Home Foundation Repair Costs Leaks and Sinking Foundations

(Article 2 of 2) Home foundation repair is expensive and entirely necessary; despite its costs, it isn't a job to be left undone for a year. The most common foundation repair is cracking in the concrete block, but that is the subject of a different article; here, we discuss the other kinds of concrete foundation repair and relative costs. 

There may be no cracks in the concrete, but you may have detected plumbing leaks or similar water seepage inside your home. Unless you're the recent victim of a flood (which hopefully will be paid for by your flood insurance), this may be indicative of soil displacement; a settling of the soil has cracked foundations that are not easily repaired, because they are not visible.

In this instance, you usually have no alternative but to call a contractor;  in addition to a concrete repair, the break will have to be discovered, which means excavating part of the foundation, a fairly major restorative process.  You may also be in need of foundational underpinnings to prevent the displacement occurring again; in addition, earthquake bolts may be indicated.   That is why the contractor is pretty much a must under the circumstances, to determine exactly what needs repairing, and where. 

At the very least, the concrete repair will need a latex compound of some nature, so that the compromised repair areas will withstand additional water damage; usually within a period of two years or so, this kind of compromise will need a separate repair, such as caulking reinforcement.   For the repair and concrete pour, you can estimate between $3000 and $5000, and perhaps $800 to $1000 for latex and caulking.  

This price may be somewhat smaller if the foundation is made up of interlocking slabs; one piece of one slab interlocking system can be replaced for $400.  An entire foundation, tops, will run $5K to $7K. 

So what do you do for a contractor?  The best advice is to shop around, get estimates, and if possible choose a local man, because he will present much less expense in transportation costs.  A typical contractors inspection for and sinking foundations runs between $300 and $500; there may also be a possible soil test mandated;  this would need to be done by a geotechnical engineer and will probably run $500 to $1000.

Underpinning the concrete may run as high as $3500; the labor of the repair and replacement of your foundation by itself usually adds about $1000 to the cost. 

There is a limited home repair kit available (limited because you will probably repeat the procedure until a contractor is affordable to you).  You can find this at most home and garden stores; it's a home repair kit that uses injection methods rather than concrete pours. 

If you can identify the source of the water seepage or leak (or at least where in your basement the water is coming in from) you can repair it with polyurethane and epoxy injectors, which shoot the chemical compounds directly into the ruptured concrete.   These injectors one is usually sufficient for a single job will run around $150 apiece. 

Now you know a few more financial facts about home foundational repair.