Foundation repair in Apopka FL - repairs that go after the cause, not the crack

Apopka requires a permit before anyone repairs a building's structure or any part of it, and the application goes to the city's Building-Safety Department from a licensed contractor registered with the city. The city can fine or stop work done without a permit, and unpermitted work can complicate a later sale or refinance. If you're financing the repair, ask your lender early, since many won't release funds until the department signs off on the final inspection.

If you own a single-family home and do the work yourself, the city lets you apply as an owner/builder with proof of ownership and an owner/builder affidavit. State law says the house has to be for your own use, you have to supervise the work on site, and you can't hire an unlicensed person to run the job. You also become the responsible party on the permit, and if you sell or lease within a year of a big improvement, the state presumes you did it to sell, so the exemption no longer covers you. Having a licensed contractor file the permit in their own name may keep that financial risk off you.

There's no fair number until I've seen the house, because the price comes down to the method, how much of the house moved and how much digging it takes beside your walls. A trench along a whole wall is a bigger job than a few holes, and cracked block or brick that needs fixing afterward adds to it. Your written estimate gives you the figure for your house.

The soil under your house usually decides it. Highway guidance from California's transportation department says grouting has a clear cost advantage over tearing out and replacing, and it's generally less disruptive, but the type of soil is its main limit. When the soil won't take grout, piers set at the footing are the other route we look at, and we'll tell you which fits once we've found the cause.

Plan on open digging right beside the house. One pier maker's install guide calls for either a trench along the whole wall down to the footing or a separate hole at each pier. We tell you up front which way your job goes and how much of the yard that opens up.

In Florida, ground that drops like a sinkhole often has another cause, such as clay layers compressing, a buried stump rotting, a broken sewer or septic line, or loose soil left after digging. The state keeps a database of reported sinking, but most entries were never checked in the field, and a reported dip often isn't confirmed by a licensed geologist as a true sinkhole. That's why we find the cause before we price a fix.