Home & Real Estate

What to Expect From Your House Leveling Contractor – A Step-By-Step Guide

Leveling your home is a huge undertaking. However, it is a much less invasive option than digging up your foundation and is typically completed without causing major structural damage to your home. Foundation settlement or heaving can lead to sagging floors, pulling at walls and ceilings, and making doors and windows crooked. House leveling is the solution.

Contents

Inspection

Leveling your home is one of the first steps to fixing foundation issues. Uneven floors and other structural problems can cause serious damage to your home, and it is important to address them immediately before they worsen. Depending on your home’s foundation, there are different ways to level it. A professional can advise you on the best method after a thorough inspection.

Foundation heaving and many factors, including soil conditions, under-slab plumbing leaks, intrusive tree roots, and poor construction, may cause sinking. House leveling can correct these problems in slab or pier and beam foundations. It can be done using various methods, including installing pilings to fortify existing piers, rods, or braces to reinforce damaged support stations, mud jacking, or stabilizing the soil with a chemical mixture.

Estimate

Leveling your house can help fix structural problems. If you notice sunken floors, leaning walls, or doors that don’t open easily, your home may need to be leveled. For many reasons, foundations sink and heave, including volatile soil conditions, under-slab plumbing leaks, poor exterior drainage, and intrusive tree roots. A house leveling contractor will evaluate the cause of your foundation movement and provide a solution.

For homes with slab foundations, heaving is most commonly caused by the expansion and contraction of the clay soil beneath a home. For instance, experts in house leveling contractors Killeen, TX, will install support underneath your home to stabilize the soil and protect your foundation. This is called house lifting and can be combined with foundation repair for a comprehensive solution. Raising and leveling your house for pier and beam foundations follows similar procedures.

Scheduling

Although the method used for house leveling may vary based on foundation type, the go2al always lifts the structure back up to its original position. This will make the home safer by correcting unsightly floors, sagging walls, and out-of-plumb doorways and windows. Most homes that sit on slab foundations experience some degree of settling into the soil over time. This is usually a normal occurrence, but it can become a problem when it occurs faster than normal or when different foundation areas settle at different rates (differential settlement). To prevent differential settling, ensure that water drains away from the foundation and keep trees and other water-absorbing plants away from the foundation as much as possible.

Work

House leveling involves lifting a building back to a flat plane. This is performed to prevent major damage and protect the structure. This work must be done before any other repairs are completed. All foundations settle into the soil to some extent, even brand-new buildings. This is fine as long as the settling is uniform. However, heaving and sinking can cause serious problems with walls, ceilings, floors, and plumbing.

This is why getting a house leveling contractor out as soon as possible is important when you notice any signs of foundation movement. A good contractor will thoroughly inspect and find the problem’s source. They will also help you take steps to prevent the problem from reoccurring.

Completion

While a house leveling contractor can make your home perfectly level again, they are not miracle workers. If a foundation is sagging in one area, it will affect anything above it. It can pull at the walls and roof, rip up plumbing, or even crack drywall. A good foundation contractor will be able to spot these early signs of sinking and level the building as closely as possible without destroying it. If your home is on a pier and beam foundation, they will fortify the existing piers with pilings, cure sagging floors by adding braces or rods to the support stations, and stabilize the soil using a chemical mixture.