My Mom recently had some new cracks appear in her walls and so she decided to do something about it before the problem got worse.
She has an older house with a wood floor and crawl-space under the floor.
She had several companies out do check out her house and give estimates. Most of them were similar in their price and what work they would do in raising the foundation, but not all.
One guy from Cache just eyed it and said it needed piers here and there, job done. But other guys really did a good inspection and took elevation readings and told us where the floor was lower and what work needed to be done under the floor to level it up. They also told us that water getting around the foundation and under the house was part of the problem with the house settling and that we needed a drain on one side to catch the water before it got to the house because the yard has a slight slop in it and water runs from the next yard over onto yours.
Anyway, we ended up going with the company that actually charged the most money, but they were also doing more, Abry Brothers. It is a 150-year old company that started in New Orleans.
They drove cement pilings down in the ground and then put steel shims on top of those to level it up. They put down more than the other guys suggested doing and we are very pleased with the results. Even though they said there might not be any closing of the cracks in the walls they closed up!
The kitchen door which has dragged and was hard to open for the past 30 years suddenly started to close easy! And the cabinet doors that would not close now close real well. They also put 6 pilings under the floor to level it up and now my bedroom door will close.
The actual work is very good but the local office who did the work leaves something to be desired. The sales guy told us they would be putting down one type of drain but the workers told us they no longer put in that kind of drain because of problems and the sales guy said when they are done they leave the yard nice and landscaped but they did not. The excess dirt because of the cement pilings, was shoveled up all along the foundation so high in places it was partly covering up the vents under the house, and was not leveled out so grass could grow and the mower could mow it. It was left with huge dirt clots and clots of clay that do not just melt away when it rains.
I told them they could put some excess dirt in the alley but later I discover they had put a huge pile of dirt behind my storage building in my yard. So I called them and had them come out and take a lot of clots out of the dirt and put the pile behind my building into the alley. But it took two calls and the first guy did not even have a wheel barrel so he said he would come back in a day or two with more guys but I had to call again and finally they came and did the job. But I still had to do a lot of shoveling myself to get it reasonably leveled out.
I was supposed to get a certificate stating that the work is guaranteed for the life of the house, but two weeks later I still did not have it so I called. The lady said she was doing them now and we should get it soon. But a week later still nothing. I called again and she said it was just mailed out but still it did not arrive. I called again and she said she would send it to me by email which she did do.
More than a month from the work I got it from a different office in another city. Apparently the people in the Wichita Falls office are not very sharp. They sent us two letters while we waited for the appointment to see the salesman stating that they had driven through the neighborhood and was wondering if we had made a decision yet, but we had not even seen the salesman yet!
In the end I would still recommend this company because it uses cement pilings and the foundation can be easily adjusted in the future if it needs it, but if you get the steel rods in the ground the weld must be broken and they must drive a new one for any adjustment. And to drive the steal rods they bring in big trucks and remove your fence and tear up your yard with the tires, etc.
But if another company were to start doing cement pilings then I would go with the other company.