Foundation raising in Monrovia CA - your home lifted evenly and set back down

Most people who call about this have floors that slope, doors that stick or a crawlspace foundation that's crumbling, and they want to know if the house can be saved without tearing it down. The price moves with the size of the house, its foundation type, how high it has to go and how much repair is waiting underneath. The schedule turns on the prep work, the weather, inspections and that same repair list. When I walk your job, I measure it and write down what's included, like removal and hauling, so you can see what the number covers.

I start by working out who runs the job and who handles each step, because raising a house takes several trades. Once the house is cleared to go up, the lifting crew digs under it, sets steel beams with jacks beneath them and raises it slowly and evenly. With the house in the air, our crew breaks out the bad concrete and digs down and packs the base, so the new footings, the wide concrete pads a foundation stands on, aren't sitting on loose dirt. Before we pour, I settle where water will run around the new foundation, because water sitting against concrete is behind most of the failed work I've torn out. The house goes back down only after the concrete has cured, which is the wait while it gains strength before it carries weight.

Some jobs need more than the foundation. When old concrete has to come out in tight spots without shaking the rest of the house, concrete cutting lets us take it out in clean sections. If the equipment has to cross a driveway that was already cracked or sinking, you can plan on a new one through our concrete driveway building work once the house is down.

If your house is a historic landmark or sits in a historic district, the city's Historic Preservation Commission has to issue a certificate of appropriateness before any alteration or demolition there. You apply through the city's Planning Division with the fee and plans, including drawings that show how the work relates to the historic features around it. Whether your raise counts is the city's call, not mine. That's why, if your home is on the city's historic list, we have you check with the city before we plan anything, and we check with the city office for your address before we set a date.

Around Monrovia we mostly see older houses with crawlspaces, mature trees and tight side yards, and we run into the same thing on jobs in Sierra Madre and Pasadena. Pavers, shrubs and fences in the way of the equipment usually get moved, and crews work around trees where they can, so we walk the yard with you first. We're based in Monrovia and work across the San Gabriel Valley.