Foundation Underpinning Cibolo, TX.

What "driving to refusal" actually means on a Cibolo lot

The layer of soil that gains and loses moisture with the weather is called the active zone. On Cibolo's floodplain clays that zone routinely reaches eight to twelve feet below grade, noticeably deeper than the four to six feet sometimes assumed for upland sites. Any repair that stops short of it is just resting on soil that will move again the next time the ground dries out or floods.

GroundLock drives galvanized steel piers hydraulically, one section at a time, watching resistance readings until the pier tip enters competent bearing strata beneath that active zone. Galvanizing matters here because the clay chemistry is hard on bare steel over a repair meant to last decades.

Depths vary more than people expect across a single neighborhood. Cibolo straddles the Balcones corridor, where geology shifts from deep creek-side alluvium to shallow Edwards Limestone on the higher ground. A home near the channel may need drives of 25 feet or more; one a few blocks uphill might hit bearing closer to 10. The written, engineer-backed plan from your survey logs a target for every pier rather than assuming one number for the whole house.

Signs an underpinning evaluation is worth scheduling

These are the symptoms that, in this floodplain, usually mean the slab is losing bearing rather than just settling cosmetically:

• Stair-step cracks following the mortar joints at brick corners, the clearest visual signal of differential settlement at the perimeter.
• Interior doors that bind or gap at one top corner, which is the frame racking as the slab tilts; this often shows up before any exterior cracking.
• Cracks that reopen weeks after you patch them, a sign the movement is still active, not finished.
• Sloping or bouncy floors, or a measurable drop at one corner of the house.
• A large live oak or pecan within about ten feet of the grade beam, pulling moisture out of the clay right where the slab needs it most during drought.
• Drainage that doesn't carry water away, you want roughly six inches of fall over the first ten feet from the foundation.

The survey, the lift, and knowing when to stop

Every project starts with a free elevation survey. Technicians map the slab to ±0.01 in. (1/64 in.) and turn it into a contour, so the plan targets the real low points instead of guessing from wherever the cracks happen to surface. That picture also tells us whether the cause is structural bearing loss or a moisture driver like a leaking irrigation line or a downspout dumping against the beam, because correcting one without the other invites a re-settle.

Once piers are confirmed at bearing depth, hydraulic jacks lift the structure in a slow, monitored sequence. The goal isn't a perfectly flat floor; it's recovering as much of the original profile as the slab will safely take. Pushing too hard on a foundation that's been displaced for years can crack tile or stress plumbing, so the lift halts at the engineered target, the brackets lock, and the load transfers permanently onto steel. Most homes stay occupied the whole time, and a typical project runs $4,500 to $14,000 with financing available.

If the survey shows water is part of the problem, we'll pair the repair with drainage correction or erosion control, but only where it genuinely protects the foundation, never as filler. Everything comes with a lifetime transferable warranty that follows the home to the next owner.

Cibolo underpinning questions, answered