What does house leveling mean exactly? It’s kind of a generic term and you’re seeing this term used by foundation repair companies but is it the same thing as foundation repair or what?? You just want a simple definition and answer here.
At Anchor Foundation Repair, we have been offering no-nonsense answers for 35+ years in the Brazos Valley. We think it’s important for our community and customers to get unbiased and impartial information on all things foundation related. That all starts with honest answers and education to address your questions.
This article will define the term house leveling. We will also discuss the use of the term in the foundation repair industry and how to know if house leveling is needed for your home. We’ll be *level* with you on the facts.
Look, we work in foundation repair, and we’ve got to do *something* to keep ourselves amused . . . so puns are kind of a way of life over here. Thank you for your understanding.
What Does House Leveling Mean?
The term “house leveling” is not in the dictionary so this makes things complicated from the beginning. House leveling is a general term used to sort of describe the act of making a home level that has become unlevel for some reason.
When someone says, “house leveling” they usually talk about the need for a home to be raised back to its original position due to foundation settlement. Settlement is a nice way of saying your home is sinking or moved in a downward direction from when it was built. House leveling aims to return a settled home to where it was before it sank, aka its original elevation.
In fact, I’d like to go ahead and submit this to the *dictionary gods* as the true definition of the term house leveling. So let me make it official:
house leveling noun
- the act of returning a settled home to its original elevation
Why House Leveling Is a Confusing Term
The definition seems obvious in a way but ends up being confusing for a couple of reasons:
- The word “leveling” is misleading, and
- House leveling is often used interchangeably with foundation repair.
Does House Leveling Mean My Home Will Be Level?
Getting your “house leveled” only returns it to its original elevation. So even if the home is returned to its original position, that may or may not be perfectly level. This makes the house leveling term *a tiny bit* misleading.
Many homes are not 100% mathematically level when built so the term “house leveling” is kind of a poor choice of words. Slab foundation homes allow for a plus or minus 1.5” deviation from the horizontal and are still considered acceptable. House leveling does not correct original construction deviations. These repairs only return settled foundations back into position.
So I would heretofore like to amend my original definition:
house leveling noun
- the act of returning a settled home to its original elevation, which may or may not have been level in the first place (Probably it wasn’t, and it won’t be perfectly level after leveling either.)
Perhaps a better term would be *house raising* rather than house leveling since the home is being raised back up. But that term is confusing as well because then it sounds like you’re lifting the house higher than it was initially and that’s not right either. Are you starting to see why this is confusing??
Also, here’s a bit more info exploring the question, “Will My Home Be Level After Foundation Repairs Are Completed?”
Does House Leveling Mean the Same As Foundation Repair?
Often, the term “foundation repair” is used as a substitute for the term house leveling because both of these activities seek to return a settled home to its original elevation. But then foundation repair gets a little confusing too because the foundation doesn’t get “repaired” so to speak, it just gets put back where it was and secured.
Foundation repair does a lot for your home but your slab does not literally get mended.
What I’m really trying to say here is that it’s okay to be confused by all of these terms because none of them mean exactly what they sound like.
Here at Anchor, we typically use the term “house leveling” to refer to the act of raising a certain type of home – a crawl space foundation home. Then we use the term “foundation repair” to refer to the act of raising a slab foundation home.
The terms basically mean the same sort of thing is happening, but we use “house leveling” when talking about crawl space homes like pier and beam foundation types. Then, we use the words “foundation repair” for the slab process of raising and leveling (but again, the home still might not be perfectly level once the repairs are completed).
It seems like there are other foundation repair companies out there that do the same thing. We use a different term depending on the type of foundation, though the repair concept is similar. So let’s amend our definition one more time, shall we?
house leveling noun
- the act of returning a settled home to its original elevation, which may or may not have been level in the first place (Probably it wasn’t, and it won’t be perfectly level after leveling either.) The term is often used generically for any type of home (crawl space or slab), or used specifically for crawl space homes. synonym: foundation repair
I don’t know why *they* made these terms this way, it’s just something that happened in our industry that unfortunately confuses the homeowner. Sorry about that, I don’t think anyone did it on purpose. Not sure we need to start a revolution over the situation though, it just kind of *is what it is* . . . know what I mean?
How Do I Know My Home Needs to Be Leveled?
Not that you (sort of) understand the term house leveling, you probably really want to know when a home needs this kind of repair. There are telltale signs of settlement that indicate “house leveling” or “foundation repair” might be in order. Signs common to both crawl space and slab foundations are things like diagonal cracks in walls, doors that stick or don’t close properly, and trim separations.
At Anchor Foundation Repair, we have been inspecting and repairing settled homes in the Brazos Valley area since 1985. Whether we are leveling a pier and beam house or raising a sunken slab, we want our clients to be well-informed and confident with the repairs chosen for their homes.
The best way to know if your home needs house leveling or foundation repairs is to look for and understand the signs. It helps to know the misleading and confusing ones too so we have two magnificent guides for you to check out next depending on your home type:
Foundation Repair for Slab Homes:
Ultimate Picture Guide to Foundation Problems (Real + Misleading Signs)
House Leveling for Crawl Space Foundations:
The Complete Picture Guide to Pier and Beam Foundation Problem Signs