Before you let any contractor near your foundation, get an independent structural engineer's report. For $350–$1,000 it's the cheapest insurance against being oversold a repair you don't need.
Why get one first
Contractors who diagnose and sell the repair have an obvious conflict of interest. A licensed structural engineer has no repair to sell — they diagnose the cause and specify the fix. That independence is exactly what makes the report worth paying for, and what makes contractor bids comparable afterward.
What's inside
- Elevation survey — measured floor-height differences across the house (in inches), showing how much it has moved and where.
- The diagnosed cause — settlement, heave, hydrostatic pressure, expansive soil, or a plumbing leak. This drives everything, including whether insurance might pay.
- Recommended scope — the specific repair (e.g. "install N piers along the east wall"), not a brand or a price.
- Severity and urgency — whether it's monitor-it or fix-it-now.
How to use it
Take the engineer's recommended scope to two or three foundation contractors and ask each to bid that exact scope. Now you're comparing apples to apples on price and warranty — not absorbing three different sales pitches. Plug the scope into the repair cost calculator for an independent sanity check on the bids.
Reflects standard structural-engineering inspection practice. See our methodology.