Core service

Foundation Settlement Repair.

Settlement is the slow sinking of part of a foundation as the soil beneath it shrinks or compresses. GroundLock arrests it and recovers elevation with galvanized steel piers driven past the active clay zone.

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A foundation rarely sinks all at once. On the San Antonio, Austin corridor it usually drops one corner or one wall at a time, because the ground under your slab is not a stable shelf, it is high-plasticity clay that swells in wet weather and pulls back hard through the long summers. East of the Balcones Escarpment, the Blackland Prairie soils run plasticity-index values in the 40 to 60 range, which is well past the point where seasonal shrink and swell starts cracking houses.

That uneven movement is the whole problem. When one part of the footprint follows the soil down while the rest stays put, you get the stair-step brick cracks, the doors that quit latching in August, and the floor that tilts toward a single low corner. GroundLock measures exactly where and how far the slab has dropped, then carries those sections on steel set below the soil that keeps moving.

Two kinds of settlement, two very different fixes

Engineers separate uniform settlement from differential settlement, and the difference decides whether you have a real problem. When a whole structure descends at roughly the same rate, it moves as a unit and usually shows little distress. Differential settlement, one section dropping faster or farther than its neighbor, is what fractures veneer, jams doors, and splits tile grout in those recognizable diagonal patterns.

On a Central Texas slab, differential movement is nearly guaranteed because the active zone, the depth that seasonal moisture swings actually reach, runs unevenly under the house. In deep Blackland soils that zone commonly extends eight to fourteen feet, so a perimeter beam sitting on stable winter moisture can be undercut by shrinkage the next summer. West of the escarpment the mechanics flip: thin residual soils over fractured Edwards limestone mean bedrock depth changes abruptly across a single footprint, forcing differential support that mimics deep-soil settlement but comes from a different cause.

Reading the pattern matters before anyone drives a pier. When the perimeter has dropped but interior points stay high, that is classic edge-desiccation settlement. When the interior has fallen below the perimeter, a different moisture pathway is pulling the center down. Each calls for its own pier layout, which is why the measured survey comes first and the proposal comes second.

How GroundLock arrests settlement

Free elevation survey to ±0.01 in.

We map the distorted slab across every monitored point to ±0.01 in. (1/64 in.), showing which zones dropped, by how much, and on what gradient, the numerical baseline the whole repair is built on.

Drive galvanized steel piers to refusal

Piers are pushed hydraulically through the unstable clay and into competent load-bearing strata, terminating not at a guessed depth but at a measured refusal load that confirms the tip has engaged stable material.

Lift in a planned sequence

Piers are loaded in a deliberate order to bring the structure back toward its original elevation without shoving load onto interior beams and creating new cracks.

Re-survey, document, and warranty for life

We re-measure the lift, hand you the documented result, and back the piered sections with a lifetime transferable warranty that follows the property to the next owner.

Why early measurement saves money

Differential movement compounds. A door sticking this summer may represent two-tenths of an inch of displacement today; the same seasonal cycle repeated over a few unaddressed years can reach half an inch or more.

By then the repair needs more piers, more lift, and more cost than early action would have. The elevation survey is free, so there is no reason to wait on guesswork, it either confirms you are within tolerance or shows exactly where to intervene.

Questions Central Texas homeowners ask us

Why has only one corner of my house dropped?

Soil moisture, drainage, and old fill vary across a single lot, so one zone can ride the seasons down while the rest holds. That is differential settlement, and the elevation survey pinpoints exactly which section moved and by how much.

If I'm east of I-35 in the black clay, am I more at risk than someone over the limestone?

The risks are different rather than higher. The Blackland clays east of the escarpment move with seasonal moisture and produce classic shrink-swell settlement; the thin soils over Edwards limestone to the west settle where bedrock depth changes abruptly under the slab. Both end up needing piers carried to stable strata.

How deep will the steel piers actually go under my slab?

To refusal on stable, load-bearing strata. Not a set number. Because the active soil here often runs eight to fourteen feet and deeper, piers commonly reach anywhere from 10 to 25-plus feet before they stop advancing under hydraulic pressure.

How do I tell a settlement crack from a harmless cosmetic one?

Hairline cracks at window and door corners are usually just stress concentrations. The ones worth a survey are diagonal cracks wider than a quarter inch at midspan, or cracks noticeably wider at one end than the other, those track real displacement.

What will repair cost, and can I spread it out?

Most settlement projects land between $4,500 and $14,000 depending on pier count and access, and the survey tells you where in that range you sit before any work begins. Financing is available, which matters because standard homeowners policies usually exclude soil-movement settlement.

Once you pier it, can that part of the house settle again?

The piered sections are carried on steel below the active soil, so they shouldn't follow the seasons again, that's exactly what the lifetime transferable warranty covers. Sections that weren't piered can still move, which is why we also look at drainage and grading around the perimeter.

Do my family and I have to move out while you work?

Almost never. Most homes and buildings stay occupied throughout, the piers go in from the exterior or through small interior access points, and the lift is done in a controlled sequence over a day or a few, not weeks.

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