Foundation Repair in Wichita Falls, TX

Your house moved. Here is what that means

When a house settles or heaves, it is almost never the whole house at once. One corner drops after a dry summer. One side lifts after a wet spring. The middle of a slab rises while the edges sink. The frame of the house tries to follow, and that is when you see cracks, sticking doors and floors that are not flat.

Foundation repair has two jobs. First, get the part that moved back as close to level as it can safely go. Second, keep it there, so you are not paying for the same problem in five years.

You do not need to figure out which fix you need before you call. That is what the free inspection is for.

What we can help you fix

Tell us what you are seeing in your own words. These are the problems Wichita Falls homeowners call about most:

• "There is a crack over my bedroom door and it keeps getting longer."
• "The back door will not shut unless I lift it."
• "My floors slope. A ball rolls to one side of the room."
• "The brick outside has a crack that looks like stairs."
• "The floor feels soft or bouncy in the hallway." This is common in older homes with a crawl space.
• "There is a gap between my wall and the ceiling."
• "Tiles in my kitchen keep cracking."
• "Water stands next to my house after it rains."
• "The cracks opened up last summer and closed in the spring." That back-and-forth is a classic sign of clay soil moving.

If any of these sound like your house, a local crew can tell you why it is happening and what it takes to fix it.

Why foundations move in Wichita Falls

Clay that swells and shrinks. USDA soil surveys show that common soils in Wichita County, like Tillman clay loam and Kamay silt loam, have subsoils that are 35 to 50 percent clay. Kamay's clay is the swelling kind, the same type geologists link to most shrink-swell soil problems. When it gets wet, it pushes up. When it dries, it pulls back. Under a house, the ground under one part rises while another part drops.

Deep cracks in dry years. USDA notes that Tillman soil can crack more than 4 feet deep when it dries out. Those cracks let the next big rain soak in deep and fast. Then the clay swells all at once.

Long droughts, then heavy rain. Wichita Falls gets about 29 inches of rain in a normal year. From 2011 to 2015, a long drought dried the ground and dropped the city's lakes to just under 19 percent. Then 2015 brought 50.5 inches of rain, the most the city had seen in a single year at the time. Many homes that had been fine for years started showing cracks after swings like that.

Water that stays put. USDA rates both of these soils as slow to let water through. If a gutter dumps at one corner, or the yard slopes toward the wall, that spot stays wet while the rest of the house stays dry. That uneven moisture causes a lot of the movement crews see.

River and creek ground. The Wichita River runs through Wichita Falls, and Holliday Creek joins it. A 1950 flood on Holliday Creek forced about 500 families out of low areas, and a 2007 Wichita River flood put water in 167 homes, according to the USGS. Homes on low ground near the river and creeks can see more soil movement after a flood or a wet season.

Plumbing and trees. A leak under a slab can soak one spot for months. A big tree close to the house can dry out the soil on one side in a hot summer. A good inspection checks for both.

How a local crew fixes it

The inspector picks the fix based on your house, your soil and what caused the movement. These are the common methods.

Pressed concrete piers

Short concrete cylinders are pushed into the ground under the edge of the house, one on top of another, with a hydraulic jack. They go down until they will not go any further. Then the house is lifted and the gap is filled with steel shims and concrete blocks. These are often the lower-cost option.

Steel piers

Steel pipe is driven down in sections, often deeper than concrete piers. Crews choose steel when firm ground sits deeper or when the load is heavy. Steel piers usually cost more each.

Pier-and-beam re-leveling

For homes with a crawl space, the crew goes underneath and resets the supports. They replace rotted wood shims, add new supports under sagging beams, and bring the floor back to level. See pier and beam repair.

Slab lifting and support

For slab homes, piers are placed along the outside edge and sometimes inside the house. See slab foundation repair for how inside piers work and what plumbing checks to ask about.

Fixing the water

If water caused the problem, piers alone will not stop it from coming back on the rest of the house. Gutter extensions, regrading and French drains keep moisture even around the foundation. See drainage correction.

Patching cracks

After the house is level, cracks in the slab, walls or brick can be sealed. See foundation crack repair.

What a good inspection covers

A real inspection is more than a look at one crack. Expect the crew to:

• Take floor level readings across the whole house, not just the problem room
• Map cracks inside and outside
• Open and close doors and windows to see which ones bind
• Check gutters, downspouts, grading and trees near the house
• Ask about plumbing leaks, sprinklers and when you first saw the problem
• Give you a written plan that shows where each pier goes and why

What moves the price

The table above shows typical ranges from published cost guides. They are not quotes. Your price comes in writing after the free inspection.

The number of piers drives most of the price. Inside piers cost more than outside piers because the crew has to cut or tunnel under the slab. Steel piers cost more than concrete. Drainage work, a plumbing test or an engineer's report add to the total. Read the full cost guide to see what else moves the number.

Questions to ask before you sign

1. Is the plan based on floor level readings across the whole house?
2. How many piers, what kind, and where do they go?
3. What does the warranty cover, for how long, and does it transfer if I sell?
4. Who pulls the city permit?
5. Does the price include cleanup, backfill and patching cracks?
6. What will you do about the water problem, if there is one?

The sooner you know what is happening, the smaller the fix tends to be. Call (940) 468-1786 or send the short form, and the price comes in writing before any work starts.