Foundation repair in Berkeley CA - a house that sits square on its foundation

The surest way is to have someone look at it, because warning signs alone don't settle it. One Texas engineering group's repair guidelines list cracked outside walls, cracked foundation concrete and door or window frames pushed out of square, and they treat those as a reason to check the house, not proof of a structural problem. I'll look and tell you which one you've got.

We can't give you a fair price from a photo, because the cost rides on how much of the foundation has to be repaired or replaced, and that takes a look under the house. Doing the bolting and bracing while we're already down there usually costs less than coming back for it later, and catching a crack while it's small keeps it a repair instead of a replacement. Your estimate gives you our figure for your house.

Many common house layouts can use a ready-made retrofit plan set, which national guidance says a contractor or owner can follow without an engineer, and the plan goes in with the permit application. Those plans only fit some houses, with conditions such as no one living in the space below the lowest floor and limits on how tall the cripple walls are and how steeply the ground slopes downhill. They also assume someone has already checked that the house needs a retrofit, so the look comes first, and if your house falls outside them I'll tell you that you need an engineer.

It can, because Berkeley rebates the real estate transfer tax for voluntary seismic upgrades finished before a sale or within a year of it, and foundation repair, bolting and bracing all count as seismic work there. The rebate is for residential buildings and mixed-use buildings with at least two residential units. Work that sets up future improvements or enlarges an existing space doesn't qualify, so tell us your sale date and your plans when I come out.

In some places it can, and the only way to know for one property is soil borings on that site. A regional hazard map shows liquefaction risk in Berkeley in a Hayward fault earthquake, where shaken wet sand acts like a liquid and the ground can crack and move, but it doesn't speak for a single lot. Where the state maps a Seismic Hazard Zone, weak soil or rock is likely underneath, and proper precautions during grading and construction keep it from damaging buildings. The state's rules for those zones exempt single-family wood-frame homes up to two stories outside developments of four or more units, though local agencies can be stricter.

For retrofits built to the standard plan sets, you schedule two separate inspections, and we'll tell you when we're ready for each. The first is a rough check of the foundation bolts, blocking and framing, and the final one looks at the plywood on the cripple walls, the metal hardware, and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors installed to code. Get your detectors sorted before the final so a missing one doesn't hold up the sign-off.