What Foundation Repair Company Is Best in Houston, TX?

Howdy,

The foundation repair business is a massive industry in Texas. I’ve seen it from just about every angle — I used to work for one of the largest foundation repair companies in Houston, I’ve inspected for a structural engineer who designed repair plans, and today I serve homeowners as a licensed home inspector and foundation consultant.

So when people ask me, “Neil, what’s the best foundation repair company in Houston?” my honest answer is usually:

“You might be starting with the wrong question.”

The better question is: “Do I even need foundation repair — and who should I trust to tell me that?”

Why Homeowners Go Looking for “The Best”

When drywall cracks, doors stick, or tile pops, homeowners do what any of us would do — they Google “best foundation repair company in Houston.” The search results are packed with big, familiar brands: large companies with strong marketing, long warranties, and plenty of reassuring language.

Some are local family names, others are regional or national. Their trucks are wrapped, their ads sound comforting, and their warranties feel like a safety net. On the surface, it sounds like an easy decision:

• They offer “free inspections.”
• They show you a nice-looking foundation elevation diagram.
• They give you a professional proposal with a warranty.

But underneath all that polish, many companies are doing essentially the same thing with the same method — and that method comes with serious long-term consequences for homes built on expansive clay soils like we have throughout Houston and Fort Bend County.

What Foundation Repair Companies Actually Do

Let’s strip the jargon away and talk about methods in plain language.

In large part, Houston foundation repair companies use some form of precast pressed concrete piles pushed into the ground using the weight of the home. Some companies also use steel piles or helical systems. A few specialize in poured, reinforced bell-bottom piers. But the big picture is simple:

• Pressed piles – Precast concrete cylinders driven into the ground using the weight of the structure.
• Bell-bottom piers – Poured and reinforced on site, with a wider base and more predictable geometry.

Most marketing calls everything “piers,” but for clarity, we’ll call all of it underpinning — because that’s what it is. You’re not really “repairing” the foundation. You’re partially supporting it from below in certain locations and then lifting portions of the slab.

For a deeper dive into pressed piles and their problems, here’s a good starting point from an engineering perspective: Pressed Piles Problems — Dawson Foundation Repair.

Piles vs. Piers — Why the Method Matters

Here’s the nutshell difference, without going too deep into jargon:

• Pressed piles go deep, but no one really knows exactly where they stop or how uniform the support is from pile to pile.
• Bell-bottom piers don’t usually go as deep, but they’re formed on site, reinforced, and their geometry is known and inspectable.

Piles are cheaper and faster to install, which makes them more profitable. Piers take more time, more steel, more concrete, and more labor.

On expansive clay soils, underpinning can create a new structural behavior: the underpinned portions become more static while the rest of the slab stays dynamic. Over time, this can lead to interior settlement or other side effects. Some independent engineers have even argued that perimeter piling systems can create uplift and interior problems as the soil cycles wet and dry. One example: Pressed Pile System — Coody & Kruhl Engineering Document.

In my experience, many homes with prior underpinning eventually show interior settlement that wasn’t there before. That doesn’t mean underpinning is never needed — but for many homeowners, it should be a last-resort structural option, not the first line of defense.

The Sales Model: “Free Inspection” ≠ Free Advice

Most foundation repair companies in Houston follow the same basic model:

• Free “inspection” that is really a sales appointment.
• Commission-based sales reps, often unlicensed and under pressure to sell.
• Quotas (or “sales goals”) that drive how many jobs must close per week or month.

Some are called “estimators” or even “certified structural specialists,” but titles don’t equal licensing. Many of these inspectors are good people trying to feed their families — but the system itself is biased. A commission-only sales model can’t be truly neutral when the most profitable outcome is also the recommended solution.

It’s also common for large companies to use subcontract crews for the actual work, just like roofing and new construction. The logo on the truck and the name on the contract may be different, but the labor pool often overlaps.

For more on the licensing and conflict-of-interest problem, I break this down in another Field Notes post: Should the Foundation Repair Industry Be Licensed?

The Warranties: Comfort, Not Always Protection

Almost every major foundation repair company offers some version of a “lifetime warranty” or service contract. On paper, it sounds unbeatable.

But here’s what I’ve watched play out over and over again:

• The warranty usually covers only the areas that were underpinned, not the rest of the slab.
• If new movement shows up elsewhere, the solution is often: “We need to underpin the new area too.”
• The original company gets the first and best shot at more work — the warranty call becomes a paid lead.

In other words, a warranty can sometimes become a built-in pathway to upsell more underpinning as side effects show up in new locations.

For a deeper look at how repaired foundations actually perform, I cover this in: Is a Repaired Foundation Still Performing Its Intended Function?

So… Which Foundation Repair Company Is Actually “Best” in Houston?

Here’s the honest truth most people don’t want to hear:

“In practical terms, many foundation repair companies in Houston are offering extremely similar products, installed in similar ways, with similar sales models.”

Some have better branding. Some have nicer proposals. Some invest in better software to draw your floor plan. A few offer poured piers instead of piles. But the core experience is often the same.

For the record, I don’t promote any specific foundation repair company or method. My job now is to help homeowners understand the system before they get pulled into it.

I’d estimate that well over half of foundation repairs I’ve seen in the field were unnecessary — and many could have been avoided entirely with better soil management and early interventions like root barriers and controlled watering.

The Industry’s Approach vs. a Soil-First Approach

Most foundation repair companies are symptom-focused. They see cracks, gaps, or sticking doors and move straight to underpinning. Some may mention soil, trees, or drainage in passing — but the primary recommendation is almost always structural lifting.

In my view, foundation repair should begin as soil repair. We live on expansive clay with a high Potential Vertical Rise (PVR). Our soil grows and shrinks dramatically with moisture. Most of the damage happens when parts of the soil are one size and other parts are another.

If we focused first on keeping the clay roughly the same “size” around the home — with root barriers where trees are too close, and properly designed watering strategies — many foundations would never need invasive underpinning at all.

An excellent engineering perspective on root barriers and rehydration is here: Root Barriers — Prof Engineering.

So What Should a Houston Homeowner Do?

If you’re worried about your foundation, here’s the order I recommend:

• Start with an unbiased evaluation — from a licensed home inspector who understands foundations or a structural engineer who doesn’t sell repair.
• Document performance — with a foundation elevation survey and a visual condition assessment before talking to any repair company.
• Address causes first — root barriers, drainage corrections, and moisture management should be discussed before underpinning.
• Treat underpinning as a last-resort structural option — not a default response to every crack.

“The first step to finding the ‘best’ foundation repair company in Houston is realizing you shouldn’t call a repair company first.”

In Summary: It’s Their World — Don’t Get Trapped in It

The foundation repair industry has spent decades shaping how Texans think about foundation problems. Their language, their warranties, and their marketing define the “normal” story: cracks mean you need piles, and piles mean peace of mind.

• They focus heavily on visible damage, not always on underlying soil behavior.
• They are rarely required to follow a unified performance standard for “tolerances.”
• They often control the narrative from the very first free visit.

We need to understand that, in many ways, it’s the foundation repair industry’s world — and homeowners are just living in it. Our job, as licensed professionals and advocates, is to step in between the marketing and the decision, and help homeowners see the full picture before they sign a contract.

If you’d like to read more about why I walked away from selling foundation repair in the first place, I share that story here: Why I Stopped Selling Foundation Repair.

I write these Field Notes knowing this message will only resonate with a fraction of homeowners — and that some will find it uncomfortable to question such a well-established industry. But if it helps even a few families avoid unnecessary underpinning and keep their hard-earned savings above the ground instead of buried under their slab, it’s worth it.

Neil Arnold

Professional Home Inspector, TREC#23450