Houston area foundation repair recommendations needed.

[dbhost]

After the last several years of drought, my foundation is doing bad things. I need a quality foundation repair at a reasonable price... Can anyone from the Houston area recommend a good company. I have already heard about some of the bad ones. It seems the companies that advertise on TV don't have very good reputations with my neighbors!

[woodturner]

I need a quality foundation repair at a reasonable price.

Unfortunately, I have learned far more about foundation repair in the last few years than I would prefer.

I don't think it is possible to repair a foundation for a "reasonable price", at least not what I consider reasonable. We had one vertical crack, and to fix it properly cost more than $10K.

If I had it to do over again, I would do the following:
1. Hire a PE to do a structural analysis and determine the repairs required. This will likely cost $500 to $1000 - and will often save you tens of thousands.
2. Ask the PE for contractor recommendations. Get quotes from several contractors to do the work specified by the PE.
3. Check with the state Attorney General, BBB, Angie's List, etc. to find reviews for the contractors. Go with your "gut", too - if something doesn't seem "right" about the contractor, don't use them. If you can't talk to the people who will actually do the work, choose another contractor.
4. Check how long the contractor has been in business and check their warranty very carefully. Have an attorney review the warranty. You should be able to get a lifetime warranty for them to fix any further movement or issues at no cost - but a lot of the warranties are written so they never have to really do anything.
5. Watch them do the work, and photograph EVERYTHING at every step of the way. The photos proved to be very helpful when the contractor later denied doing things like overstressing the piers.
6. Don't believe them when they say they will close cracks or reduce the size of cracks - it rarely happens that way. The best you can really hope for is to stop the movement.

If this is a brick house and you have cracks, I can give you some tips on an economical way to repair the brick. After getting quotes in the tens of thousands for that work, I figured out a way to DIY for less than $1000 that looks better than the repairs the mason's would have made.

Good luck, and be afraid, very very afraid - you are venturing into the "old west" of the home improvement business.

[dbhost]

The house is brick / cement fiber siding hybrid. No exterior cracks. I have been talking to neighbors that have had this done, average around me has been $5-7K. The house is 2K sq/ft, add the garage for another 384 sq/ft...

I know regions that have certain union regulations costs can skyrocket to insane levels. However that isn't the Houston metro area. A typical house around the size of mine goes for a little under $200K. I am in an older but well maintained neighborhood very close to NASA, and the Petrochemical companies. (God help me if they blow anything up!), so my area is mostly a mix of upper end blue collar and white collar folks. Not much gets run down too badly, especially with the HOA riding everyones tail...