What a Foundation Repair Company Website Needs

What the site is actually for

Somebody has just found a crack in the basement wall, water on the floor after heavy rain, or a door upstairs that has started to stick.

They are worried about three things at once: whether the house is safe, what the repair will cost, and what it means if they ever sell. Some arrive with a home inspector's report and a closing date.

The site's job is not to sell underpinning. It is to help that person understand what they are looking at, and send you enough to judge it.

After a winter of rain, many of them are thinking about water.

The problems, in plain words

• Hairline cracks in poured concrete, often from shrinkage as it cured.
• Stair-step cracks following the mortar joints in a block wall.
• Horizontal cracks, or a wall that leans or bows inward.
• Water at the base of a wall after heavy rain.
• White, chalky deposits where water has dried on the concrete.
• Sticking doors, sloping floors and gaps at window corners.

The third is the one a good site treats seriously in print, since it can mean soil pressing the wall inward. Saying so plainly, alongside saying that most hairline cracks are not structural, is what makes the rest believable.

A page for each problem

Homeowners search for what they see: a crack in the basement wall, water after rain, a sloping floor. Almost nobody searches for polyurethane injection.

So organise the main pages around problems: cracks, water, settling. Each explains what the problem can mean, what an inspection checks, and which repairs usually follow, with photographs of what it looks like.

Many older Lower Mainland houses have perimeter drains silted up or broken by roots. If that is much of your work, the water page should explain it.

Explaining the repairs

Each repair needs two explanations: what it is, and what the household lives through while it is done.

Crack injection fills a crack from inside, with epoxy where the wall needs bonding or a flexible foam where the aim is to stop water. It usually takes a few hours.

Exterior waterproofing means digging down to the footing, sealing the wall and laying new drain: trenches beside the house, garden beds lifted, often several days of machinery.

Underpinning, interior drainage and wall bracing get the same treatment. Say, too, when an engineer or permit is needed and who arranges it; homeowners worry about that more than contractors realise.

The inspection visit

Many homeowners fear the inspection is a sales visit in disguise. The page describing it should settle that before they book.

Say who comes, how long it takes, whether there is a fee, and whether a written report and photographs follow. Mention what you check beyond the crack: grading, downspouts, drains.

And say when you would send them to a structural engineer first. That line reassures more than any badge on the page.

A worked example

A foundation and drainage contractor with three crews worked mostly on older houses in Burnaby and New Westminster.

Its site had a slideshow of excavators, a list of services, and a form asking only for contact details and a message. Most messages said little more than "crack in basement, please call".

The office booked visits in order of arrival. Estimators drove across the region to look at hairline shrinkage cracks while a house with water coming through the wall waited behind them.

The rebuilt site had a page for each problem, a page on the inspection, and a form asking what the homeowner had noticed, when, and whether it was changing, with room for photographs.

Most enquiries now arrive with a picture or two. The office can tell a cosmetic crack from a wet one before anyone gets in a truck, and the urgent jobs are booked first.

A form that asks for photographs

A photograph tells an estimator more than a paragraph from a worried homeowner.

Ask for the area, what they noticed, when it started and whether it is changing. Then offer an optional upload, suggesting a coin or tape measure beside the crack to show its width.

On a phone the upload button offers the camera or the photo library, so it costs seconds. Have it built properly: images only, sensible size limits, delivered to an inbox somebody checks daily.

Before-and-after photographs

Foundation work is mostly hidden once it is finished, which is exactly why photographs of it persuade.

Photograph the open trench with membrane and drain in place, before the backfill covers them for good. Photograph the crack before injection and after, and the finished grade.

Caption each set plainly: the neighbourhood, the problem, what was done. No house numbers, and no stock images of somebody else's excavation.

Warranties and what transfers

Foundation repair often comes up when a house is sold, so the warranty matters twice: to the owner now, and to whoever buys from them.

Put it on the site in plain words: what it covers, what it does not, for how long, how to claim, and whether it transfers to a new owner.

Avoid lifetime without saying whose lifetime. A warranty that turns out narrower than it sounded becomes a dispute later.

Talking about price

Most foundation companies cannot publish a price list, and homeowners understand that. What frightens them is having no idea at all.

Explain what drives the cost: the length and depth of wall, access for equipment, decks or driveways in the way, and any engineering or permits. Say whether the estimate is free.

If you are comfortable doing so, give typical ranges for common jobs, so a homeowner can tell a small repair from a large one before you visit.

The counter-case

Not every foundation company needs all of this.

A company working mainly for builders, engineers and property managers needs project lists and references more than explanations for homeowners.

A small operator doing one kind of work in one city can start smaller: one problem page done well, the inspection page and the photo form.

For most companies working with homeowners, though, the site's job is to explain plainly, describe the visit, and make it easy to send pictures.

What to build first

1. Write the cracks page in plain words.
2. Write the water page for the wet months.
3. Describe the inspection visit step by step.
4. Add a photo upload to the contact form.
5. Photograph hidden work before the backfill.
6. Put the warranty in plain words.
7. Explain what drives the price.

Step four is the one that changes the office's day. Photographs arriving with the enquiry let you sort the worrying from the cosmetic before anyone drives anywhere.

The same approach for a company called after the water has already arrived is covered in what a water damage restoration company website needs.

Frequently asked questions

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