Sloping floors, sticking doors or new cracks along the walls? We look at why your house settled before we lift anything.
Foundation raising in Oxford, MS means setting piles, steel posts that reach down to firmer ground, against your existing foundation so they either hold the house where it sits or lift it back close to where it started.
Most of the calls I get start with something you can see. A floor that rolls toward one corner, a door that won't latch anymore, a crack running up from a window. Some of that is a house that's still sinking, and some is an old house that settled years ago and stopped. The fix is different for each, and sometimes the right answer is to leave it.
The price and the schedule both come down to how many piers the house needs, how hard the foundation is to reach and what else gets fixed in the same job, like a wet crawl space or a cracked beam. Your estimate puts your own number in writing after I've seen the house.
Before I put a pier count on paper, I check a few things that tell me what's really going on under your house. Here's what I look at and why.
A crack that's opened up since last year matters more than an old one that hasn't moved. Before I come out, mark the ends of a few cracks with a pencil and write the date beside them, so we can tell whether the house is still going somewhere or has settled where it is.
A sloping floor doesn't always mean the foundation moved. A sagging beam or a rotted post in the crawl space can make a floor dip just like settling does, and piers outside won't fix that, so I get under the house before I tell you what it needs.
Water is behind most of the settling I've dealt with. A downspout emptying at the wall, a yard that slopes toward the house or a slow leak under the floor keeps softening the ground the house sits on, so I find the source first. Otherwise the piers end up fighting the same problem that caused the sinking.
From the first call to the final walk-around, here's who does what, so you know what's coming before anyone starts digging next to your house.
Call (662) 550-8149 or send the form with your address and what you're seeing, like cracks or a sloping floor. Most times I'm the one who calls you back to set up a visit.
I come out, walk the outside with you, get under the house and look at the cracks, the floors and the drainage. Then I send a written estimate spelling out what's in the price and what isn't.
Once you say go, we sort out any permit and inspections, dig at the pier spots and set the piers. Any lift goes a little at a time, with crawl space and beam work done in the same job.
When we're done, I walk it with you again, inside and out, and we backfill and clean up around your beds and lawn. Keep downspouts sending water away from the house so the ground under it stays dry.
I look at how the house is built and whether it's still settling before I'd suggest lifting anything, because those two things decide whether a lift is the right fix at all. When we do lift, we take it slow, a little at a time, and keep an eye on the walls, doors and pipes rather than chasing a level floor in one push.
We plan any crawl space moisture or beam repairs into the same job. A floor leveled over a wet crawl space or a soft beam only looks right for a while, so I'd rather fix the cause while we're already under the house. Before you hire anyone, us included, ask how slowly they plan to lift and how they'll deal with a wet crawl space.
The concrete around the house is part of the job too. If a porch slab, walk or garage floor sits where a pier has to go, our concrete cutting opens a clean spot instead of breaking out more than we need. When settling has wrecked the drive along the house, a new concrete driveway on a dug-out, packed base, sloped away from the foundation, sends water away from that side of the house.
Piers can catch a house and stop it from going any lower without lifting it. That's often the better fit for brick and block, or for an older house whose slope and cracks you can live with.
When the floors make the house hard to live in and the frame can take it, we bring it back close to where it started. It's slower work with more to watch, and it's worth doing when the slope is the real problem.
We reply within one business day, and most times I'm the one who calls back to set a time to come out. The estimate is free and done on site, with no pressure to book. Have your address handy, plus whether the house is wood frame or brick and where the cracks or uneven floors show.
(662) 550-8149Inside Oxford, the city's Building division reviews residential permit applications, issues permits and inspects remodels and alterations. Out in the county, Lafayette County requires a building permit for residential structures in subdivisions. Whether a lift needs a permit at your address isn't something I'd guess at, so we check with the office that covers it before work starts. When a job needs one, we handle the paperwork and line up the inspections.
Soil data rates Lafayette County's risk as real but uneven, with trouble concentrated on lots that drain poorly, lots that were cut and filled when they were graded, and houses with old plumbing leaking underneath. That matches what I see on jobs around here. The house that settled is usually the one with water around it or under it, not the one next door.
If your house sits in a Special Flood Hazard Area, the state's list of local floodplain activities includes substantial improvement assessments, so that's part of what we ask about when we check on the permit. We're based in Oxford and work across Lafayette County and the cities around it, including Batesville, Holly Springs and Pontotoc.
I spent years doing upkeep for a property management company, patching walks, steps, drives and slabs across a lot of rentals, and that's where I learned what makes concrete fail and what makes it last. I started Oxford Concrete Company in 2023 to build the work right the first time instead of patching it later.
Homeowners call us, and so do landlords and property managers who want one person handling the job and a straight answer. I come out myself to look at the house and write the estimate, and I'm on site running the work with our crew. We're licensed and fully insured. Every job is backed by our satisfaction guarantee. Call (662) 550-8149 or send the form to set up a visit.
Saw-cutting a section of slab, step or walk gives us a neat opening to reach the foundation and leaves a straight edge that's easy to patch.
If settling cracked or tipped your drive, rebuilding it with the right slope keeps runoff headed away from the house you just had fixed.
These are the cities with their own page on our site, and they're not the only places we go. If your house is anywhere around Lafayette County, give us a call and ask.
Installing 10 foundation piers in Mississippi usually costs about $8,500 to $25,000 per job. That's a general statewide figure, not an Oxford quote and not our price. Your own number comes from the written estimate after I've been under the house and counted what it actually needs.
Often it shouldn't be. One extension guide says masonry is often sensitive to movement and shouldn't be jacked or leveled, while uneven settling in a wood frame house can often be corrected by jacking. So with a brick or block house, I'm usually looking at holding it where it is instead of lifting it.
No. The same guide says some tilt and cracks in an old building are acceptable if the settling has stopped, and that big retrofit work needs a professional review of the ground and the structure first. If your cracks haven't grown in years, leaving them alone may be the right call.
It can if the floors come up too fast. One engineering guide warns that raising floors too quickly can crack walls, damage plumbing, distort doors and split old framing. Small moves spread over the job give the framing and pipes time to follow along.
Sometimes, depending on the pier system. One pile maker says its helical piles, steel piers screwed into the ground, can go in with portable equipment in tight interior spaces and are vibration-free, so the household can carry on with little inconvenience. Whether that fits your house is something I'd sort out on the walk-through.
Clear plants and anything stored along the walls, because outside work means either a trench along the wall or a hole at each pier spot. Before any digging, buried utilities get marked through 811, the call-before-you-dig number, so expect paint or flags in your yard.
I can give you a real schedule once I've seen the house, because the length of the job comes down to how many piers go in, where they go and what crawl space or beam repairs ride along. Any permit and inspections add time on the calendar, and the lift itself goes slowly on purpose.
Call (662) 550-8149 or send the form, because the same trip under your house that checks the foundation also turns up leaks and soft beams you'd want to know about either way.
