Floors sloping, doors sticking or new cracks in the walls? We find why the house moved, then lift it back toward level.
Foundation raising in Laredo lifts a settled house back toward level. Under a pier-and-beam house we shim or replace the piers from the crawl space. Under a slab we lift it on piers driven down to soil that can carry the weight. It fixes the floors, but whether it lasts depends on fixing why the house moved, so that's where we start.
Most calls start with something you can see. A floor rolls toward one corner, a door won't latch or a crack runs up from a window. Once a floor tilts more than about 1 percent, most people notice it just walking across the room. Those signs tell you the foundation moved. They don't tell you why, and the why decides whether a lift holds.
The price depends mostly on what your house sits on and how many piers it takes. A slab costs more to raise than a pier-and-beam house, for reasons I explain below, and every added pier means more digging and more time. The schedule turns on the same things, plus any drainage or footing work the cause calls for. Your written estimate puts each of those on its own line, so you see your number before we start.
Two houses with the same sloping kitchen can need very different work. These are the things I look at first, because they decide the method, the time and the cost.
A pier-and-beam house sits on short posts with a crawl space under it, so we can reach the framing and shim or replace piers from below. A slab sits right on the dirt, so lifting it means setting piers underneath, driven down to load-bearing soil. That's a lot more digging, which is why slab work costs more.
A floor-level survey is a set of height readings taken across your floors, and it shows the foundation's shape on the day it's taken. Texas engineers' repair guidelines say one survey may or may not be enough to support a conclusion. If someone quotes you a lift, ask whether their read rests on more than one set of readings.
Helical piles are steel piles screwed into the ground instead of hammered in. One pile maker's guide says they can go in with portable equipment in tight indoor spaces, without the vibration driven piles cause. When a pier has to go inside the house or right against a wall, that difference matters.
I'm on every job from the first look to the last walk-through. Here's how it goes, so you know who does what at each step.
Call (956) 508-9209 or send the form and tell me what you're seeing in the house. We'll set a time for me to come out and look at it myself.
I check where the floors slope, look at how water runs around the house, take measurements and ask what changed and when. You get a written estimate with each part of the work on its own line.
If the job needs a permit, we take care of it with the city. Then our crew sets the piers or shims, with me on site, and we lift in stages so the rest of the house can keep up.
I walk the house with you before we pack up. The same engineers' guidelines say keeping soil moisture about even on all sides of the foundation may help, without overwatering, so we talk through that too.
Before we lift anything, I look for why the house moved, because leveling without fixing the cause just means doing it again. It's usually one of three things. Drainage is still soaking the soil on one side, a footing is too small for the load it carries, or the settling needed new piers and somebody used shims instead. A footing is the wider concrete base under a wall or pier. The plan fixes the cause along with the lift.
Then we lift partway to stable, not to perfectly flat. Most experienced crews work this way, because jacking a house hard toward level cracks plaster, tile and plumbing in rooms that were fine before. You give up a dead-flat floor and keep the rest of your house in one piece. That's the trade I'd make on my own house.
Some lifts involve other concrete. If a pier has to go where a slab or a walk is in the way, our concrete cutting work opens a clean section that patches neatly afterward. If your driveway settled along with the house or sends water toward it, it may be part of the cause, and rebuilding the driveway on a solid base can take care of both.
On a pier-and-beam house where the piers are sound and the soil under them is holding, new shims bring the floor back up. Shims are thin spacers set between pier and beam. It's the quicker, cheaper fix.
When piers have sunk or there aren't enough of them, shims just move the problem around until it comes back. New piers carry the house down to firmer soil, which takes longer but deals with the actual settling.
Send the form and we'll reply within one business day to set a time. I come out to look at the house myself, and the estimate is free, done on site and written out line by line. There's no obligation to go ahead.
(956) 508-9209Houses here sit on soil that moves. About 33 percent of Webb County's soil is high shrink-swell clay, the kind that swells when it's wet and shrinks when it dries. Across Texas, that movement shifts foundations and damages homes. On jobs around Laredo, we see it most where one side of a house stays wet from a downspout or sprinkler while the other side bakes.
Laredo's Building Development Services helps builders and homeowners with permits, and you can call them with permit questions at 956-794-1625. Whether your lift needs a permit is the city's call, so we check. When it does, we pull it as your hired contractor. Anyone doing work in the city also has to be registered with the city, and that's worth confirming before you hire anyone.
I learned concrete from my dad, setting forms on his jobs from the time I was a teenager, and I started this business in Laredo in 2021. I come out to look at every job myself, and our crew does the work with me on site. The person who sized up your house is there when it goes up.
We're fully licensed and insured. I'd rather tell you a lift won't help, or send you to an engineer, than sell you one I don't believe in, and you'll know what each part costs before we start. Your satisfaction, guaranteed. Call (956) 508-9209 or send us the form to set up a time.
Need an opening through a slab, a walk or a garage floor? A saw cut leaves straight edges that patch cleanly instead of a broken, jagged hole.
A driveway that's sunk, cracked or tipped toward the garage can feed water to your foundation, so replacing it on a packed base helps the house too.
We're based in Laredo, TX and do foundation raising in Laredo and the cities around it. If you're close by and not sure we reach you, call and ask.
Leveling a pier-and-beam or slab house across the US usually costs about $3,500 to $30,000 per job. That's a national range for the whole leveling job, not our price. Where your house lands depends mostly on slab versus pier and beam and how many piers it takes, and your written estimate gives your own number.
Usually, yes. Shimming a pier-and-beam house typically takes 1 to 3 days. Slab underpinning, which means setting piers under the slab, takes 3 to 7 days depending on how many piers it needs. Slab work is noisy and means digging around the outside of the house, so plan your days around that.
A properly leveled house on stable soil shouldn't need it again. When a house does need re-leveling, it usually means the cause was left in place. That's why we look for what moved your house before we lift anything, and why the cause is part of the plan.
The hired contractor typically pulls it, and that's how we handle it when a job needs one. If you pull the permit yourself, the city considers you the contractor on the job. For questions about whether your lift needs a permit, call the city's permit office at the number above.
Know whether your house is on a slab or pier and beam, and which rooms have sloping floors. If you've had a floor-level survey before, keep it handy, since more than one set of readings tells me more. A note on when the cracks or sticking doors first showed up helps too.
Call (956) 508-9209 or send the form with your foundation type and the rooms that feel off, so I show up knowing where to start looking.
