Foundation Repair Inspections

Free Home Inspections

Foundation Repair is an art form. It involves careful evaluations of both the inside and outside of your home. We go from room to room, documenting and taking pictures and looking for signs of movement. Some of the signs of foundation movement that we look for include:

• Cracks in the walls
• Lifting or shifting of your floor boards
• Windows and doors that won’t shut
• Leaking Roofs

All of the signs are symptoms of a greater problem that many home owners face – shifting foundations.  

Expansive Clay Soils of North Texas

In North Central Texas (and especially in Wichita Falls), there is a vast amount of Rolling Red Prairies. Click this link to the Texas Soil Composition – The Texas Land Almanac for a visual picture of Texas soil composition by region.

As indicated in the chart, the Wichita Falls region is home to Rolling Red Prairies which consists primarily of expansive Red Clay. This type of soil has a large affinity for water. They also undergo a vast amount of expansive and contraction during wet and dry seasons. This causes foundations to lift and lower constantly – nothing stays in place.

This generates a lot of stress on the slab, framework and walls of your home. Oftentimes these cracks start out small and go unnoticed. After a time, a home owner will notice these signs and worry about the cost of repairs. The danger – if these symptoms go untreated it can cause greater changes to take place in the home. Foundations can crack, voids can appear, roofs can leak or worse. The best treatment for these types of issues is an immediate consultation with Advocate Foundation Repair. We can immediately send out a team member to review and assess the extent of the foundation shifts.

As stated above, we provide you with an in depth analysis of your home. We document with photos of each room and images of both the inside and outside of the home. Once we determine the source of the shifting, we go beneath the slab of your home and install Concrete Risers, Shims and Hydraulic Lifts. We utilize these tools to bring your home back to level and back up our work with our Advocate Guarantee!

Documentation on Every Evaluation

Above are several images from a home that experienced foundation issues. As you can see the door frame into the bathroom had several large cracks and was no longer level. Door Frames and Windows are often targets of cracking and can prevent your home from sealing the air properly. This can also lead to expensive electricity bills due to escaping Air Conditioning (in the summer) or Heat (during the winter).

Fixing and leveling your home benefits more than just preventing further cracks. It helps to keep out the water, heat, chill and takes the stress out of the situation.

Steps to Repair Your Foundation

As previously stated, we inspect all areas of your home. First we start with a set of visual inspections of both the inside and outside of your home. Documentation is key here and we visit each room of the home and inspect walls, corners, flooring and check for any signs of shifting.

Second, we utilize a measuring tool called a Compulevel or Zip-level. This tool helps us to capture elevation changes across the length of your home. We can identify where the home is off and develop a plan for going beneath your home to being our repair.

Thirdly, once we’ve completed a thorough inspection of your home, we begin excavating sections of soil outside of your home. To go beneath the slab, we remove 2′ x 4′ sections of soil (enough for a crew member to squeeze through). Once we gain access, we go beneath your home to collect images and identify which points we will lift by using our hydraulic lifts.

Lastly, once we’ve set our hydraulic lifts at all of our stress points, we slowly lift your home. By standing outside of your home and using our Compulevel device – we carefully lift the home and bring it to level. Once the home is level, we replace the Hydraulic lifts with Concrete Pilings and Shims to create a tight brace below your home. These braces will become the new support for your home and will help alleviate the shifting that you’ve experienced due to our Red Clay Soils.

The Final Result: A Level Home!

At long last, you’ll have come from a shifting home to a settled home. You’ll be amazed at the difference in your home once this work is performed! As previously stated, we emphasize the importance of contacting us as soon as possible to address these foundation concerns. Allowing your home to undergo further shifting and settling will only cause additional problems and will increase the costs of repairs to your home.

Drywall, plumbing, electrical lines, windows, doors, roofs & slabs. These are all areas of the home that are negatively affected by shifting foundations. If caught soon enough, these may be less expensive repairs. However, if allowed to go untreated, these repairs may require complete replacements – thus vastly increasing the cost of the job.

If you have any concerns over your home and would like for an Advocate to provide a free in-home analysis – give us a call! We are here to provide you with an accurate, trust worthy evaluation of your home. Our company is based on strong Christian values and we believe that fixing the foundations of our homes is relative to fixing the foundations of our lives. It’s difficult to get started but once the work has begun the difference is life changing!