Foundation Repair in Round Rock, TX

Foundation movement rarely starts with anything dramatic. These are the small things people tend to notice first:

• An interior door that drags, swings on its own, or won't latch
• A crack running up from the corner of a door frame or window
• A zig-zag crack in brick or stone that follows the mortar
• A gap opening under the baseboards
• Floor tiles cracking in a line
• A window that sticks partway or won't lock

One crack on its own doesn't mean your foundation is failing. The real question is whether it's getting bigger. Draw a short pencil line across each end and write the date beside it, then look again in a month. HUD's inspection guidance says that cracks with clean edges suggest recent movement, while dirty or filled cracks may have stopped moving.

The calendar can help too. The NOAA weather station just northeast of Round Rock records most of its rain in May (4.67 inches on average) and October (4.07 inches), with only 2.04 inches in July. At Georgetown Lake, the nearest station with temperature records, August averages a high of 96.8°F. Clay dries out through that long, hot middle of the year. If a crack widens through August and tightens up again once October's rain arrives, the soil under the slab is likely swelling and shrinking with the year.

Seeing more than one of these at once? When signs start stacking up, it's worth getting the floors measured.

Part of Round Rock sits over the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, where rain can soak down through cracks in the limestone into the aquifer. We checked the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's Edwards Aquifer map at the same 25 points in each town. In Round Rock, 40% of the points landed on the recharge zone and 24% on the transition zone next to it. Georgetown came in at 92% and Brushy Creek at 84%. None of the points in Hutto, Manor, Taylor or Elgin fell in any zone.

The state's Edwards Aquifer rules cover construction and digging on the recharge zone, and they leave out routine upkeep of an existing building that doesn't disturb more of the site. We haven't found a TCEQ answer on where repair piers fall between those two, so it's worth asking before any digging starts. TCEQ's Austin office covers Williamson and Travis counties at 512-339-2929. Our Edwards Aquifer guide explains the zones and the rules.

We don't do repairs ourselves. We connect homeowners with professionals, who may pay us for each request we send, as our referral marketing disclosure sets out.

The City of Round Rock requires a building permit to repair a building, and foundation repair has its own permit type. Applications go through the city's online permit portal. The same rule covers the Chandler Creek and Vista Oaks municipal utility districts.

Here's what the city asks for:

• A sealed plan. The application needs an "Assumption of the Engineer of Record" letter and an engineered foundation plan with the engineer's seal and signature.
• A report at the end. Before the final inspection, a final engineered report has to be uploaded to the permit record.
• A $125 fee. The city calculates it once the application is accepted.
• Registered contractors. Every contractor on the job registers with the city, at no charge, and Round Rock issues one permit that names all of them.

Those steps work in your favor, because an engineer has looked at the plan before the work and at the result after it. Each town around Round Rock handles this its own way, and our permits guide goes through them.