You just found out your house needs foundation repair, and now you’re probably thinking about having to pack everything up and crash at your parents or siblings for a while. We have heard this concern hundreds of times. But here’s the thing, you’re probably worrying about something that won’t even be an issue.
Yes, You Can Usually Stay Home
Most of the time homeowners stick around while we fix their foundations. There’s really no reason to leave. The work happens outside your house or inside depending on the foundation you have. But we mostly work around the edges where we’re putting in the support systems for your home’s foundation. Thinking you won’t have access to your living room? Nope. Your kitchen? Cook whenever you like. Your bedroom? You’ll be sleeping in your own bed tonight.
Here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, we deal with soil that swells up like a sponge when it rains and shrinks back down during our summers. It commonly wrecks residents home’s foundations. But even when we’re fixing damage from that mess, you still don’t need to move out.
Understanding the Foundation Repair Process
So what actually happens during foundation repair? It depends on the type of foundation you have, but foundation repair would work similarly. We’re basically installing these support systems called piers underneath your house to prop it back up and level it out. Most of that action happens outside. We dig around the perimeter, use hydraulics to lift everything back where it should be, then get those supports in place.
Sounds intense, right? But here’s what’s interesting. Your day to day life barely changes. We’re usually not tearing down walls or removing the structure of your home. The heavy lifting happens underneath and around your foundation. There are uncommon instances where a certain repair would require some demolition of a slab on grade foundation to get fixed, but 9 times out of 10, we usually don’t have to take that extra step.
What to Expect While Living Through Foundation Repairs
Noise and Activity
Won’t lie to you, it will get noisy outside. There’s equipment running, some digging happening, and hydraulic pumps if there is water collected in the holes we dig. But we’re talking about the same day turn around. The length of a job usually depends on how many piers need to be installed to correct your foundation. We typically say it’s about as loud as if your neighbor decided to redo their driveway. Annoying for a bit, but it is as quick as it came in. Everything happens during regular work hours too. By evening, the crew’s gone and you’ve got your peace and quiet back. If you’re working from home or you’ve got a baby who needs afternoon naps, maybe plan to be out for the day. A reputable foundation repair company will give you a time frame on how long a job should take. Just plan accordingly.
Access To Your Home and Movement
Your life pretty much stays normal. You’re still using your front door, making breakfast, taking showers, watching TV. The crew needs to get around the outside of your house, so you might need to move your patio furniture, or lawn decor. Not a huge deal.
Parking will get little tight if we need your driveway, but that depends on the job. Your project manager will tell you exactly what’s up before anybody shows up with equipment.
Interior Monitoring Of The Repair In Progress
Here’s one part where we do need to come inside, though. When we’re actually lifting your house back to level, someone from the crew will be inside watching everything. We’re checking ceiling lines, door frames, making sure nothing’s cracking or shifting like its not suppose to.
But it’s quick and professional. We’re not poking around your stuff or getting in your way. Just monitoring the important bits to make sure everything’s going smoothly.
When Moving Out Makes Sense
There are times when staying home might not be the best call. Not very common, but worth mentioning. If your foundation’s so bad that the house isn’t safe anymore, yeah, you need to get out until we fix it. Doesn’t happen often. It usually means someone ignored warning signs for years, but safety comes first.
Extensive Interior Work
Once in a while, we run into situations where we need serious access to crawl spaces or have to work on interior support structures. Your contractor will be straight with you about that during the initial evaluation.
Personal Preferences
Some folks just don’t want to be around any construction work, period. And that’s totally fine. If you can stay with family or book a hotel if the job demands it, go for it. Nobody’s going to judge you for wanting to avoid the entire repair.
The Dallas-Fort Worth Foundation Repair Experience
Working with someone who knows this area makes everything smoother. Companies that have been around the DFW metroplex understand our soil, know what typically goes wrong with houses in Collin, Dallas, Tarrant, and Denton Counties, and have done this dance hundreds of times before.
Good foundation repair contractors treat your property like it’s their own, keep you in the loop about what’s happening each day, and work fast without cutting corners. When you’re picking who to trust with your biggest investment, experience matters.
Life After Foundation Repair
Once we wrap things up everything goes back to normal. Except now your foundation’s solid and you’re not worrying about those cracks getting worse. Most people are actually surprised by how quickly it feels like nothing even happened.
And the best part? You didn’t upend your entire life to make it happen. No temporary housing, no moving all your stuff into storage, no sleeping on someone’s couch. You stayed comfortable while we fixed the problem.
Taking the Next Step
Need help determining if your home needs foundation repair? Spotted cracks in your walls? Doors sticking where they never used to? Floors that feel uneven? Windows with gaps around them? Don’t put off dealing with it just because you’re worried about the hassle of repairs. Foundation problems get worse over time and fixing them early beats letting them turn into something bigger and more expensive.
Truth is, foundation repair doesn’t have to mess up your life. With some basic preparation and a crew that knows what they’re doing, you can get your house fixed without giving up your daily routine or your comfort.
Ready to figure out what’s going on with your foundation? Reach out to Maestros Foundation Repair and get a free evaluation. They cover the whole Dallas-Fort Worth area and can put together a repair plan that fits your schedule and how you live. With three decades in the business and thousands of jobs under their belt, they know exactly how to handle occupied homes without turning your life upside down.
Whether you’ve got a pier and beam foundation or a slab-on-grade foundation, dealing with foundation issues sooner rather than later protects what you’ve invested in your home. And like you just learned, you can handle it all while staying exactly where you belong. In your one home.