Retaining Wall vs. Foundation Wall: What’s the Difference?
Every week I get a call from a homeowner in the Denver metro or up in the foothills asking whether the crumbling wall in their backyard is the same thing as the wall holding up their basement. It isn’t, and the distinction matters more than most people realize. The short answer to retaining wall vs […]
Pier and Beam Foundation Inspection: What Engineers Check Underneath Your Home
Crawling under a house on a set of knee pads with a flashlight and a moisture meter is not glamorous work, but it’s where a pier and beam foundation inspection actually happens. Unlike a slab, where problems show up as cracks in drywall or tile, a raised foundation hides its damage in the dark — […]
Concrete & Slab Foundation Inspection: What Makes This Foundation Type Different
Slab-on-grade construction makes up a large share of the residential and light commercial building stock across the Front Range, from newer subdivisions in Thornton to ranch-style homes scattered through Lakewood and Aurora, and a slab foundation inspection has to be approached differently than an inspection of a basement or crawlspace foundation. There’s no accessible underside […]
What’s Included in a Foundation Inspection Report
After twenty-some years of crawling through crawlspaces and standing in basements with a laser level in Denver, Colorado Springs, and everywhere the Front Range’s expansive clay soils cause trouble, I’ve written more foundation inspection reports than I can count. Homeowners, real estate agents, and lenders almost always ask the same question before I even schedule […]
Certified Foundation Inspector: What the Credentials Actually Mean
Homeowners searching for a certified foundation inspector usually run into the same wall I’ve watched clients hit for years: everyone claims certification, but almost nobody explains what that word is supposed to mean. After two decades evaluating foundations across the Front Range, from clay-heavy soils in Douglas County to the older slab-on-grade homes in Denver’s […]
Foundation Inspector vs. Structural Engineer: Who Should Inspect Your Foundation?
Every year our office fields calls from homeowners across the Front Range who found a crack in a basement wall, got a lowball offer after a home inspection flagged “foundation concerns,” or received a letter from their insurance company demanding documentation before they’ll pay a claim. Almost all of them ask some version of the […]
Foundation Inspection vs. Structural Inspection: What’s the Difference?
Homeowners call our office almost every week asking the same question in different words: do I need a foundation inspection or a structural inspection? The confusion is understandable because the two terms get used interchangeably across real estate listings, home inspector reports, and even some engineering websites. The short answer is that a foundation inspection […]
What Is a Foundation Inspection? A Plain-English Explanation
A homeowner in Lakewood called our office last spring after noticing a hairline crack running diagonally from a basement window corner. She’d already had a real estate agent walk through and tell her it was “probably nothing.” That kind of guess is exactly why the question of what is a foundation inspection matters so much […]
What to Expect During a Professional Foundation Inspection (Step-by-Step)
After twenty-some years of crawling through Colorado crawlspaces and standing in basements measuring wall deflection with a laser level, I can tell you most homeowners walk into their first foundation inspection with no idea what’s actually going to happen. That uncertainty is the real reason I’m writing this. The foundation inspection process follows a fairly […]
Foundation Inspection Checklist: What to Check Yourself and When to Call an Engineer
Most homeowners walk past the same foundation cracks for months before they think to ask whether it means anything. A proper foundation inspection checklist gives you a way to catch problems early, before a hairline crack in the drywall turns into a $15,000 underpinning job. This article walks through exactly what you can check yourself […]