Foundation installation in Peoria IL - walls and drainage planned together

Most foundation calls we get are for a new home or an addition, and the first questions are usually cost, timing and whether the concrete's going to crack. The price moves with the size and depth of the job, the kind of walls and floor you want and how much drainage your lot needs, while the schedule turns on the weather, how wet the ground is and the city's inspection before each pour. If the house will sit on a slab instead of a basement, our slab foundation building page covers that job, and either way you get your own number after I've walked the lot.

I talk drainage before I talk walls, because wet ground leans harder on a foundation. Walls are designed for a set amount of soil pressure, and soil that gets wetter from heavy weather or a rising water table can push a lot harder than that, so the first thing we settle is how water will drain away from your walls. Then we dig out, set the forms and the rebar, the steel that keeps the concrete from pulling apart, and pour the footings, the walls and then the basement floor or garage slab. Drain tile and waterproofing go on while the outside of the walls is still open. We wait on backfill, the dirt pushed back against the walls, until the walls are tied in at the top and bottom or braced, which a foundation trade group says national standards call for, because a loose wall can get shoved by the dirt before the house is there to hold it.

If your job only needs the bottom piece, say for a garage or a porch, we pour concrete footings on their own. Small business owners putting up a shop or office often need the lot out front too, and we handle concrete parking lot building once the building is in.

Nobody should dig before the permit is in hand, because Peoria County warns that starting early can bring fines and a Stop Work Order. The city and the county each issue building permits, and inside the city the Community Development Department takes applications by email. Before we schedule, we look into which office covers your address, handle the paperwork when it's ours to file and tell you plainly if anything falls on your end. If you own the house and live in it, the city lets you do any or all of the building work yourself, though it recommends a licensed professional if you're not sure of your skills. Either way, the city's inspection before each pour sets the pour dates, and I cover that in the questions below.

Some lots around here sit on tricky ground. An older Peoria County soil survey flags some soils with a seasonal high water table and with shrink-swell potential, ground that swells wet and shrinks dry, and says that limits them as sites for homes with basements. On those soils it points to tile drains near the foundation for the wetness, and footings set below the subsoil or reinforced foundations to help prevent damage. That's not every lot, so I check yours before we settle on a plan, and we run into the same wet spots on jobs in East Peoria and Pekin. We're based in Peoria and work across the cities around it, out toward Bloomington and Normal, and if your city isn't listed, just call and ask.