If the foundation under your house is failing, we lift the house a bit at a time so it can be fixed or rebuilt.
Foundation raising in Boston means lifting your house off its foundation a short distance at a time and holding it on temporary supports, so the foundation underneath can be repaired, changed or built new.
Most people call us when the foundation under the house is cracked, sinking or too far gone to fix from below, and a lift is how that work gets done without taking the house apart. The price turns on the size of the house, what it's built of and how much foundation work happens underneath. The schedule mostly waits on the engineer's plans and the city's permit, because we don't lift until both are ready. At Heartland Boston Concrete Company I come out and look at the house before I give you a number, so you know what you're paying for before anything starts.
I come out to look at the house and give you the estimate in person, and our own crew does the lift with me running it. You're dealing with the same person from the first visit to the day the house comes back down.
We've been at this nine years, and I learned the trade beside older finishers who cared more about the prep than the finish. On a lift, that means the supports under your house get more of my attention than anything you'll see when it's done.
We're licensed and insured, and I'll explain what you're paying for before we start, twice if that's what it takes. When you're ready, call (857) 770-0722 or use the form, with your address, what the house is built of and any plot plan you already have.
We reply within one business day. I'll set a time to come out, look at the house myself and give you the estimate on site, free and with no obligation to book.
In Boston, the permit to change, repair or build a new foundation comes from Inspectional Services, and you get it by applying for a long-form permit backed by stamped design plans and a certified plot plan. If work starts before that permit is issued, the city can charge double the permit cost or write a building code violation, which is why the lift date only gets set once the permit's in hand. Before work starts, we check with the city about the permits your job may need and help you get the paperwork in order.
Some houses have extra steps on top of that. Boston set up a Groundwater Conservation Overlay District in sections of the city to protect wood pile foundations from damage when groundwater levels drop, and the city's flood district has its own rules for homes inside it, covered in the questions below. We're based in Boston and work across the cities around it, including Brookline and Cambridge, where we see a lot of older brick and wood-frame houses set close together, which decides how much room we have for jacks and supports.
Most houses can be lifted, brick and stone included, but masonry needs more support points, careful planning of how the load shifts and often bracing inside, because it cracks easily when it moves unevenly. Wood-frame houses suit lifting well, so expect a masonry lift to be the more involved job.
Yes, the foundation work a lift is done for needs a permit from Inspectional Services, through the long-form application covered above. You can start the process online on the city's foundation permit page, but you'll still have to come into the city's office.
On one- and two-family homes in Massachusetts, a licensed construction supervisor or a registered design professional has to oversee the construction, though there's an exemption for homeowners. Any contractor working on an existing, owner-occupied home with one to four units also has to be registered as a Home Improvement Contractor.
It can, if your house is inside the city's Flood Hazard District. There, when improvement or repair costs top 50 percent of the building's market value, the city requires the building to meet current flood standards, so a large raising job may bring the whole house under them. The district also rules out basements with floors below grade on all sides, requires any crawlspace or garage below the city's flood elevation to be wet floodproofed, built to let floodwater pass through, and requires an Elevation Certificate from a licensed surveyor, with photos, showing the house was raised to the approved plans.
There's no set price, because every lift depends on the house. The size of the house, whether it's wood frame or masonry, how many support points it needs and how much foundation work happens underneath all move the number. I'll walk you through each of those when I come out and give you your estimate.
Start by bringing in a Massachusetts registered engineer or architect early, because the city's permit application depends on their stamped plans. You'll also want a certified plot plan showing your property lines and where the house sits. Once the permit's issued, we set the lift date with you.
