Foundation repair in Alexandria and Pineville, Louisiana

How it works

1. Call or send a request

   Tell us your town, what you've noticed, and whether the house is on a slab or raised on piers.

2. We connect you

   We connect you with an independent foundation contractor who works in Rapides Parish.

3. They call you back

   They measure the house, explain the cause, and quote the repair to you directly.

Who is this site for?

Anyone in Alexandria, Pineville, Ball, Woodworth or elsewhere in Rapides Parish, Central Louisiana, who suspects the foundation under their house is shifting. That covers brick ranch houses on concrete slabs, older raised homes sitting on piers above a crawl space, and buyers or sellers whose inspection report says "evaluation by a foundation specialist recommended." It's the same whether you live near downtown Alexandria by the Red River or out on a larger lot in the pines.

Why do foundations move in Rapides Parish?

Mostly because of the Red River. Alexandria grew up on the river's south bank, and the Louisiana Geological Survey's map of the Alexandria quadrangle shows the city and its surroundings built on Red River deposits: low natural levees along the meander belts, point bars inside the old bends, and fine-grained backswamp sediment filling the flood basins between them. Older Pleistocene terraces of the Red River valley rise in places away from the channel.

Those river sediments include a lot of clay that changes volume with water. The USDA described the Latanier soil from a site in Rapides Parish about 1.4 miles southeast of Chambers. It's a smectitic clay over loam with slickensides, the polished slip surfaces clay forms as it swells and shrinks, and its upper layers crack open in dry periods. Moreland, another Red River floodplain soil, is a very-fine smectitic clay formed in red sediment the river carries down from Permian red beds farther west.

Then there's the rain. Under the 1991 to 2020 normals, Alexandria averages about 60.9 inches of precipitation a year, and July's average high is about 91.7°F. Clay that soaks all winter and dries out in late summer pushes and pulls on a foundation, and it rarely does so evenly. The side with the downspout, the side in full afternoon sun and the side next to a big oak each end up at a different moisture level.

What signs are worth a closer look?

• Stair-step cracks in brick, often near a corner, a window or the garage opening
• Doors that rub at the top, won't latch, or drift open on their own
• Floors that slope, feel springy, or dip toward the middle of the house
• Drywall cracks angling up from the corners of doors and windows
• Gaps opening between trim and the floor or ceiling
• Water standing in the crawl space after rain, or tilted and crushed supports under a raised house
• A crack you patched last year that has opened again

A single hairline crack in a garage floor is usually just concrete shrinking. Several signs together, or signs that get worse from one season to the next, are when it's worth getting floor readings. The evaluation and crack repair page explains what a good visit covers.

What repairs are available?

• Slab houses with a settled corner or side are usually supported with piers set under the perimeter beam. See slab repair.
• Raised and pier-and-beam houses are leveled from the crawl space with new shims, added or rebuilt piers, and sill and beam repair. See pier-and-beam leveling.
• Pier systems differ from bid to bid: pressed concrete, steel push and helical piers each suit different houses. See foundation piering.
• Water control with gutters, grading and drains often decides whether a repair holds. See drainage and moisture control.

Does every moving house need piers?

Not always. Clay that shrinks in late summer often gives some of that height back after the winter rains, so a house measured in a drought can look worse than it is. Jack it to level in September and the same floor may crown in March. Good contractors ask how long the cracks have been there, look at gutters, trees and plumbing first, and may suggest re-measuring in another season before committing you to dozens of piers. When a plan seems heavy and nobody can explain why, a second bid or an engineer hired by you is cheap insurance.

What can I do before the contractor visits?

• Note which doors and windows stick, and roughly when that started
• Photograph each crack with a tape measure or coin beside it, and keep the dates
• Walk the yard during a hard rain to see where roof water and runoff go
• On a raised house, shine a flashlight through a crawl space vent and look for standing water
• Watch the water bill; an unexplained jump can point to a leak under a slab

Does a foundation contractor need a Louisiana license?

Almost always. Under Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors rules, home improvement work on an existing house needs a Home Improvement Registration once the job is worth more than $7,500, up to $75,000; past $75,000, the contractor needs a residential license. The board's website lets you search a company by name. The Alexandria, Louisiana foundation guide covers permits in Alexandria and the rest of the parish and what to ask in a bid.

Are you a foundation repair company?

No. Alexandria Foundation Repair is a referral service, not a contractor. Your call or request is passed to an independent foundation company that works your area, and that company handles the evaluation, the price, the repair and any warranty. Our guide to checking a contractor is worth a read before you sign anything.

Areas we cover

• Alexandria
• Pineville
• Ball
• Woodworth

Planning ahead? Read our Alexandria, Louisiana foundation guide.