Foundation raising in Brawley CA - a house steadied first, then brought up with care
Sticking doors, new cracks or sloping floors? We check whether your house is still moving, then steady it and bring the floors back toward level.
- Licensed and insured.
- Free in-person estimates.
- Expect a reply within 1 business day.
What is foundation raising, and does my house need it?
Foundation raising in Brawley means lifting or underpinning your house and its foundation so a settled house stops moving and the floors come back toward level, and at Brawley Concrete we steady the house before we lift it.
Most people call us after a door stops latching or a crack over a window keeps getting longer, and they want to know if it's serious and what it'll take. The price turns on whether your house sits on a slab or on piers and beams, how many piers it needs and how far it has to come up, and the schedule turns on those same things, so the written estimate I give you after the visit lays out what's included for your house.
What does a settling foundation look like?
Doors that stick or won't latch
When a door that used to close fine starts rubbing at the top or the latch misses, the frame has usually gone out of square because part of the house dropped. It's a nuisance at first, but if the house is still moving, the gap grows and other doors start doing it too.
Cracks over doors and windows
Diagonal cracks running up from the corners of doors and windows usually mean the wall is being pulled as one side settles. A hairline crack that never changes is often old news, while one that keeps getting longer tells you the house hasn't stopped.
Floors that slope or dip
If a ball rolls to one side of the room or you feel a low spot as you walk across, the floor has dropped somewhere under it. Left alone, a dip that's still moving can crack tile and put strain on the plumbing that runs under the floor.
How we handle foundation raising
The first thing I want to learn is whether your house is still moving or settled a long time ago and stopped, because those are two different problems and they don't get the same fix. We look at the cracks, measure how far the floors are out of level and ask how long things have looked this way, then we steady the house before we lift anything. When we do lift, we bring it up partway on purpose, because forcing a house dead flat can crack plaster, tile and plumbing in rooms that were fine, and I'd rather leave a little slope than hand you a new set of repairs.
A raise often touches the concrete around the house. When we need to reach a footing under a patio or walk, or a slab section is too broken to keep, concrete cutting lets us take out just that piece with clean edges. If the same ground cracked your driveway, we can talk about building a new concrete driveway once the house is steady, so it goes in next to a house that's done moving.
Shimming a pier-and-beam house
If your house sits up on piers with a crawlspace under it, we can usually bring it back by adjusting and shimming the supports from below. It's the lighter of the two jobs, and it suits older houses that have sagged between piers.
Underpinning a slab house
A house on a slab gets piers set under its footing along the outside walls, and we lift from those points. It takes more digging and more piers, so it suits a slab house that's still moving or has dropped too far to live with.
Measure now, decide later
If your house looks like it settled long ago and quit, we may suggest checking the floors again after a while before lifting anything. It suits a house with old cracks that aren't growing, because there's no sense paying to chase movement that already stopped.
Get a written estimate for raising your foundation
We'll reply within one business day to set a time for me to come out. The on-site estimate is free and written out so you can see what's included, with no pressure and no obligation.
(442) 230-0492- Based in
- Brawley, CA 92227
- Hours
- Mon–Sun: 7 AM–10 PM
What happens after you call us about your foundation?
Here's how a foundation job runs with us, from your first call to the walk-through at the end, so you know who you'll see at each step.
Tell us what you're seeing
Call (442) 230-0492 or send the form, and tell us what's cracking or sticking and whether it seems to be getting worse. That one detail shapes the whole visit, so a few notes on when you first noticed it help a lot.
I come out and measure
I come out myself, walk the house with you, ask how you use each room and measure how far the floors are out. You get a written estimate showing the approach we'd take, how far we'd lift and what's included, so you know where the money goes before anything starts.
Paperwork and buried lines first
Once you're ready, we sort out any paperwork and get buried lines checked before anyone digs. A call to 811 gets gas, water and other lines marked with paint or flags so the crew knows where not to dig.
We lift, then walk it together
Our crew does the prep and the lift with me on site the whole time. When it's finished, I walk the house with you so you can open the doors and check the floors yourself.
Why Brawley homeowners call Brawley Concrete about a settling house
I come out to every job
When you call, I'm the one who comes out from Brawley to look at your house, and our crew does the work with me on site. You're dealing with the same person from the first look to the walk-through at the end.
Since 2020, after years fixing slabs
We've been in business since 2020, and before that I spent years patching walks and fixing cracked steps for a property management company. That's where I saw how many problems start under the concrete, which is why I look there first.
Licensed and insured, easy to check
We're licensed and insured. Look us up the way the questions below explain, because checking any contractor before they lift your house is worth doing.
Satisfaction guaranteed, said plainly
Satisfaction guaranteed. We tell you before we start how far we plan to bring the house up and why, so you know what the floors will be like when we're done.
If doors are sticking or a crack keeps growing, call (442) 230-0492 or request an estimate and I'll come take a look.
Foundation raising, licenses and local ground in Brawley
The City of Brawley requires every contractor to hold a City Contractor's Business License before working in the city, and that's on top of the state license. California's Contractors State License Board puts raising, lowering, cribbing and underpinning a house and its foundation under its building moving and demolition classification, and that class doesn't cover repairing the parts of the house that stay in place, so ask what else a bid includes and who's licensed to do it. If you live in a manufactured home or mobilehome, its foundation falls under the state's manufactured housing class instead. Before we start, we check with the city or county office that covers your address, and if your job needs a permit we take care of the application and keep you posted, the same as on jobs in El Centro and Imperial.
The USDA's description of the Imperial soil series says it forms wide cracks well below the surface when it's dry. That doesn't tell us what's under your lot, so on every job we look at how the ground around your house gets watered and drains, because ground that swings between wet and dry sits behind a lot of the settling we see around here.
Questions about foundation raising in Brawley
How much does it cost to level a house?
Across the US, leveling a house usually costs about $3,500 to $30,000 per job, and that's a national figure, not our price. A slab house usually runs higher than a pier-and-beam house, and the number of piers and how far the house has to come up move it from there, so your written estimate is the number to go by.
How long does foundation raising take?
One national cost guide puts shimming a pier-and-beam house at about 1 to 3 days and slab underpinning at about 3 to 7 days, depending on how many piers go in. Those are the guide's numbers, and I'll tell you how your house looks once I've seen it.
Can we stay in the house during foundation repair?
Usually, yes, most owners stay home through the whole job. Slab work is noisy and means digging around the outside of the house, so plan on noise and an open trench along the walls until we backfill and clean up.
How do I compare foundation raising bids?
One cost guide suggests getting a report that names the elevations needing correction, meaning the heights at points around the house, and leaves the method open, so each company bids its own approach against the same target. That way you're comparing like with like, and our written estimate shows what's included so you can line it up against the others.
Is foam leveling a permanent fix for a sinking slab?
A paper on buildings in Houston calls foam leveling of floor slabs a temporary, cosmetic fix rather than a permanent one, because it has to be done again after the ground settles more. That's why I want to know whether your house is still moving before anyone settles on a fix.
How do I check a contractor's license in California?
You can look up any contractor on the state license board's site, and the record includes complaint disclosures. For raising work, look for the building moving and demolition class mentioned above, and in Brawley ask about the city business license too.
Related concrete work around a foundation job
Concrete cutting
When a footing sits under a patio or walk, we cut a clean opening to reach it, or take out a broken section without cracking the rest.
Concrete driveway building
If the same shifting ground cracked or sank your driveway, a new one poured on a dug-out, packed base gives you a slab built to sit flat.
Service areas across the Imperial Valley
Brawley Concrete is based in Brawley, California, and we work in the cities around it across the Imperial Valley, including Calipatria and Calexico. The 7 cities below have their own pages, but they aren't the only places we go.
Brawley, CA
Get your settling house looked at
If you jot down when the cracks showed up and whether they're still growing, and have any elevation report handy, I can tell you more on the first visit.