Five questions to ask a foundation repair company before you sign

Why ask these five

Texas has no state license for foundation repair or general contractors, so no state roster tells you a repair company is qualified. Each of the four cities we cover requires a contractor who pulls a residential building permit to be registered with the City; an owner can also pull one for their own home under each City's rules. What you can check is the paper behind each promise: an engineer's license and plan, a city permit and its inspections, an insurance certificate, a written warranty and the customers a company has worked for.

The questions follow the five evidence categories our directory uses. Each company profile has a panel for each category, except that San Antonio and Fort Worth profiles leave out permits because those cities' downloadable permit data does not name the contractor. A panel that says Not on file gives the question to ask that company, as how we compare explains. We have no engineer letters or insurance certificates on file for any listed company yet, so those two questions apply to every company.

1. Who is the engineer, and who hired them?

Ask for the engineer's name and Texas license number, the engineering firm, who engages and pays the engineer, and what the engineer will give you in writing.

A complete answer includes:

• A named professional engineer whose license shows as current on the state board's PE roster, at a firm the board's firm roster lists as Active.
• Who the engineer works for. A Texas engineer acts as a faithful agent for the client who engaged them, must disclose a potential conflict of interest, and may not take pay from more than one party for the same project. An engineer the repair company engages answers to the company.
• A repair plan that shows where each pier goes and its size, depth and material.
• What happens after the work: water and sewer line tests if the house is lifted, a new floor elevation survey with a copy for you, and, if the engineer is hired to write one, a letter of substantial completion. That letter is an opinion that the work generally follows the plan; it does not guarantee the repair.

City rules differ. San Antonio and Round Rock require an engineer of record for every residential foundation repair permit, and Fort Worth requires engineered building plans for every residential foundation repair. In Austin it depends on the work and the house. Our independent engineer guide covers the city rules and hiring your own engineer before you choose a company.

2. Who pulls the permit, and when is the final inspection?

Ask who will apply for the permit and whether they are registered with the City to do so, for the permit number before work starts, and who schedules the inspections, including the final.

A complete answer is a permit number you can look up yourself, with the inspections listed as they happen. Each city has a public permit search: Austin's AB+C Public Search, San Antonio's BuildSA, Fort Worth's Accela Citizen Access and Round Rock's Permit Portal (help page). Austin's and San Antonio's need no account to see a permit's inspections, and Fort Worth's record search opened without one when we tried it. Austin's and Round Rock's ask you to pass a captcha first.

In San Antonio, an owner who pulls the permit is responsible for the inspections. A permit also matters when you sell: the Texas seller's disclosure form asks whether repairs were made without necessary permits.

On our profiles, Austin and Round Rock companies show the City permit facts we matched to them. Fort Worth and San Antonio company permit totals remain unknown, so ask those companies for permit numbers from recent jobs near you and look them up.

3. Can you send a current certificate of insurance?

Ask for a certificate of insurance for the business named on your contract, and the insurer or agent who can confirm it. Ask whether the crew that will work at your house is covered by workers' compensation.

A complete answer is a certificate whose business name matches your contract and whose policy dates cover your job, with the coverage confirmed by a call to the insurer or agent listed. On its page about contracting scams after storms, the Texas Department of Insurance advises asking for the certificate and calling the companies listed to verify the coverage.

The call matters because of what a certificate is. Under Texas law, a certificate of insurance summarizes a policy. It is not the policy itself, does not change the coverage and gives you no rights beyond what the policy provides. A properly issued certificate confirms that the policy was issued, and holding one does not by itself entitle you to notice if the policy is later canceled.

Workers' compensation is optional for most private employers in Texas. On its page about disaster scams, the Attorney General warns that if a contractor is not insured, you could be liable for accidents on your property.

Of the four cities' contractor registration pages we read, only San Antonio's requires a residential building contractor to carry liability insurance, at least $500,000 per occurrence, with a certificate on file with the City. Its code of ethics for registered contractors asks them to give customers proof of required insurance on request. The Austin, Fort Worth and Round Rock pages ask a building contractor for no insurance document.

4. Can I read the full written warranty before I sign?

Ask for the warranty document that will apply to your repair before you sign, and for every promise made to you in writing. The disclosure statement Texas requires before you sign warns that an oral promise not in the written agreement may not be enforceable.

A complete answer is the written terms in your hands. Read them for:

• What is covered. The Foundation Performance Association's homebuyers' guide says repair companies that offer a lifetime transferable warranty typically warrant only the work they did and the parts they installed. Most of those warranties do not cover cracks in finishes such as tile and drywall, and a warranty may not cover movement caused by soil heave. The guide was written for southeast Texas, mainly Houston, and says to use it with caution elsewhere.
• What it costs later. Terms we read include a fee for each warranty visit and adjustments made only to the piers the company installed.
• What ends it. One warranty we read ends if another contractor works on the company's piers.
• How it transfers when you sell. Terms we read set a 30-day deadline after the sale, a notarized form, a flat fee or a fee of 10 percent of the original contract price, and one allows a single transfer.

On October 10, 2026, we read the warranty page for each company listing in our four cities that states a warranty. Of 96 listings, 11 linked a warranty document or a page that gives the coverage, how long it lasts and at least two kinds of limiting condition; the other 85 linked a page that states a warranty without meeting that test. We read only that page, so the terms may be published elsewhere. Ask for them either way.

5. Can you give me references from recent jobs near me?

Ask for two or three recent customers who had a similar repair near you, and the permit numbers for those jobs.

A complete answer is people you can call and permits you can look up, ideally with a passed final inspection.

When you read online reviews, look at how many there are as well as the stars. A 5.0 from 3 reviews falls to 4.0 with one new 1-star review; a 4.9 from 2,399 reviews would still show 4.9. A Google listing's city does not tell you where the reviewed jobs were.

Since October 21, 2024, a federal rule has barred businesses from writing fake reviews, from buying reviews they know or should know are fake, and from offering anything in exchange for reviews of a required sentiment. A company's officers and managers must clearly disclose their relationship when they review their own business. Google's policy for Maps goes further: it bars any incentive for a review and asking only happy customers to post one. Neither rule tells you which reviews are genuine. A reference you can call and a permit you can look up are things you can check yourself.

Before you sign: what Texas law asks of the contract

Texas law treats a contract to repair your house as a residential construction contract and gives the contractor these duties:

• Before you sign, the contractor must give you a disclosure statement set out in the law. It advises getting the work, completion time, cost and payment terms in writing.
• Before work starts, the contractor must give you a list of the subcontractors and suppliers it plans to use, unless you signed a written waiver.
• Each time it asks for payment, it must give you a statement naming the subcontractors it intends to pay from that money.
• As a condition of final payment, it must sign and give you an affidavit that everyone who supplied labor and materials has been paid, or list who is still owed.

The Attorney General advises paying in stages and not paying in full until the work is complete and you have inspected it. If you agreed to the contract at your home after a salesperson's visit, federal and Texas rules may give you three business days to cancel, depending on how the sale was made; when they apply, the seller must give you a written cancellation notice. A contract that lets the contractor put a lien on your homestead has extra requirements, such as a written contract signed before any work or material is supplied. If a contract mentions a lien on your home, ask a lawyer before you sign.

After you choose

Keep the plan, the post-repair survey, the permit and its final inspection, and the warranty with its transfer terms. The independent engineer guide lists what to keep and why, and the Austin cost page covers what repairs and engineering evaluations cost there.