Engineer or Repair Company: Who Should See It First?

A repair company first. A repair company's first visit can be free; the one we arrange is. You learn quickly whether the house is moving and what kind of repair they'd suggest. It's fast and costs you nothing. The person who comes out works for a company that sells repairs. Keep that in mind, and get a second opinion.

A structural engineer first. An engineer you hire works for you and earns nothing from the repair. You pay for the visit and the report. In return, the person judging the house has no stake in the answer. You also get a plan you can hand to more than one company for bids.

Neither route is the "right" one for every house. What matters most is that a measured look happens before anyone starts digging.

The Texas Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers publishes guidelines for checking and repairing house foundations. They guide engineers, and the state's engineering board uses them when it reviews complaints. They set out three levels of work:

• Level A is a report of first impressions. The engineer talks with you, reads any papers you have and walks through the house. You get a written report if you ask.
• Level B adds measuring. The engineer maps how high each part of the foundation sits, draws it to scale and compares the tilt and sag with accepted limits.
• Level C adds tests as needed. The list includes soil samples, plumbing tests and material tests. It also covers the steel in the slab, post-tension cables, nearby trees and photos.

The engineer should visit in person, the guidelines say, and you agree on the scope together. If an engineer only reads someone else's report, that's a "consultation," not an investigation. Ask which level you're paying for before the visit.

A Level B report turns your floor into numbers, and the Texas guidelines give a few yardsticks for reading them.

• Tilt. A slope of more than 1% "is usually noticeable." That's about 1.2 inches over 10 feet. The guidelines add that the Americans with Disabilities Act treats a 2% slope as too large.
• Sag. For the bend in a foundation, the guidelines point to a limit used for floor beams, written L/360: the span divided by 360. Over 30 feet, that comes to 1 inch. They say it "may be appropriate," not that it's a rule.
• Change over time. A single survey shows where the foundation sits at one moment. Repeat surveys over months or years show whether it's still moving.

Builders don't pour foundations perfectly flat either, the guidelines note. So one survey of a house that's never been measured before can't always tell you whether a low corner moved or was built that way.

Even if you start with a repair company, a repair in Round Rock or Georgetown puts an engineer on the job.

• Round Rock wants a letter naming the engineer in charge. It also wants a foundation plan with the engineer's seal and signature. A final engineered report has to be uploaded before the final inspection.
• Georgetown wants plans stamped by an engineer. The engineer's report must be on site when the city inspects.
• Taylor's checklist, as indexed online, asks for an engineer's stamped plan of the whole foundation. We couldn't open the city's own page, so check with Taylor directly.

State law sits behind this. The Texas Engineering Practice Act often lets people repair a private home without an engineer's license. That freedom stops at one kind of work: design for repairing a house slab on expansive soil. The one way out is if the work meets the home building code as the local city or county applies it.

Leander's city licensing page quotes that section in full. It also quotes a rule for officials. They may accept a plan only if an engineer drew it up, as the engineer's seal shows.

That way out is real, so we won't say every repair in Texas needs an engineer. In the cities that have said so, it does.

The Texas guidelines list what an engineer's repair documents should include. Among the twelve items:

• The purpose and limits of the repair
• Any soil information used, and where it came from
• A plan view of the foundation, with details showing how to build the repair
• Specifications for materials and methods
• Existing floor heights, and how much lifting is planned
• A floor survey after the work is done

After the repair, the guidelines say the floor heights should be measured again, by the engineer or someone working for them. You get a copy. If you hire the engineer for it, you can also get a letter saying the work is substantially complete.

On results, the guidelines don't oversell. "Perfection is not attainable by remedial measures," they say. A good plan states its own limits.

The repair company's first visit can be free. The engineer's costs show up in published prices. One Austin cost guide lists:

• An engineering report: $500 to $1,500
• Soil analysis: $300 to $800
• An inspection after the repair: $200 to $500

If you start with a repair company, ask if its quote covers the engineer's plan and final report. Round Rock and Georgetown require them, so you pay for them one way or another. Our cost guide lines up every published price we found.

An engineer first makes sense when:

• You have one large quote and want an independent check before signing
• Two companies disagree about what's wrong
• You're buying a house and want a report you can rely on
• The cause isn't obvious, for example cracks on a house where rock sits close below, and you'd like the soil, drainage and plumbing looked at together

A repair company first makes sense when:

• You'd like a quick, free first read on whether anything is moving
• The signs are clear and you expect to get several bids anyway
• You want to see what kind of repair is likely before paying for a report

Either way, compare more than one quote, and ask each company how the engineer fits in.

• Who the engineer works for: you, or the repair company
• Which level of investigation: A, B or C
• Floor surveys: one before the work and one after it
• The price: whether the engineer's plan and the city's final report are in it

Our foundation inspection page covers what a good first inspection includes, and our permits guide covers each town's rules.

If you'd like a free first read, tell us what you've noticed and the town or ZIP code of the house. A local foundation repair professional can come out to measure. You're free to bring in your own engineer at any point.