Foundation installation in Springfield IL - the right base for the way you live

Most people who call us are planning a new home, an addition or a bigger garage, and the first thing to settle is which type to build. That choice moves the price more than anything, because a crawl space means more digging and concrete than a slab foundation and a basement means the most of all. After that come the size of the footprint, how easily our equipment can reach the spot and what we find once digging starts. The schedule usually turns on the weather, since wet or frozen ground can hold up the dig, and on when the city's inspections fall. When I come out, I'll measure the site and go over each of those with you, so you know exactly what you'd be paying for before anything starts.

Before we price anything, I go over the tradeoffs between a slab, a crawl space and a basement with you, because that choice decides what you'll live with for years. Once you've picked, we lay out the footprint, dig to the depth the design calls for and pack the subgrade, which is the ground the footings and slab rest on, so it doesn't settle later the way loose, raked-in dirt does. We set the forms and the rebar, the steel inside that holds the concrete together if it cracks, pour the footings and then pour the walls or lay them in block. On a basement, waterproofing and drainage are part of our plan from the start rather than something added at the end. We keep the new concrete damp and protected while it cures, which is the slow hardening that gives it its strength, then clean up and leave the site ready for framing. If the budget has to give somewhere, I'd rather trim the finish work than the base, because once the house is on top, nobody can fix what's underneath.

Springfield's Building & Zoning Department takes permit applications, and the city requires a floodplain development permit for any development in a floodplain, new buildings included. We check what the city or village office asks for at your address and take care of the permit paperwork for our work when a permit applies. One duty falls to you as the owner, so I'll raise it early. The city's building permit application makes the applicant and the owner responsible for soil compaction and mine subsidence research, which looks at whether the ground could sink over old mines. If a garage is part of your plan, the city's garage notice also requires footings below the frost line for every attached garage and for detached garages over 900 square feet, and that changes how we lay out the footing work.

Winters here freeze the ground hard, so frost and drainage come up on every foundation we talk through, and we plan the same way on jobs in Chatham and Decatur. We're based in Springfield and work across the cities around it, so if yours isn't listed, please ask about your address.