How Long Does Foundation Repair Take in Garland?

If you're bracing for weeks of noise and strangers in your yard, here's some good news. The crew's part of a foundation repair is usually short. What takes longer is everything around it: the engineer's evaluation, the repair plan, the city permit, and the sign-off at the end.

That outer part is also where most delays come from, and it changes from city to city. Garland, Mesquite, Plano and Sachse each handle foundation repair in their own way, and a few of their rules can cost you a week if nobody plans for them.

This guide walks through each step in order, how long it tends to take, and what you should have in hand when it's done.

1. An inspection, and usually an engineer's evaluation
2. A repair plan from the engineer
3. The city permit
4. The work itself
5. A plumbing test and a final floor survey
6. The city sign-off and your paperwork
7. Cosmetic repairs, once the house has settled into place

The sections below take each one in turn.

Most jobs start with someone measuring floor heights and looking at the slab edge, the drainage and the cracks. Our slab foundation repair page explains what that free visit covers.

If repair looks likely, an engineer gets involved. The Texas Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers publishes the guidelines Texas engineers use for this work, and they describe three levels of investigation:

• Level A is a walk-through and a report of first impressions.
• Level B adds a survey of floor heights with a scaled drawing, and measures how far the foundation has tilted and bowed against accepted limits.
• Level C adds testing where it's needed, such as soil samples, a plumbing test or a check of the cables in a post-tension slab.

The guidelines say the scope should be agreed between you and the engineer, so it's fair to ask which level you're paying for. Only Level B and above put real numbers on how much the house has moved.

How long this step takes depends mostly on the engineer's calendar.

Once the engineer understands the problem, they write a plan for fixing it. The Texas guidelines list what a good plan should include. In plain terms, look for:

• The address, and the engineer's name and firm
• What the repair is meant to do, and what it won't do
• A drawing of the foundation showing where each pier goes
• Details and specifications for the piers
• Any inspections the engineer will make during the work
• Your current floor heights, and how far they should be adjusted
• A floor survey after the work is done

Two lines in the guidelines are worth reading before you sign anything. They say perfection isn't attainable, and that lifting a slab is unlikely to leave it perfectly level. They also say a plan that repairs only part of the foundation should state that it won't help the parts left alone. A plan that's honest about its limits is a good sign.

One city adds a trap at this step. Plano rejects drawings marked "not for construction" or "for pricing only," and its plan review fee isn't refunded. The sketch that came with a quote won't pass, so the drawings need to be issued for construction before anyone applies.

This is the step that varies most, so it helps to know your own city's rules.

Garland requires a permit once the repair is worth $2,000 or more, and most real pier jobs pass that easily. The fee is $45, made up of $30 plus a $15 processing charge. The city asks for an engineer's letter describing the planned repairs, a stamped pier diagram, and a foundation and elevation assessment plan. Questions go to Building Inspection at 972-205-2300.

Nearby cities draw the line in different places, as the chart below shows. A few of their rules can stall a job if nobody plans for them:

• Richardson requires a permit for four or more piers. It must be approved and posted at the house before work starts, and the contractor must be registered with the city.
• Mesquite requires a permit for any foundation repair, at a flat $80. It must be issued and paid for before work starts. Working without one brings a stop-work order, a double fee and a citation to Municipal Court.
• Sachse requires every contractor and subcontractor to register in its SmartGov portal before the application goes in. It also wants three separately sealed documents: a pier layout plan, an engineer's letter and pier specifications.
• Sunnyvale warns, in capital letters on its own handout, that incomplete submittals won't be processed.
• Rowlett and Murphy list foundation repair as permit work with no threshold at all.

How long the permit takes is the hardest number to pin down, because most cities don't publish one. Wylie is an exception: it states 5 to 10 business days for residential permits. Elsewhere, a complete submittal from a contractor who's already registered is the best way to keep the wait short.

This is the part people expect to be long, and it usually isn't. Angi's guide puts many repairs at two to three days, with simple jobs taking as little as one day and bigger pier jobs a week or more. A single-story house with piers only around the outside sits at the short end.

For a typical slab job, the day goes something like this. The crew marks the pier locations from the engineer's drawing and digs a hole at each one, down beside the slab edge. Piers go in, and hydraulic jacks lift the slab back toward level, a little at a time, while someone watches the floor heights inside. The lift is slow on purpose, because moving a slab too fast cracks things that weren't cracked before. Then the piers are shimmed to hold the new position and the holes are filled.

Expect noise, piles of dirt on the lawn, and limited access to whichever side is being worked on. Anything in the garden you want to keep is best moved before the day, not on it.

A few things make the work take longer:

• Interior piers. Reaching them means tunneling under the slab or opening the floor, then putting it all back. If your slab is post-tension, the cables have to be found first. Our slab vs pier and beam guide explains how to tell which kind you have.
• Wet ground. Rain turns clay to mud and slows the digging.
• Fixing the cause first. If a plumbing leak moved the house, that gets repaired as its own job.

Lifting a slab moves the pipes underneath it. The Texas guidelines say the water supply and drain lines should be tested for leaks whenever a repair includes jacking or lifting, and that any leaks found should be repaired.

It's also worth testing before the work starts. A test beforehand records the condition of the lines going in. Without it, a leak found afterward turns into an argument about whether the lift caused it.

The guidelines also call for a floor survey once the work is done, with a copy for you. Those numbers are your record of where the house ended up, and they're the baseline for any future check.

How a job closes out depends on the city:

• Garland closes the permit when the repair company sends the engineer's final report confirming the work met the plan.
• Mesquite, under its published policy, has left inspection of foundation repairs to the engineer since 2002. The permit closes when the city gets the engineer's letter approving the work.
• Sachse checks twice. The engineer inspects and files a report, and the city then runs its own Foundation Repair Final.
• Sunnyvale asks for a third-party report on the pier work.
• Murphy schedules inspections for the next business day when they're requested before 2 p.m.

If your schedule depends on the final step, ask early which of these applies.

Then keep a folder. The permit, the engineer's plan, the final floor survey, the engineer's report and the warranty are what a future buyer, or their inspector, will want to see. A transferable warranty is only worth something if you can show it.

The job isn't quite finished when the crew leaves. The house can keep adjusting for a while after a lift, and drywall patched too soon may crack again.

Before you repaint, retape drywall or regrout tile, ask the engineer or the repair company how long to wait. Then fix what's still visible. The list is often shorter than you feared, because a lift closes many cracks on its own.

These are worth asking when you get the quote, not afterward.

1. Check that they're registered with your city. In Richardson, Sachse and Balch Springs, a contractor has to be registered before the permit can move.
2. Confirm the engineer's drawings will be issued for construction. In Plano, drawings marked for pricing only are rejected, and the review fee doesn't come back.
3. Ask who signs the job off, and whether that's been booked. In Mesquite it's the engineer. In Sachse it's the engineer and then the city.

None of these is an awkward question. A contractor who works in your city often will have all three answers ready.