Foundation raising in Garden Grove CA - floors set back to level on solid support

House leveling across the US usually costs about $3,500 to $30,000 per job, and that's a national figure, not our price. Underpinning is priced per pier, and helical piers cost more each than steel push piers, so the count and the kind of pier move your number a lot. My written estimate shows both for your house.

You can usually stay home through it. One cost guide puts shimming a raised floor at about 1 to 3 days and lifting a slab at about 3 to 7 days, depending on how many piers it takes. Slab work is noisy and means digging around the outside of the house, so plan around that for those days.

A house that's leveled properly on stable soil shouldn't need it again, and needing a second lift usually means the cause was never fixed, like drainage that keeps soaking the soil. Check your floors with a level once a year, because movement that comes back within a few seasons means whatever caused it is still at work.

Get the engineer's report first and have each contractor bid against it, since bids written to the same report are much easier to compare, and one cost guide suggests getting three that way. Then check what each bid leaves out, because most contractors exclude drywall, trim and paint repair, and you'll want it in writing whether that's covered.

The Contractors State License Board has a building moving license class for contractors who raise, lower and underpin houses, including the foundation, though that class doesn't cover repairs to the parts of the house that stay put. Injecting concrete or mortar into a foundation to steady it falls under a separate class for pile driving and pressure foundation jacking. You can check any contractor with the board's license lookup, which shows license information and any complaints disclosed, and we're licensed and fully insured.

The City of Garden Grove takes new residential permit applications through its Development Access Website, and the city's permits page is the place to start. The state also maps liquefaction zones where foundation soils have to be investigated, and cities use those maps in permitting, though a single-family frame home of up to two stories that isn't part of a development of four or more units is exempt from the state rules, and a city can be stricter. At the estimate I'll tell you what I know about the city's steps, and I'll check with their office when I'm not sure.