Your house keeps a record
A foundation that is shifting leaves evidence long before anything looks dramatic. The trouble is that the evidence is scattered: a hall door that drags on the carpet, a crack in the drywall above a closet, a strip of light under an exterior door that used to seal. Each one has an ordinary explanation on its own. Put together, and tracked over time, they tell you whether something under your Waco house is still moving.
Before you call anyone, spend an afternoon writing down what you can see. A dated list with photos makes every later conversation, with an engineer, a repair company or an insurer, faster and more honest.
Clues indoors
Walk each room slowly and look for:
- doors that swing open or shut by themselves, or whose gap at the top is tapered rather than even;
- cracks that start at the corner of a door or window frame and run on a diagonal;
- drywall tape lifting along a ceiling line, or a gap between a wall and the ceiling;
- tile or stone floors cracked in a straight run across several pieces;
- cabinets or countertops pulling away from a wall;
- floors you can feel sloping underfoot.
Hairline cracks in plaster or paint are normal in nearly every house. Width, direction and growth are what matter. Draw a short pencil line across each end of a crack and write the date beside it; if the crack passes your mark in a few weeks, note how far.
Clues outdoors
Outside, look at the brick or siding at the corners, the joint between the slab and any porch or patio, the garage floor, and the line where the driveway meets the garage. Stair-step cracks through mortar joints, a porch that has dropped below the door threshold, and a slab edge that shows a widening gap from the soil beside it are all worth a photo. Check whether any chimney has started to tilt away from the wall.
What the station numbers mean for the ground
Soil beneath a house takes on water and gives it up, and the weather sets the pace. NOAA's engineering weather data for Waco-Madison Cooper, at an elevation of 509 feet, gives a 1% summer design temperature of 99°F with a mean coincident wet-bulb temperature of 75°F, and a 99% winter design temperature of 26°F. The same Waco-Madison Cooper data lists about 22 freeze-thaw cycles in an average year.
Rain is the number to pay most attention to. The station's data gives a 100-year rainfall rate of 4.0 inches per hour. A downpour at anything like that rate overwhelms a clogged gutter in moments, and whatever runs off the roof lands somewhere along your foundation. Water that pools or soaks in at one corner, while the other side stays dry, is a common source of uneven movement in any house. What the soil under your particular lot does when it gets wet or dries out is a question for the person who evaluates it; ask them directly.
Drainage and plumbing come first
Most of what you can fix yourself is about water:
- Gutters. Keep them clean and firmly fastened. Waco-Madison Cooper's data lists a 50-year basic wind speed of 90 mph (a 3-second gust at 33 feet), and a gust that loosens a downspout can send a roof's runoff against one wall for weeks.
- Downspouts. Extend them several feet out so water leaves the house behind.
- Grading. Soil and mulch beds should fall away from the walls, not toward them.
- Pipes. A leak in a supply or drain line under a slab puts water where you can't see it. A water bill that climbs for no reason, or a meter that keeps turning with every fixture off, is the cue to have a plumber test the lines before any foundation work starts.
Find the cause before buying the cure
For anything more than cosmetic cracking, think about paying a structural engineer who doesn't sell repairs for a written report. Hand over your dated list and photos, and ask:
- Is the movement active, or did it happen years ago and stop?
- What is driving it: water, a leak, the soil, original construction, or a mix?
- What should be repaired now, what should be watched, and for how long?
How repairs range
Not every crack needs piers. At the small end, a repair is drainage correction plus sealing and monitoring. A slab that has sunk in one area may be raised with injected polyurethane foam or cement grout. Footings that keep settling may be underpinned with steel or concrete piers driven or pressed down to firmer bearing. Ask each company why it chose its method, how many piers or injection points it proposes and where, how deep it expects to go, and what will happen to the cracks you already have once the house is lifted.
When an insurance claim is involved
Whether a policy pays for foundation damage turns on what caused it and how the policy is written, so call your insurer and read the relevant sections before work begins. Keep the engineer's report and your photos with the claim. If the insurer's answer on a home or renters claim doesn't sit right, the Texas Department of Insurance suggests asking for an appraisal or hiring a public adjuster, and it takes complaints online or through its Help Line at 800-252-3439, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central time, Monday through Friday.
Permits and the TDLR search
Texas licenses certain trades, such as air conditioning and electrical work, and TDLR's online license search shows those records; there is no state general contractor license, so for other work the city permit is the thing to ask about. Ask every bidder which city permits the job needs, and who pulls them. Ask for proof of liability coverage and workers' compensation as well.
Put it in the contract
The written proposal should name the method, the number, type and location of piers or injection points, the target depth, any drainage work, plumbing tests, permits, cleanup and landscape repair, the payment schedule and the warranty. Ask whether the warranty transfers to a future buyer, and keep the paperwork where you can find it when you sell.