate, the same question you should put to anyone who wants to dig under your house.
We're based in West Palm Beach and work across the cities around it in Palm Beach County, including Riviera Beach and Lake Worth Beach, with the same masons and the same way of planning.
Repair guides put the trench along a footing at about 3 to 4 feet wide, dug inside or outside the house, so plan to clear plants and stored things from that strip first.
Send the form and we'll get back to you within one business day to set a time. I'll come out, look at your cracks and the water around the house, and give you a free estimate with no obligation.
If you've marked a crack or taken photos over the months, have them ready, because how a crack has changed tells me more than how it looks today.
Tell me which doors or windows got harder to open or close and roughly when it started, since that points to where the house is moving.
Mention leaks, downspouts that empty at the wall or a yard that slopes toward the house, because the water usually has to be fixed as part of the repair.
Photos of footings, piers, block walls and repointed brick that help us talk through what a repair on your own house could look like.
Straight answers to what owners here ask most about cracks, piers, lifting a house and getting a permit for the work.
No. Hairline cracks from concrete curing are normal, and piers only make sense when cracks keep growing, doors and windows get harder to work, or a crack monitor, a small gauge fixed across the crack, shows the house is still moving. Watching a crack over time is how you find out whether piers are worth paying for.
Water is behind most settlement. A leaking line, a downspout that dumps at the wall or a yard graded toward the house softens the soil under the footing or washes it away, so a repair that doesn't fix the water source isn't finished. Tell me about any of those when you call.
Often, yes, at least back toward where it started. Hydraulic jacks working together on the pier brackets can raise a settled foundation, and the lift goes slowly and evenly so your drywall, tile and trim are less likely to crack. How far your house should come up is something we'll only know once the design is done and the footing is open.
The city's Building Division takes applications on its own permit application, listed with the building and permitting forms on the city's forms page. If you can't find the form you need there, the city can help at ds@wpb.org or 561-805-6700. If we're doing your repair, the permit is on us, as I said above.
It can be part of the job. Underpinning isn't only for houses that have settled. It's also used when an owner adds weight or a story, or when a deeper excavation goes in right next door. That's the kind of job where we bring in an engineer for the design before anyone digs.
Call (561) 220-1584 or send the form to find out whether you need piers or just a crack to watch, backed by our satisfaction guarantee.
