Foundation repair in Gilroy CA - the right fix for the real cause of settling
Cracks in the walls or doors that suddenly stick? We find out which parts of your house are sinking and why, then fix that.
- Licensed and fully insured.
- Free on-site estimates.
- Replies within 1 business day.
What does foundation repair in Gilroy involve?
Foundation repair in Gilroy starts with measuring which parts of your house are sinking and by how much, then fixing whatever is causing it. Sometimes that means piers under the low corner, and sometimes the fix is getting water away from the house, with no piers at all.
Most people call us after they notice a crack or a door that won't close and wonder how worried to be. We're based in Gilroy and work in the cities around it, from San Martin and Morgan Hill up through the South Bay and over to Hollister, Watsonville and Salinas. The price turns on how much of the house is moving, what's causing it, whether the house sits on a basement, a crawl space or a slab, and how easy it is to reach the low spots. The schedule turns mostly on whether we need an engineer's view first and how big the repair turns out to be, and your written estimate puts all of that in terms of your own house.
How can you tell if your foundation is settling?
Stair-step cracks in walls
Cracks that run straight up, on a slant or in a stair-step pattern along the mortar joints of a foundation wall usually mean one part is dropping faster than the rest. Left alone, they tend to widen and let water in, which can make the settling worse.
Floors that slope or dip
If a ball rolls toward one corner or you feel a dip walking across a room, the foundation under that spot has likely dropped. The longer it goes, the more the framing above has to bend to follow it, and that's more to straighten out later.
Doors and windows that stick
A door that used to latch and now rubs at the top, or a window that won't slide, often shows up alongside new cracks in the drywall or plaster above it. That usually means the opening has gone out of square because the wall under it moved, and planing the door only hides it.
How we handle foundation repair
I start by working out which parts of your house are settling and by how much, because you can't pick a fix until you know what's moving. Then we look for the cause, and if water or soil looks like the reason, we get an engineer's view before anyone starts talking about piers. One field guide puts it the same way, saying a water problem gets fixed at the water first and the call belongs to a structural or geotechnical engineer working from the soils information, which is why I'd trust that view over a pier sales pitch, ours included. Once the plan is set, our crew digs out, does the repair, backfills and cleans up.
Foundation movement rarely stays in the foundation. A settling corner often cracks the mortar in the brick above it, and once the house is stable, tuckpointing replaces those joints so water stops getting in. If your chimney has started to lean or pull away from the house, I'll tell you during the same visit whether it needs chimney repair.
Fixing the water first
This suits a house where the low spot lines up with a downspout, a leak or ground that slopes toward the wall. Moving the water away is often the real repair, and it's usually far less work than lifting the house.
Piers under the settled section
This suits a house where part of the foundation has dropped and the ground right under it can't carry the load. Piers reach down to firmer ground and hold that section there, and which kind fits depends on how your house is built.
Cripple wall bracing and anchorage
This suits an older wood-frame house that sits on a short stud wall between the foundation and the first floor, which we call a cripple wall. A cripple wall with weak anchorage may let the house slide off its foundation in an earthquake, and a poorly braced one may collapse, so bracing it and bolting it down makes sense while we're already under the house.
Get a written estimate for your foundation repair
We reply within one business day. I come out, look at the foundation with you and write up a free estimate, and there's no obligation to hire us.
(669) 205-6449- Based in
- Gilroy, CA 95020
- Hours
- Mon–Fri: 6 AM–10 PM, Sat–Sun: 7 AM–11 PM
What happens after you call about your foundation
Here's how a foundation job runs from your first call to the final walk-through, and who you'll be dealing with at each step.
Tell us what you're seeing
Call (669) 205-6449 or send a message and we'll set a time to come out. Before the visit, jot down where you've seen cracks, uneven floors or doors that stick, and whether your house has a crawl space.
I walk the house with you
I look at what you listed, check which parts are settling and walk you through what I think is causing it. You get a written estimate that spells out the work and what's driving the price, so you can compare it with anyone else's.
Our crew does the repair
Our lead mason runs the crew on site, and I check in while the job is going. If the plan calls for an engineer, the work follows what they recommend.
We walk the finished job
When it's done, I walk it with you and show you what was fixed. I'll also point out what to keep an eye on, like the cracks we marked and where water goes when it rains.
Why Gilroy homeowners call us about their foundations
I write your estimate myself
The person who looks at your foundation is the person who prices it, and I keep checking in after our lead mason's crew starts. That way what I saw on the first visit doesn't get lost on the way to the job.
In business since 2021
We've been doing masonry work for five years, and before that I sold brick, block and stone at a supply yard and heard what went wrong after it left. That's why I'd rather explain what you're looking at than hurry you into a repair.
Licensed and fully insured
We're licensed and fully insured, which is the first thing to ask anyone who'll be digging next to your foundation. Our promise is "Your satisfaction, guaranteed."
We ask how your house works
On Gilroy jobs I ask whether a house sits on a basement, a crawl space or a slab before I suggest anything, because that changes which fix makes sense. I'll also ask where your downspouts drain and which rooms bother you most, since you know the house better than I do.
If something about your foundation has you worried, call or send us a message and I'll come out and show you what I see.
Foundation repair and earthquake bracing in Gilroy
Santa Clara County maps the seismic hazard zones the state sets, which mark areas prone to ground shaking, landslides and liquefaction, where shaking makes wet ground lose its strength. That matters for foundation work because a house with damaged cripple walls is usually marked unsafe to live in, and you'd be living somewhere else and paying for it until the repairs are done. So when we're measuring the foundation on an older Gilroy house with a crawl space, we look at how the cripple walls are braced and anchored and tell you what we find, even if that isn't what you called about.
Around here we see older wood-frame homes on crawl spaces next to newer houses on slabs, and they need different fixes. We see the same mix on jobs in San Martin and Morgan Hill, and on any of them a crack in the brick out front is often the first thing an owner notices.
Questions about foundation repair in Gilroy
(669) 205-6449Foundation repair in San Jose usually costs about $4,000 to $27,000 per project, and that's the going rate for the work in the area, not our price. Where your house lands depends on what the measuring turns up, and your written estimate gives you the figure for your own house.
As a rule of thumb, a house with a basement usually suits push piers, while a house on a shallow footing or a slab with a thickened edge may need helical piers. Helical piers work whatever the house weighs and in most soils, but push piers may lift a light home before they reach a good layer of soil. I'll tell you which fits once I've seen how your house is built.
Usually the ground under part of the house stops carrying its share of the load, and water is often behind it. One field guide treats a problem with expansive clay, the kind that swells when wet and shrinks as it dries, as a moisture problem before a pier problem, so moisture comes first in the repair plan. That's why I'll ask where your downspouts drain and whether any plumbing runs under the low spot.
The state's Earthquake Brace + Bolt program offers up to $3,000 to help homeowners seismically retrofit their houses. To be considered once registration opens, you complete the qualification questionnaire on the state's site.
No, a retrofit reduces earthquake damage without removing it entirely. The usual approach for cripple walls aims mainly to lower the risk to the people inside, so the goal is a safer house, not one that comes through a big quake untouched.
The Contractors State License Board licenses home improvement contractors in California, and one of its classes covers contractors who raise, lower and underpin a house and its foundation. If you ask, the home improvement contract has to disclose any subcontractors, with each one's name, contact information, license number and classification.
Other masonry work that often follows foundation repair
Chimney repair
A chimney rests on its own footing, so when the ground moves it can lean, crack or open a gap at the wall that lets water and drafts inside.
Tuckpointing
Mortar that cracked while the house moved keeps letting rain into the wall, and raking out the old joints and packing in new mortar closes those paths.
Foundation repair service areas around Gilroy
Quality Gilroy Concrete and Masonry is based in Gilroy, California, and does foundation repair in the cities around it. The 12 cities below have their own pages, including Hollister and Watsonville, and they aren't the only places we work.
Gilroy, CA
Get your foundation measured before you patch it
Cracks and sticking doors are easier to read before paint and filler cover them, so call or send a message while you can still see the pattern.