Foundation Repair in Arlington, TX

Foundation Repair in Arlington starts with a simple fact about the city: it is big and it is old enough to hold almost every kind of house built in North Texas. Arlington was incorporated on April 21, 1884, grew through the war years, and now counts more than 400,000 residents across about 96 square miles of land. A slab poured in 1962 and one poured in 2005 can sit a few miles apart, and they rarely move for the same reasons.

That is why our visit begins with a free on-site evaluation rather than a guess over the phone. We walk the outside of the house, look at the grading and gutters, and take floor elevation readings room by room. Those numbers show where the slab is high, where it has dropped, and how much. You get a written quote based on what the readings show, not on a package price.

A permit rule worth knowing

Arlington has required building permits for structural foundation repairs since November 1, 2011, according to the city's Permitting & Inspections page. That rule landed in the same year the region logged a record 71 days at or above 100 degrees, a summer that pulled moisture out of clay soils across Tarrant County. Rules change, so confirm current requirements with Arlington Planning and Development Services before work begins.

Rentals, landlords and sale inspections

Census figures put Arlington's owner-occupied rate at 54.3 percent, which means a large share of houses here are rentals. For a rental, a foundation issue may first surface as a tenant complaint about a sticking door or in a buyer's inspection report. In either case a clear elevation map and a written scope help everyone see the same problem. When the movement is significant or a lender asks for it, we recommend having a structural engineer review the house and write a repair specification.

Creeks that cross the city

Johnson Creek, a tributary of the Trinity River, runs through Arlington, and the Trinity itself also passes through the city. Homes near creek corridors can deal with both wet ground and seasonal drying. Drainage corrections, French drains and gutter extensions may be part of the plan alongside piers, because lifting a slab without dealing with water may only reset the clock.

Older homes near the center

Arlington's population was only a few thousand before World War II, and the war years drew families looking for jobs between the aerospace employers of Dallas and Fort Worth. Older neighborhoods near downtown can include raised-floor houses alongside early slabs. With pier and beam homes, we check the crawl space for wet soil, tired shims and sagging beams, then level from below rather than lifting from the outside.

What a typical Arlington plan can include

• Slab foundation repair with exterior or interior piers where readings show settlement
• Pier and beam leveling, shimming and beam work in older homes with crawl spaces
• French drains and grading changes to move water away from the perimeter
• Root barriers where large trees stand close to the slab
• Crack repair for brick, drywall and slab cracks once the structure is stable