Foundation services

Foundation repair services

Start from what you are seeing. Six services solve six different problems, and the costly mistake is buying the wrong one.

Updated August 16, 2026

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Written by HyreFoundation Research Desk Primary-source research and fact checking

The short answer

Foundation repair services fall into six core jobs: inspection, underpinning with piers, concrete leveling, bowing wall stabilization, basement waterproofing and crawl space repair, plus the narrower jobs listed below them.

They fix different problems: settlement, sideways soil pressure and water are not versions of one thing. Start with gutters and grading, then buy an independent foundation inspection before any repair bid.

HyreFoundation does not perform foundation work. These pages help you judge a diagnosis, a scope and a bid.

Which foundation service do I need?

Start from what you are seeing, not a service name. This table is the shortest route from one to the other.

What you are seeing	Where to start
Cracks appeared and you do not know if they matter	Which foundation cracks matter
Floors slope, doors and windows stick	Foundation inspection
A basement wall is bowing inward	Bowing wall stabilization
Water comes into the basement after rain	Basement waterproofing and drainage
Water sits against the house, or the ground slopes toward it	Drainage and grading
The crawl space is damp, musty or has standing water	Crawl space repair and encapsulation
A patio, driveway or garage slab has sunk	Slab lifting and leveling
A contractor told you that you need piers	Get an independent scope first
You are buying a house with a disclosed foundation repair	Buyer checklist
You want to know whether it is getting worse	Start an elevation log

What are the six foundation services?

Each card says what the work is and when it fits. The inspection comes first because it is the step that makes every later bid comparable.

Buy this first Foundation inspection and engineering assessment Elevation survey, cause and a written scope. The only service here that delivers information instead of concrete. Buy it before any repair bid. How it works Settlement Underpinning and pier installation Push piers, helical piles or drilled piers carry the footing down to firm soil. For diagnosed settlement, after drainage is fixed and an engineer has set the scope. How it works Sunken flatwork Slab lifting and leveling Mudjacking or polyurethane foam lifts a sunken slab back toward level. For driveways, patios and garage floors when the footings are sound. How it works Sideways pressure Bowing and leaning wall stabilization Carbon fiber straps, steel beams, wall anchors or helical tiebacks resist soil pushing a basement or crawl wall inward, often with a horizontal crack. How it works Water Basement waterproofing and drainage Gutters and grading first, then interior drain tile, a sump or exterior waterproofing where water still gets in. Often the cheapest fix on this page. How it works Moisture and framing Crawl space repair and encapsulation Vapor retarder, drainage, the vented-or-sealed decision, and repairs to girders and joists. For standing water, musty air, sagging floors or rot. How it works

Which crawl space services exist?

Each of these is one part of crawl space work. Fix outside water first; most of them depend on it.

Moisture Crawl space encapsulation A sealed liner on the ground and walls with conditioned or dehumidified air, in place of vents. Code rules and the order of work. Read the guide Water Crawl space waterproofing Keeping liquid water out of a crawl space: grading, drains and a sump before any liner. Read the guide Air quality Crawl space mold removal Cleaning mold off framing only works once the moisture source is fixed. What the work involves. Read the guide Ground cover Crawl space vapor barrier A plastic ground cover that slows moisture from the soil. What the code asks for and where it falls short. Read the guide Energy Crawl space insulation Insulating the floor above or the crawl walls. Which one fits a vented or a sealed crawl space. Read the guide Moisture Crawl space dehumidifier Drying the air in a sealed crawl space. Sizing questions and what a dehumidifier cannot fix. Read the guide Water Crawl space drainage Moving water out of a crawl space with grading, perimeter drains and a discharge point. Read the guide Water Crawl space sump pump A pit and pump for crawl spaces that collect water. Where it fits and where it only hides a grading problem. Read the guide Clean-up Crawl space cleaning Removing debris, old insulation and wet material before repair or sealing. Read the guide Structure Crawl space support jacks Adjustable posts under girders. When they help, and why a permanent footing matters. Read the guide Structure Sagging floor repair Floors that dip or bounce: framing, posts and girders versus foundation movement. Read the guide

Which basement water services exist?

Each of these handles water in a different place. Rule out gutters and grading before any of them.

Walls Foundation waterproofing The membrane or coating on the outside of foundation walls, and how the code separates it from damp-proofing. Read the guide Inside Interior basement waterproofing A drain and sump inside the basement that manage water after it reaches the wall. Read the guide Outside Exterior basement waterproofing Digging out the wall to add a membrane and footing drain, stopping water before it reaches the wall. Read the guide Leaks Basement leak repair Finding where water gets in, from cove joints to cracks and window wells, before choosing a fix. Read the guide Leaks Foundation leak repair Sealing a leaking crack or tie hole in a foundation wall, and when injection is enough. Read the guide Diagnosis Wet basement repair Sorting condensation, seepage and flooding, because each one has a different fix. Read the guide Moisture Basement encapsulation Sealing basement walls and floor with a liner and controlling humidity. What it does and does not stop. Read the guide Drainage Basement drainage system Perimeter drains, a sump and the discharge line, as one system. Read the guide Drainage French drain installation A gravel trench with a perforated pipe that carries groundwater away. Needs a real outlet. Read the guide Drainage Interior French drain A drain under the basement floor edge that feeds a sump. How it differs from an outside drain. Read the guide Pumps Sump pump installation The pit, pump, check valve and discharge. What to confirm before the first storm. Read the guide Pumps Sump pump repair Common failures: switches, check valves and frozen or blocked discharge lines. Read the guide Pumps Battery backup sump pump A second pump for power cuts and primary pump failure. Read the guide Outside Foundation drainage correction Fixing grading, gutters and downspouts so water stops collecting at the foundation. Read the guide Code Egress window installation Cutting an opening in a foundation wall for an emergency escape window. Code sizes and why it is structural work. Read the guide

Which concrete and wall services exist?

Narrower repairs to slabs, block, stone and retaining walls.

Slabs Concrete lifting Raising a sunken driveway, patio or walk by filling the void under it. Read the guide Slabs Mudjacking Lifting a slab by pumping cement slurry under it. Where it works and where it does not. Read the guide Slabs Polyurethane concrete lifting Lifting a slab with expanding foam through small holes. How it compares with slurry. Read the guide Slab houses Slab foundation repair When a house slab cracks or moves: plumbing tests, drainage and piers, in that order. Read the guide Block walls Block foundation repair Cracked, leaning or leaking concrete block walls, and the fixes for each. Read the guide Old houses Stone foundation repair Repointing and stabilizing rubble and fieldstone foundations in older houses. Read the guide Site Retaining wall repair Leaning or bulging retaining walls: drainage behind the wall and when a rebuild needs an engineer. Read the guide

In what order should you hire foundation work?

The order you buy things in is the most consequential decision here.

Fix the water and watch

Correct gutters, downspouts and grading, then track movement with dated readings. In many cases that is the whole answer. See drainage and grading.

Buy an independent assessment

An engineer you hire and pay has no stake in the pier count. The report states a cause and a scope that every contractor can bid against. See do you need a structural engineer.

Take bids against one scope

Give every bidder the same written scope and compare line by line. The checklist is on choosing a foundation contractor.

Which foundation distinctions do people get wrong?

Settlement and heave are opposites

Settlement is the house going down. Heave is soil pushing part of it up. They crack walls in similar ways but are corrected in opposite directions, so piers against heave can make it worse. See why foundations move.

An assessment is not a quote

An assessment finds the cause and sets a scope. A quote prices a scope. A company offering both for free has an incentive worth knowing about. That does not make it wrong, only not independent.

Waterproofing is not damp-proofing

The building code treats them as different requirements with different triggers, while ads use the words interchangeably. Get in writing which one you are buying. The difference is explained here.

Stabilizing is not lifting

Most structural repairs can reliably stop movement. Recovering the original position is harder and less certain, and "maximum practical recovery" promises nothing you can measure. Compare repair methods.

Get connected

Tell us about the work

Three short steps: the job, your home, and how to reach you. Nothing goes to a foundation company unless you agree.

A straight answer first. A person reads it and replies by email, free and with no obligation. Matching is not live yet, so this is not a quote. If a wall is moving or a door frame has racked out of square this week, call a structural engineer first.

Find a Foundation Professional

A person at HyreFoundation reads the request and replies. Matching is not live yet, so this is not a quote.

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Questions

Does HyreFoundation perform foundation repair or inspections?

No. HyreFoundation is an independent foundation resource. We do not inspect houses, write engineering reports, install piers, lift slabs or waterproof basements, and we do not supervise or warrant anyone who does. Matching homeowners with companies is still being built.

Which foundation service do I need?

Start from the symptom, using the table above. Often the answer is the cheapest item on this page: fixing grading and gutters, then watching for six months. If you suspect real structural movement, buy the assessment before any repair.

Why should the inspection come before the repair?

Because an engineer you pay has no financial stake in the pier count, and their report is the document every contractor bids against. Without it, three quotes are three different diagnoses at three prices, and comparing them tells you little.

Is a free inspection from a repair company the same thing?

No. It can be completely honest and still be a sales visit, because the assessor works for the company that would be paid to fix it. That describes the incentive, not the person. Two free inspections are two sales visits, not two opinions.

Can drainage work fix a foundation problem?

Yes, it can stop one getting worse, which is often what matters. Soil moves when water does. Where water collects against the house, fixing grading and gutters addresses the cause, and it protects any structural repair you still need.

How do I compare foundation repair quotes?

Give every bidder the same written scope, then compare line by line. For piers, that means method, pier count, pier locations, assumed depth, the rate for extra depth, target lift, plumbing tests and restoration. Two single-number quotes cannot be compared.

Written and audited by

HyreFoundation Research Desk

Primary-source research and fact checking

We read the model building code, the federal soil and moisture guidance and the insurer position ourselves, and we publish each figure with the document it came from and the date we retrieved it.

Where a number cannot be traced to a primary source, we say so instead of printing it. HyreFoundation does not inspect, engineer or repair foundations. Authorship is organizational: this desk, not a named persona.

40: pages published on this site
12: free tools, each showing its assumptions
0: foundation repairs we perform or sell
0: paid placements or rankings

How this desk works

Primary sources only. Code statements come from the International Residential Code, Chapter 4, as the model code. Soil statements come from USDA and USGS. Insurance statements come from the policy language and the Insurance Information Institute. We open the source rather than cite a blog that cites it.
The code is a model, and adoption is local. Your jurisdiction adopts an edition and amends it, and foundation chapters are amended more than most because frost depth and soil are local facts. Every code figure says so.
We hold no job data. We have no dataset of bids, pier counts or invoices, so no page claims an average from one. Calculators show the arithmetic and the inputs they assumed, and label the result as an estimate.
We do not diagnose your house. A crack guide can tell you which pattern to measure and when to call a structural engineer. It cannot tell you whether your foundation is failing. An engineer on site does that work.
We do not repair foundations, and we take no payment for placement, ranking or a favorable mention. Nobody buys a position on this site.

Authorship on this site is organizational: the analysis belongs to the desk rather than to a named individual, and we do not publish credentials we do not hold. Our editorial policy sets out how we source, date and correct what we publish.

Sources & retrieval dates

Guidelines for the Evaluation and Repair of Residential Foundations, Version 3 (2022): Levels of Investigation , ASCE Texas Section Retrieved September 18, 2026.

International Residential Code, Section R406: foundation damp-proofing and waterproofing , International Code Council, read via the UpCodes mirror Retrieved September 18, 2026.

International Residential Code, Section R401.3: surface drainage , International Code Council Retrieved September 18, 2026.

Information on this page is general and varies with soil, climate, foundation type, building code, insurance policy and circumstance. It is not engineering, insurance or legal advice. HyreFoundation is an independent foundation resource, not a foundation repair contractor or an engineering firm, and does not perform, supervise or warrant foundation work.

Which foundation service do I need?

What are the six foundation services?

Which crawl space services exist?

Which basement water services exist?

Which concrete and wall services exist?

In what order should you hire foundation work?

Which foundation distinctions do people get wrong?

Tell us about the work

Questions

HyreFoundation Research Desk

Sources & retrieval dates

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