We currently have a house listed with foundation problems. Like most everyone else, I thought a house with foundation issues was terrible news. Turns out, it’s really not as big of deal as we thought.
We had a rep from East Texas Slab Masters in Lufkin come out and give us an estimate. After placing an instrument about the size of a stud finder on the slab in a few different places, he determined the foundation of this particular house had a 2.75″ drop from the front door to the back of the house. When he said that, I was ready to bring in the bulldozer and tell my sellers a tornado hit their house. The Slab Masters rep made it out as no big deal. The process would start just inside the front door (the high side) where they would drill a couple holes and inject a type of polyurethane under the slab causing it to slowly rise. When they got that section of the slab picked up where they wanted it, they would move closer to the middle of the house and drill a couple more holes and repeat the process. Finally they would complete the process at the back of the house. When they were done, he said it would be within 1/4″ of level all over.
All of that sounded great, but I dreaded the answer to my next question…what’s the cost? $1500 setup fee and approximately $3500 in material (polyurethane). A total of $5,000 to fix a slab that I figured was a lost cause! So I was still looking for a catch…my next thought was “I bet this is a temporary fix.” Apparently not because it has a 5 year warranty!
So next time you see a house with cracks in the slab, don’t write it off. It’s not a lost cause. There is a reasonably priced fix to the problem that a lot of us thought was the kiss of death to a home.
(I have no affiliation with East Texas Slab Masters, and I am writing this for the sole reason to help educate property owners and real estate agents of potential solutions to a problem that we once thought was major.)
