Independent · Texas metros
Foundation repair near you: find out what yours is actually doing
Before you get a quote, it helps to know what you are looking at. We explain the warning signs in plain language, publish general repair cost ranges, and connect you by phone with a licensed foundation contractor near you for a free, no-obligation inspection.
- Free call, free visit, no obligation to hire
- Licensed, independent local contractors
- A referral service — we don't repair or quote
Talk it through
Describe what you're seeing
Not sure whether it is serious? That is the most common reason people call. Say what you are looking at and someone will tell you whether it sounds like something worth having measured.
(844) 881-1812Mon–Sat, 7am–9pm CT
Can't talk now? Request a callback →Before you dial
What happens when you call
Nobody enjoys calling a number on a website without knowing what is on the other end of it. Here is exactly how the call goes, so you can decide whether it is worth your time.
First minute
You describe the symptom
Where the crack is and roughly how wide. Whether doors have started sticking. Whether the floors feel off. Whether it has changed since last summer. You do not need technical language — "the back door won't shut and there's a crack up the brick" is a perfectly good description.
Next couple of minutes
A few questions about the house
Address or ZIP code, roughly when the house was built, whether it is a slab or pier and beam if you know, and whether there has been any plumbing trouble or a jump in the water bill. That last one matters more than most people expect — a leak under a slab causes movement on its own.
End of the call
A free inspection, or not
If it sounds worth measuring, a licensed contractor covering your ZIP code books a free on-site visit. If it sounds like normal cosmetic cracking, you will hear that too — and nobody will push you into an appointment you do not need.
Worth having to hand
- Roughly when you first noticed it, and whether it has changed
- Any history of plumbing leaks or unexplained water bills
- Whether the house has had foundation work before
- What happens in the yard when it rains hard
Where we cover
Texas metros, because that's where the soil moves
We cover the four Texas metros where expansive clay causes the most foundation movement in the country. Each city page covers the soil under that specific metro, the foundation types common there, what local permitting looks like, and how the market tends to differ across it.
Texas
Foundation repair in Dallas–Fort Worth
Houston Black clay under most of the Metroplex, plus a hard drought-to-downpour swing that moves slabs more than almost anywhere in the country.
Read the DFW guide →
Texas
Foundation repair in Houston
Beaumont clay, a shallow water table, and measurable regional subsidence — Houston foundations move for reasons that have nothing to do with the house itself.
Read the Houston guide →
Texas
Foundation repair in Austin
The Balcones Escarpment splits the city: limestone and rock on the west side, deep Blackland clay to the east. Two very different foundation problems in one metro.
Read the Austin guide →
Texas
Foundation repair in San Antonio
Houston Black and Branyon clays on the east and south sides, thin soil over limestone in the Hill Country north — plus the most extreme wet/dry swings of the four metros.
Read the San Antonio guide →
Warning signs
What homeowners usually notice first
Almost no one discovers a foundation problem by looking at the foundation. They notice something odd about the house — a door that has to be shouldered open, a crack that was not there last summer — and go looking for a reason. Here is what those signs tend to mean, and what they do not.
The vocabulary is worth untangling, because people use these terms interchangeably and they are not the same thing. Foundation settling is downward movement as soil compresses or loses volume — some of it is normal in the first years of a house's life. A sinking foundation is the same process gone further, far enough that one part of the structure is measurably lower than another. House settling cracks are what that movement leaves behind in the finishes, and a foundation crack is a crack in the concrete itself — which, confusingly, is often the least informative of the lot, since concrete cracks as it cures whether anything has moved or not.
One caveat worth stating plainly: none of this is a diagnosis. Houses crack for lots of reasons that have nothing to do with the foundation, and the only way to know which one applies to yours is to have somebody measure it.
Stair-step cracks in brick
Cracks that climb diagonally through the mortar joints, usually near a corner or above a window. Mortar is weaker than brick, so when one part of the wall drops relative to another, the crack follows the joints. Width matters more than length: a hairline is common, while a joint you can slide a nickel into is worth having looked at.
Doors and windows that stick
A door that latched fine for ten years and now catches at the top corner is telling you the frame is no longer square. Humidity swells doors too, which is why this sign is most useful when it persists across seasons or when it shows up in several doors on the same side of the house.
Sloped or uneven floors
Put a marble down and see what it does. Most homes have some deviation, and older homes have quite a lot. What contractors measure is the difference in elevation across the slab; the pattern of high and low points tells them more than the total number does.
Gaps at trim, counters and cabinets
Crown moulding separating from the ceiling, a gap opening between the backsplash and the countertop, baseboards lifting off the floor. These show up when one part of the structure moves and the finish carpentry, which was installed square, does not move with it.
Cracks in drywall above openings
Door and window openings are the weak points in a wall, so stress concentrates at their corners. A short hairline at 45 degrees from a door frame is extremely common and usually cosmetic. A crack that keeps reopening after you patch it is a different conversation.
Water where it should not be
Soil that stays wet against the foundation, a flower bed that holds water, an unexplained jump in the water bill, or a warm spot on the slab. Water is the accelerant in nearly every foundation story, and a leaking supply or sewer line under a slab can cause movement all on its own.
A basement or retaining wall that is visibly bowing or leaning inward, a crack that is measurably wider than it was a month ago, or foundation movement alongside a suspected plumbing leak. These are the situations where waiting tends to cost more than acting.
The underlying cause
Why so much of this happens in Texas
Foundation repair demand is not evenly spread across the country, and the reason is geology rather than construction quality. A broad belt of Texas sits on expansive clay — soils whose clay minerals take on water between their particle layers and physically swell, then contract again when they dry out.
Houston Black clay, the state soil of Texas, is the best-known example. It runs under the Blackland Prairie through Dallas, down through Waco and Austin's east side to San Antonio, and it can change volume enough between a wet spring and a drought August to move a slab measurably across a single season. Houston has its own version in the Beaumont Formation clays, with a shallow water table and regional subsidence layered on top.
That seasonal cycle is why Texas foundation problems so often show up after a hot, dry summer, why they concentrate around the perimeter of a slab where the soil dries fastest, and why so much of the advice you will read locally is really about moisture management: drainage, gutters, root barriers, and watering the perimeter during drought.
Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska share the same shrink-swell clay problem at lower population density, with freeze-thaw cycling added. Those markets are on our roadmap.
What it costs
Repair pricing, without the runaround
Foundation repair pricing is opaque by default, and that is most of what makes homeowners uneasy about it. The work is priced per support point, per square foot, or per linear foot depending on the method, and two contractors can price the same house very differently because they are proposing different solutions to the same symptom.
Foundation Repair IQ does not quote prices and does not perform repairs. The figures below are general industry ranges published for orientation only — not quotes, not estimates for your property, and not binding on any contractor. Foundation pricing is set by the contractor after an on-site evaluation, and your actual cost may fall outside any range shown here.
| Work | General range | Priced by |
|---|---|---|
| Seal a non-structural crack | Several hundred | Per crack |
| Concrete pressed pilings | Several hundred | Per pile |
| Steel push piers | $1,000 – $2,000 | Per pier |
| Helical piers | $1,400 – $2,500 | Per pier |
| Slab lifting (mudjacking or foam) | $5 – $25 | Per sq ft |
| Pier and beam re-level | Mid four figures up | Whole house |
| Independent engineer's report | High hundreds | Per report |
Full foundation repair cost guide, including what changes the number →
How this site works
We'll be straight about our part in it
Foundation Repair IQ does not repair foundations, does not employ the contractors we connect you with, and does not quote prices. We are paid by our partner network when we connect a homeowner with a contractor. That is worth knowing when you read anything on this site.
It also shapes a few things we deliberately do not do:
- We publish no contractor reviews, ratings or "best of" lists. We would have a financial reason to shade them and you would have no way to tell.
- We publish no specific prices. Only general industry ranges, always labelled as such. We are not the contractor and nothing here is a quote.
- We use no countdown timers or manufactured urgency. Foundation movement is seasonal and slow, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest.
- We never tell you what your house has. Only what a symptom can indicate, and who is qualified to establish the rest.
Vendor research
How to choose a foundation repair company
Texas does not license foundation repair contractors at the state level, so the quality floor is set by the individual company rather than by a regulator. That puts more weight than usual on the checks you can actually make yourself. These are the ones that tell you something:
- Insurance you have seen. General liability and workers' compensation, as certificates, not as a claim on a website. A licensed foundation repair contractor in a state that licenses the trade is one thing; in Texas, insurance and permits are the verifiable part.
- An engineer involved in the design, not just the sales call. Professional engineers are licensed by the state and carry liability a salesperson does not.
- Measured floor elevations, before and after. "We could see it was low" is not a measurement. Any competent company can show you the numbers.
- A written warranty you have read. Transferable lifetime warranties are common in this industry and vary enormously — whether they cover the piers only or the whole structure, whether they survive the company being sold, and whether future adjustments are free or billed.
- The permit. Nearly every Texas city requires one for underpinning. The contractor pulls it; you should see it.
- Two estimates, minimum, on anything substantial — and compare the scope rather than the totals.
Most companies offering residential foundation repair also handle commercial work, and most offer the same core foundation repair services: piering and underpinning, slab leveling, pier and beam re-leveling, crack repair, drainage correction and root barriers. What varies is which methods they actually favor, how they price interior access, and what happens when something goes wrong two years later.
When you go looking for foundation repair contractors near me, the thing worth establishing early is whether the company works your ZIP code regularly or is traveling to it. Soil conditions change across a metro, and a crew that installs piers in your kind of ground every week is drawing on something a visiting crew is not.
Questions homeowners ask us
Is Foundation Repair IQ a foundation repair company?
No. Foundation Repair IQ is a referral service. We publish plain-language information about foundation problems and general repair cost ranges, and we connect homeowners by phone with independent licensed foundation repair contractors who work in their area. We do not perform repairs, write engineering reports, or quote prices, and we may be compensated when we connect you with a contractor.
How do I find foundation repair near me?
Start by working out which metro you are in and what your house sits on, because both change who is worth calling — the right contractor for deep Blackland clay in Garland is not necessarily the right one for shallow limestone west of Fort Worth. From there the checks that matter are insurance, permits, whether a professional engineer is involved in the repair design, and a written warranty you have actually read. Our guide to choosing a foundation repair company covers what to verify. If you would rather skip the research, call (844) 881-1812 and describe what you are seeing — we will connect you with a licensed contractor who works your ZIP code, and the inspection is free.
What happens when I call?
You describe what you are seeing — where the crack is, how long it has been there, what the doors are doing. The person on the line asks about the property: address or ZIP, roughly when the house was built, whether it is a slab or pier and beam, and whether there has been any plumbing trouble. If it sounds like something worth looking at, they arrange a free on-site inspection with a contractor covering your ZIP code. The whole call usually takes a few minutes, and there is no cost and no obligation at any point.
How much does foundation repair usually cost?
We cannot quote you a price — we are not the contractor and we do not set pricing. What we can describe is the general shape of the market: most residential foundation repairs reported nationally fall somewhere in the low to high thousands of dollars, with minor crack sealing at the bottom of that range and major structural work involving interior access well above it. The figure for any specific house depends on how many support points it needs and how hard they are to reach, which only an on-site evaluation establishes. Our foundation repair cost guide explains what drives the number.
Is the inspection really free?
The contractor visit arranged through this site is free and carries no obligation to hire anyone. What you get is a contractor’s assessment: they will typically take floor elevation readings, look at the exterior and interior symptoms, and give you a written estimate. That is not the same thing as an independent structural engineer’s report, which is a paid service and which you may want if the estimate is large or you would like a second opinion from someone with nothing to sell.
Does a crack in my wall mean my foundation is failing?
Not by itself. Concrete shrinks as it cures and nearly every slab develops hairline cracks in its first year or two. Drywall cracks appear from normal seasonal movement. What gets a professional’s attention is a pattern: cracks that are wider at one end, stair-step cracks through exterior brick mortar, doors that stopped latching, and floors that read out of level on a survey — several of those at once, getting worse over months. Any of these can indicate foundation movement, and only an on-site evaluation can tell you whether they do in your house.
Why does Texas have so many foundation problems?
Soil, mostly. A wide band of Texas sits on expansive clay that swells when it takes on water and shrinks when it dries out. The clay under Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, east Austin and east San Antonio can change volume enough between a wet spring and a drought summer to move a slab measurably, and a house poured on top of it rides that movement. Six of the fifteen U.S. metros with the heaviest foundation-repair demand are in Texas. See foundation repair in Texas for the regional picture.
How soon do I need to do something about it?
Foundation movement is usually slow — measured in seasons, not days — so for most homeowners this is not an emergency and there is time to get more than one opinion. The exceptions worth acting on quickly are a wall that is visibly bowing or leaning inward, a crack that is actively widening week over week, and any movement that appears alongside a suspected water or sewer leak, because water under a slab accelerates everything. If you are seeing any of those, get someone out sooner rather than later.
Do I have to give my details just to ask a question?
No. You can call and simply describe what you are seeing — plenty of callers are trying to work out whether they have a problem at all, and that is a reasonable use of the line. If you decide you want someone to look at the house, the contractor will need an address to schedule the visit. If you would rather not call, the callback request form does the same job more slowly.
Free call · No obligation
Get a straight answer about your foundation
Call and describe what you're seeing. If it sounds worth measuring, a licensed contractor in your ZIP code will come out free of charge and give you a written estimate you can take to a second opinion. If it doesn't, you'll hear that too.