Foundation inspection: three different jobs, one word

What is foundation inspection?

A foundation inspection is an assessment of what your foundation and its supporting soil are doing - but the word covers three unrelated arrangements. A repair contractor inspects at no charge and is compensated by the work that follows. A licensed structural engineer inspects for a fee, issues a written report, and has no repair to sell. A general home inspector covers the whole house at a visual level and will usually refer anything structural onward. All three are legitimate. They are not interchangeable.

How foundation inspection actually works

1. 1

   Decide which of the three roles you actually need

   If you want a document you can act on and hand to bidders, that is a structural engineer. If you want a free second look and are comfortable filtering the sales layer, a repair contractor works. If you are buying a house and need a whole-property baseline, a home inspector comes first and refers on.

   Watch forBooking a "free foundation inspection" when what you needed was a report. The visit will happen, the conversation will be useful, and at the end you will have a proposal rather than an assessment.

2. 2

   Confirm the independence of whoever you hire to assess

   Independence has a specific meaning here: no ownership relationship, no referral fee, no repair contract, no share of the work resulting from the finding. Ask it as a direct question and accept only a direct answer.

   Watch forFirms that both engineer and install. Some are perfectly reputable, but you cannot get an independent check on a proposal from the party that stands to perform it - that is what independent means.

3. 3

   The walk-through: exterior, interior, and below

   A thorough visit covers grade and drainage around the whole perimeter, the visible foundation face, the crawl space or basement, and the interior symptoms - doors, floors, wall openings, trim separations. Access matters: locked crawl hatches and finished basements limit what can be seen.

   Watch forAn assessment done entirely from inside, or entirely from outside. Foundations are diagnosed by connecting what the soil is doing to what the walls are doing, and half the evidence lives at each end.

4. 4

   Measurement, not just observation

   Relative floor elevations are commonly taken across the whole floor plan with a level instrument, producing numbers rather than impressions. Crack locations and orientations get recorded. The value of this step is that it creates a baseline somebody can repeat later.

   Watch forA visit with no measurements taken at all. Without numbers, nothing about today can be compared with next spring, and "it is getting worse" stays an argument instead of a finding.

5. 5

   The written report and what it should contain

   A useful engineer's report describes the observed conditions, the measurements taken, the likely cause, the engineer's opinion on whether the condition is active, and a recommendation - which may be repair, further investigation, or monitoring. Recommendations are often written by performance objective rather than by brand.

   Watch forA report that names one contractor's proprietary product as the required solution. A scope written by performance - what the repair must achieve - is what lets you bid it competitively.

6. 6

   Hand the same scope to every bidder

   This is the practical payoff of paying for the assessment. Three contractors pricing one written scope produce three comparable numbers. Three contractors each writing their own scope produce three different projects that happen to have prices attached.

   Watch forA bidder who wants to "re-evaluate" and substitute their own scope. Some genuinely have a better idea; ask them to write the difference down and explain it, rather than quietly quoting something else.

7. 7

   Monitoring, if that is the recommendation

   Crack monitors fixed across a crack record relative movement over months. A repeat elevation survey compares the floor to its earlier baseline. Photographs on a fixed schedule, in fixed positions, do a surprising amount of the same work for free.

   Watch forTreating monitoring as doing nothing. It is a deliberate diagnostic period with a defined end point - set the review date when you start, or it quietly becomes forgetting about it.

What does foundation inspection cost?

A repair contractor's inspection is typically offered free. An independent structural engineer charges a professional fee for the visit and written report, generally a small fraction of what significant foundation work costs. Fees rise with property size, travel, and whether a full elevation survey is included.

See the full foundation inspection cost guide - by material, size and region →

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