What materials were used to build the foundation of houses

Most house foundations are built from poured concrete, concrete block (CMU), brick, or stone, depending on when and where the home was built. In New Hampshire you mostly see three kinds: poured concrete walls in newer homes, concrete block walls in mid-century homes, and fieldstone or rubble-stone foundations under older farmhouses. Each one fails in its own way, and each one gets a different fix.

Here is the quick version.

Poured concrete is one solid wall. Strong, but it cracks. Concrete settles and shrinks as it cures, so a thin vertical crack near a window or corner is common, and those leak. We seal them with crack injection, epoxy or polyurethane, which fills the crack the whole way through the wall. Crack injection runs $1,000 to $3,000.

Concrete block is stacked units with hollow cores and mortar joints. Block holds weight fine going down but is weaker going sideways. NH frost heave pushes on a block wall from outside every winter, and the wall can bow inward or crack along a stair-step line in the mortar. For that we use carbon-fiber straps to lock the wall in place, around $850 each, or a steel power brace where the bow is worse, around $1,300 per brace.

Brick and stone foundations are the old ones. Mortar washes out over the decades, stones shift, and water finds the gaps. These need a careful look in person, and sometimes an auxiliary wall (a second wall built inside the old one to carry the load), which runs about $1,350 per linear foot.

So the material your house sits on tells us a lot before we even open the truck.

Why the material matters more than the age

People think an old foundation is a bad foundation. Not always true. A fieldstone wall that has stood for 150 years is doing something right. What matters is what is happening to it now.

The trouble usually starts outside the wall, not in it. When your house was built, a hole was dug, the foundation went in, and the dirt got pushed back against it. That pushed-back dirt is disturbed backfill, looser than the packed ground around it, so it drains slow and holds water right against your foundation. Then NH frost heave kicks in. The wet soil freezes, expands, and shoves against the wall all winter, year after year.

Poured walls crack. Block walls bow. Stone walls let water through the joints. Different material, same root cause.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America program (basc.pnnl.gov) covers the soil-and-water side of foundation moisture and backfill drainage well, if you want to read up on it.

What we fix, and what we do not

We repair foundations. We do not pour new ones. If you are building from scratch or adding 1,000 square feet of new construction, that is a different trade. But once a foundation is in the ground and it moves, settles, cracks, or leaks, that is us.

Here is the repair menu by problem.

A wall that is settling or sinking gets helical or push piers driven down to solid ground. Helical piers run $2,700 per pier for the first three, then $2,200 per pier after that and carry a 25-year engineered warranty. We install these in-house with our own crew, no subs.

A floor that sags or a beam that is tired gets lally columns or floor support, around $1,300 to $2,500. A rotted sill or beam gets sill and beam replacement, around $7,000 to $40,000. A wall leaking through cracks gets crack injection; a wall bowing gets carbon-fiber straps or a power brace.

Some jobs we cannot price over the phone. A full foundation-wall rebuild, wall anchors, or steel I-beams, we price that after we see it. Every house is different, and we are not going to guess at your wall through a screen.

You do not need all of this. Most homes need one fix, not five. If your only issue is a damp basement floor and no wall movement, you may not need structural work at all. That is a waterproofing job, and our Forever Dry System handles the water side.

How NH soil and weather change the answer

New England is hard on foundations. We get freeze-thaw cycles all winter, heavy spring melt, and clay-heavy soil in a lot of towns, and that combination works on every foundation material here, poured, block, or stone.

That is why we look at your actual wall, your actual grade, and your actual water before we recommend anything. A poured wall in dry sandy soil in Exeter is a different animal than a block wall in wet clay up in Maine.

We have been doing this across New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts, and we have seen what each material does over a few hard winters.

Talk to us

We will come look at your foundation for free and tell you what material you have and what, if anything, it needs. Free inspection, free estimate, and a quote within 24 hours.

Call us at 603-610-1770 or book your free inspection. If a repair is needed, ask about our coverage on the 603 Guarantee.

Helpful hubs: structural and foundation repair, foundation repair, helical piers, sill replacement, supplemental support, and basement waterproofing.

Related questions

Is a stone foundation worse than a concrete one? Not on its own. A stone foundation that is dry and stable can outlast newer walls. The risk is water washing out the mortar and stones shifting over time. We look at it in person and often add an auxiliary wall inside, around about $1,350 per linear foot, if it needs load support.

Can you fix a cracked poured-concrete foundation, or does it need replacing? Almost always a fix, not a replacement. A typical vertical crack gets crack injection, $1,000 to $3,000, with a 10-year warranty. We only talk replacement on rare, severe cases, and we price that after we see it.

My block wall is bowing inward. What now? That is frost heave pushing on the block. We stabilize it with carbon-fiber straps, around $850 each, or a power brace, around $1,300 per brace, for a heavier bow. Both carry a 25-year wall-stabilization warranty.

Do I need foundation work if my basement is just damp? Maybe not. Damp with no wall movement or cracks is usually a water problem, not a structural one. That points to basement waterproofing and our Forever Dry System, not piers or straps.