Keystone Foundation Repair
(281) 568-7000
The Official Home of the Free
4 Point Foundation Service Call
Keystone Foundation Repair Owner Greg Vornkahl says, "If you have questions, we have answers!"
Foundation Repair Frequently Asked Questions
Still Have Questions? Email Us!
Follow Us On Twitter!
QUESTION: What are the signs of Foundation Failure?
QUESTION: What are some of the known causes of Foundation Failure?
QUESTION: Why do Foundation Repair Estimates vary so much?
QUESTION: How long will it take to repair my foundation?
QUESTION: Do you guarantee my plants?
QUESTION: Will all my doors work properly after your company is finished? Will all the cracks in my sheetrock and brick close when the repair is finished?
QUESTION: What can I expect while Keystone Foundation Repair is working on my home?
QUESTION: What causes Keystone Foundation Repair's Warranty to be voided?
QUESTION: Does Keystone Foundation Repair warranty my entire foundation?
QUESTION: Is that warranty for the lifetime of the structure?
QUESTION: What if I have a house on pier and beam, or a block and base house? Do I get a lifetime warranty with that?
QUESTION: Am I responsible for the Warranty Papers issued to me?
If you have a question which was not answered here, Please Email Us.
QUESTION: What are the signs of Foundation Failure?
ANSWER: Foundation Failure has such warning signs as cracks in sheetrock, doors not hanging properly,
windows sticking, cracks in brick and mortar, and brick pulling away from window frames. For more information,
please see our Foundation Failure Warning Signs page.
Back To Top
ANSWER: In Houston and the surrounding areas, Foundation Failure is mostly attributable to the expansion and contraction of the soils. Often, the problem begins with oversized trees near a home taking too much water from the slab. For example, a live oak tree can take up to 700 gallons of water per day. Simply multiply 700 gallons by the number of trees in a home's yard and you can just about calculate how much water and moisture is being directed away from the home's slabe foundation. In drought conditions, Foundation Failure is almost inevitable. The good news is that Keystone Foundation Repair can help you with this problem. One of the other services we provide is Root Barrier Installation.
Back To Top QUESTION: Why do Foundation Repair Estimates vary so much?
ANSWER: Keystone Foundation Repair is a median priced company. If you call three companies for estimates, chances are that we will be priced between the other two. To answer the question, it's important to understand that some companies lead their advertising with low prices. Many times, a low priced foundation repair company will offer to perform their service on a "per piling" or "per pier" basis.
Is Foundation Repair Cost your only concern? If your answer is "Yes", then we are not the company you should call. Because we use only high quality products and experienced crews, we simply cannot compete with companies that use the minimal amount of material the minimal amount of labor into the job. It is not uncommon for this sort of foundation repair to barely support the structure, resulting in yet another foundation failure in the future. Then it's back to square #1 again. Ultimately, the question which should be asked is this: does going with the cheapest estimate end up costing more in the end?
Why are some companies more expensive? First, many large companies with large numbers of employees are burdened with high overhead on a daily basis. Before opening for business each morning, there is a dollar amount that larger companies must reach in order to exist and maintain operations. Expenses such as payroll, advertising, real estate, vehicle fleet maintenance and countless others are all taken into account for pricing purposes. Unfortunately, this expense is passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices and, occasionally, unnecessary repairs.
Keystone Foundation Repair proudly enjoys a unique status. We are big enough to handle any foundation repair problem, yet small enough to be accessible to every single customer. Because customer referrals are a large part of our business, we do not need to spend excessive amounts of money for advertising. In turn, we pass those savings on to you.
Back To Top QUESTION: How long will it take to repair my foundation?
ANSWER: Based on how many pilings we must install, the average time can be anywhere from 2 to 3 days, or even as little as 1 day.
Back To Top QUESTION: Do you guarantee my plants?
ANSWER: No. Unfortunately we cannot guarantee your plants because we must remove them before repairing your foundation. Obviously, we take as much care as we can with them, but we cannot guarantee that they’re going to live. Once we pull them out of the ground, we enclose the roots with as much dirt as possible and we set them out separately. We ask that you to take responsibility for watering them for the duration of the job should it be more than a day. We do our best when we replant them. However, when a plant is pulled from the soil, it goes into shock. Therefore, we cannot guarantee your plants.
Back To Top QUESTION: Will all my doors work properly after your company is finished? Will all the cracks in my sheetrock and brick close when the repair is finished?
ANSWER: AS much as we would like to, we cannot guarantee that all your doors are going to work when we’re through. Typically, home owners do see a vast improvement. Because each home is different, each home reacts differently.
Back To Top
QUESTION: What can I expect while Keystone Foundation Repair is working on my home?
ANSWER: We begin the process by digging holes to install the pilings. There will be large amounts of dirt from all the holes. Your house may creak quite a bit as we press the pilings in the soil. There will be a lot of dirt left over, which we will haul away. When the job is finished, there will very few signs that any work was done.
Back To Top QUESTION: What causes Keystone Foundation Repair's Warranty to be voided?
ANSWER: There are very few things which will void your warranty. One of them is a leak under the slab in the sewer line. It will cause our pilings to fail.
Another would be a newly installed swimming pool too close to the house after we have finished the repair. A swimming pool should be at least the same distance from the house as the pool’s depth - if it’s 10 feet deep, it needs to be 10 feet away from the house. If it’s 5 feet deep, - 5 feet away from the house. A swimming pool too close to your home will cause the foundation to fail.
Flooding voids the warranty. If there is a flood after our repair is finished, we simply cannot warranty afterwards.
Also worth mentioning is that when you sell your house, you'll have 30 days to transfer your warranty. You'll give your warranty to the buyer and instruct him or her that when he or she closes, to send a copy of the settlement statement showing the purchase of the house along with the transfer fee. This must be done within 30 days of the date of the property's purchase. The Warranty transfer is “ever green”, meaning it can be transferred over and over again.
Back To Top QUESTION: Does Keystone Foundation Repair warranty my entire foundation?
ANSWER: We offer a foundation repair warranty. We warranty our workmanship. We cannot warranty your foundation. We warranty the elevation of the foundation over the area that we install the pilings-the area we underpinned. Our warranty strictly applies to our pilings that we install.
Back To Top QUESTION: Is that warranty for the lifetime of the structure?
ANSWER: Absolutely.
Back To Top QUESTION: What if I have a house on pier and beam, or a block and base house? Do I get a lifetime warranty with that?
ANSWER: No, you don’t. You get a service agreement. The reason we cannot warranty those structures is that they are always experiencing movement. Though we can limit that movement, and do some things to drastically stop the house from moving, it will never stop completely. So, we give a 5 year service agreement on that. The first year if you call us back, we come back for free. Years 2 – 5, we charge an hourly rate to come back. We’ve only been called back twice since the beginning of doing repairs on these types of houses back in 1991.
Back To Top QUESTION: Am I responsible for the Warranty Papers issued to me?
ANSWER: Yes you are. However, if you don’t have a copy of the warranty when it’s time to transfer it, give us a call and we’ll do our best to get you a copy of it. There will be a small administration fee to find it for you.Back To Top
Website Designed and Hosted by Bret Walton and Destiny Now LLC. (713) 863 - 8311