Foundation Repair Trade Groups
If you are looking for information on concrete foundation repair, here are two foundation repair trade associations with websites:
The National Association of Waterproofing and Structural Repair Contractors (NAWSRC) calls itself “A professional trade association serving the public and waterproofing, structure, and foundation repair industries. Members of the NAWSRC are required to uphold strict standards of practice and cannon of ethics as established by the industry.” There are links to the standards and ethics statements on the website and a search tool to find members in your state.
“The Foundation Repair Association, Inc. is a professional national organization that exists to promote high ethical standards in the practice of foundation repair and to promote cooperation between the foundation repair industry and the government.” Thus sayeth their website.
Who ya gonna call
I sat down with the Greater Dallas Area Verizon Yellow pages and counted concrete foundation repair contractor listings. I threw out listings for satellite offices or what appeared to be different numbers for the same or a sister company. Very unscientific to be sure, but I still ended up with 96 foundation repair contractors in the DFW area alone. Yikes! How do you pick one?
Danny Lippford runs a home improvement website and appears on the CBS Morning Show has this to say about picking a contractor:
No Contract Labor- Make sure the people performing the repairs work for the company.
Financial Commitment- Does the contractor own or rent his equipment?
Supervisors on Site- Is the company large enough to provide full time supervision, or will the crew be dropped off at your home to do the work?
References- Make sure references are not hand picked.
Warranties- Warranties are only as good as the company that offers them. A reputable company who has been in business for at least 25 years should be your best bet.
Insurance- Ask for current insurance certificates.
These guidelines are general and not specificaly aimed at foundation repair contractors but make sense to me.
Along the outside walls, piles of dirt
Another house down the street is having the concrete foundation repaired. You drive by and notice dirt piles all along the perimeter of the home, bobbing hard hats in holes and concrete cylinders stacked in front. In the past three years or so at least a half dozen houses on my street have had foundation work done. They were all built about the same time, in the mid to late seventies.
Like waving a silver cross before a vampire, I’ve been trying to keep the hard hats away with my trusty soaker hoses. But that won’t work forever.
“I know we have problems with our souls.”
Ain’t that the truth.
You can’t turn on the radio in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area without hearing baseball legend Nolan Ryan pitching concrete foundation repair for a major player in the fix-my-slab business. I always smile at the way he pronounces the word “soils.” Like many a fine Texan, the word drawls out of his mouth more like “soles” as in boot bottoms or the purview of pastors.
Of course he’s right. In this part of Texas and in many other areas of the globe, we do have problems with our soils.
Stupid sticky elastic clay.