A designer or architect
Prepares the drawings your municipality reviews for the building permit. Contractors price the foundation from those drawings.
A New Foundation for a House or Addition
This guide does not diagnose your foundation. It helps you decide who to call and what to ask.
A new foundation usually involves several trades: excavation, footings, walls, waterproofing and drainage, backfill and the floor slab. Some companies do all of it. Others only form and pour.
Ask each contractor to price the same drawings, and write down which parts they include. That makes the quotes comparable.
Get it looked at soon if
- The site has a slope, high groundwater or soil you are unsure about.
- You are building an addition next to an existing foundation.
- Your drawings do not yet show the foundation design.
If you think there is an immediate safety risk, leave the area and contact your local emergency services.
Who can assess it
A foundation contractor
Forms and pours footings and walls. Some also do excavation, waterproofing and backfill. Others only do the concrete.
A structural engineer
Independent of any contractor. Can assess whether there is a structural problem and write a repair scope that contractors then price.
Services that may come up
Questions to ask every contractor
- Which parts do you do yourselves: excavation, footings, walls, waterproofing, backfill, slab?
- Is your price based on our drawings? What happens if the drawings change?
- Who books the inspections required by the municipality?
- What could change the price once the excavation is open?
- What does the warranty cover, and for how long?
What to record
- Keep a copy of the drawings each contractor priced.
- Get the scope, schedule and payment milestones in writing.
- Keep permit and inspection records with the contract.
Slow down if you hear
- Pressure to sign today or lose a price.
- A large deposit before any work or materials arrive.
- A scope that does not say what is included.
- Claims of a grant or rebate you cannot confirm yourself.