You’re just about ready to *pull the trigger* on some house leveling for your crawl space home. But wait . . . there’s one thing holding you back . . . it’s your plumbing. You’re concerned about the pier and beam foundation repairs messing up the plumbing lines under your crawl space home, but do you even need to be worried?
Will house leveling cause damage to your plumbing or what?
At Anchor Foundation Repair, we have done more than our fair share of Brazos Valley house leveling projects in the past 37 years, and at least 600 in the last ten years! We can tell you about our experience with under-home plumbing when it comes to house leveling.
Most importantly, you should not be worried about the issue of your plumbing being damaged by the house leveling process. This article will explain why it is not a concern and detail what we have observed with plumbing lines during crawl space foundation repair aka house leveling.
Will House Leveling Cause Plumbing Damage?
It is very unlikely that house leveling will cause plumbing damage during the repair process. It’s one of the common house leveling myths that repairs cause damage. In the last 10 years since I have been leading the company, we have not ever experienced a line break during the house raising and leveling process.
Because we have never had a plumbing break in our experience, the chances of this happening during house leveling are negligible in my opinion. In other words, don’t stress about this. We don’t stress about damage to plumbing during the house leveling process and we don’t think you should either.
There are certainly cases where the plumbing was already broken or leaking before any house leveling was started. We have experienced old corroded cast iron drain lines that were rusted out and draining under the home. The homeowners didn’t know it until we came to do the In-Home Inspection for house leveling repairs.
We have also seen times when galvanized water lines were already compromised under the home long before we got there. So just because we don’t cause plumbing damage, doesn’t mean that you might not already have some issues that we discover.
Why Won’t House Leveling Cause Plumbing Problems?
Now, I know you’re not just going to take my word for it . . . I mean, it would be okay if you did but I get that you want an explanation beyond, “Because I said so.”
Here are two big reasons why house leveling is not likely to cause plumbing line breaks:
- There is slack in the lines due to the gap that is your crawl space
- We can see the lines as the process is taking place and can prevent issues
Your plumbing lines already have a little give in them because they are not encased in or going through concrete the way that they might be in a slab foundation home. In many cases, your plumbing lines are installed in a way that allows for some built-in flexibility.
Also, since there is space between the ground and your home in a crawl space foundation, we can monitor things during the raising process. We watch for potential issues and take action to solve any developing problem before a line could possibly break.
How Can You Tell If House Leveling Caused Plumbing Problems?
How can we tell if plumbing goes awry or breaks during house leveling? Well, we’re under there during the raising process and can see what’s going on. So if something were to happen, we would be right there to catch it if a line were to break. But again, we haven’t experienced that much since 1985 when we started this business.
What If Plumbing Damage Occurs During House Leveling?
In the extremely unlikely event that plumbing was to break during house leveling, it is the owner of the home that has to pay for those repairs. It’s actually part of our terms and conditions. In fact, it’s usually a part of any contract for any foundation repair services with any company you run across. It’s a pretty standard expectation within the industry.
We don’t fix plumbing because we are not licensed plumbers. We prefer to leave plumbing repairs to the plumbing experts and that ain’t us.
The same would go for if you had an existing plumbing issue before work began. The homeowner needs to have a plumber come out and fix that part of the problem separately from the house leveling services.
We’re not trying to be mean here, it’s just that house leveling and foundation work can sometimes result in plumbing issues (even if they are very unlikely in the case of house leveling). So, it’s excluded from the scope of work for just about any foundation repair contractor out there because that’s not what we do.
We Work With Plumbers During House Leveling When Needed
Just because we don’t do the plumbing in the case of needed repairs, doesn’t mean we don’t coordinate with them. Let’s say plumbing repairs are needed due to a pre-existing condition or because something broke during house leveling.
The best time to get the plumbing repaired is just after the raising process. We can work with your selected plumber to get them in there at the right time before we finish up.
At Anchor Foundation Repair, we have been leveling houses in the Brazos Valley since 1985. Many of our crawl space home projects are in surrounding communities like Caldwell, Somerville, Madisonville, Brenham, and Navasota. Any time there are other professionals needed for a homeowner, we keep a list handy to make recommendations.
In case you need a plumber and don’t know who to use, here’s an article listing qualified plumbers that we have worked with before and can attest to their abilities.