- #buying
- #selling
- #sellers-disclosure
- #engineer-report
- #option-period
- #san-antonio
Foundation movement shows up in most San Antonio house sales, because most San Antonio houses sit on clay that moves or on fill that settles, and the question in a transaction is never whether there is a crack but what it means and who pays. Buyers handle it with the option period, a foundation inspection and, when the survey shows movement, an independent Texas engineer’s report. Sellers handle it with the disclosure notice the Texas Property Code requires, the paperwork file from any previous repair, and, often, an inspection before listing so the negotiation is about a number instead of a fear. Texas does not license foundation contractors, so the documents are what both sides rely on.
If you are buying
Use the option period. The general home inspector will note sticking doors, cracks in brick and drywall, and sloping floors, and write “evidence of foundation movement, recommend evaluation by a foundation specialist or structural engineer.” That sentence is not a diagnosis. Book a foundation inspection inside the option period: an elevation survey on a floor plan, a crack map, the water and the trees read against the pattern, and on a 1950s to 1980s slab a hydrostatic plumbing test, because a leaking cast iron drain under the kitchen is a different purchase from a corner drying under a live oak.
Get the engineer when the survey says so. If the survey reads within about a quarter inch across the house with hairline cracks, the house is doing what clay does, and you close with an elevation record on file. If it reads an inch or more low at a corner or along a side, order a report from an independent Texas licensed Professional Engineer, $400 to $900, before the option period ends. The engineer’s report gives you the repair scope and the cost, which is the number you negotiate with.
Read the previous repair. If the seller’s disclosure lists a foundation repair, ask for the proposal, the pier plan, the elevation survey before and after, the permit, the engineer’s letter and the warranty. Then have the foundation inspection read the repair as part of the house: is the piered side holding, is a different side moving now, and does the warranty transfer. New movement on an unpiered side is common when an earlier contractor pressed too few piers, and it is a new plan rather than a warranty claim.
Negotiate the scope, not the fear. Three outcomes are normal: the seller repairs before closing to the engineer’s scope, with the engineer’s letter and a transferable warranty delivered at closing; the seller credits the repair cost at closing and you hire the contractor; or the price drops and you take the house as is. The typical numbers are in the cost guide, and a typical slab repair with 8 to 12 pressed concrete pilings at $4,500 to $14,000 is a negotiation, not a reason to walk.
If you are selling
Disclose what you know. The Texas Property Code, Section 5.008, requires the seller’s disclosure notice to state known previous structural or foundation repairs and known defects. A repair you know about goes on the notice, with the paperwork attached. Not disclosing it is the expensive option: it surfaces in the buyer’s inspection anyway, and then it is a legal problem instead of a line item.
Get the file together. For any previous repair: the proposal, the pier plan, the elevation survey before and after, the permit, the engineer’s letter and the warranty, with the transfer terms. A repair with that file is a documented condition that buyers, lenders and inspectors can price. A repair with none of it is an unknown, and unknowns cost more than piers.
Consider an inspection before listing. A foundation inspection before the sign goes up tells you whether the house has moved, whether a buyer’s inspector will find a leak under the slab, and what the repair would cost, so the disclosure is accurate and the price is set with the scope known. A seller who learns about a heaved kitchen from the buyer’s engineer three days before closing has lost the negotiation before it started.
Decide whether to repair first. Repairing before listing, with the permit closed and an engineer’s letter and a transferable warranty in the file, usually returns more than the repair costs on a conventional sale, because the house moves from “foundation issues” to “foundation repaired, documented, warranted.” Selling as is with a credit works when the buyer is an investor or when time matters more than price. Either way, the number should come from a written proposal with the pier plan drawn, and how to weigh proposals is in how to choose a foundation repair company in San Antonio.
The documents, and who wants them
| Document | Who asks for it | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Seller’s disclosure notice | Buyer, buyer’s agent | Required by the Texas Property Code; lists known repairs and defects |
| Foundation inspection: elevation survey and crack map | Buyer during the option period; seller before listing | Whether the house has moved, where, and why |
| Hydrostatic plumbing test | Buyer on a 1950s–1980s slab; insurer on a claim | Whether a leak under the slab is driving the movement |
| Engineer’s report (Texas PE) | Buyer, lender, insurer | Independent scope and cause; the number to negotiate with |
| Repair proposal with pier plan | Buyer, seller | Scope, method, count, price, schedule |
| Permit and engineer’s letter at close-out | Lender, next buyer’s inspector | Proof the work was inspected and finished |
| Elevation survey after the repair | Next buyer’s inspector | Baseline for whether the repair is holding |
| Warranty with transfer terms | Buyer, next buyer | Coverage for new movement on the piered sections |
Pier and beam, post-tension and the historic districts
The house type changes the inspection. In King William, Monte Vista, Alamo Heights and the historic cores of Seguin and New Braunfels, pre-1960 houses are pier and beam, and the inspection is a crawl space inspection of piers, sills, beams and moisture rather than a slab survey; exterior work visible from the street goes through historic design approval, which affects the repair scope and the timeline. In Stone Oak, Alamo Ranch, Helotes and the 1990s and newer subdivisions on both sides of the fault, the slab is post-tension, tilts as a unit, and often comes with a builder’s structural warranty that a buyer should ask about on a house under ten years old. On 1950s to 1980s slabs inside Loop 410 and in the older suburbs, the plumbing test is the inspection that matters most, and a failed test can bring the seller’s insurer into the picture, on the terms in does homeowners insurance cover foundation repair in Texas.
Timelines that work
A foundation inspection can usually be scheduled within a few days, and an engineer’s report a week or two after that, so a ten-day option period is enough if the inspection is booked on day one. A repair before closing takes one to three days on site for a typical slab job plus the permit and the engineer’s letter, so allow two to four weeks from signed proposal to closed permit; drilled piers and pier and beam work with sill replacement take longer. Sellers who want to repair before listing should start six weeks out. The lift itself is one day, nobody moves out, and the file that comes back is what the next transaction will run on.
Start with the survey
Whether you are the buyer with an inspection report that says “recommend evaluation” or the seller with a crack over the garage door and a listing date, the next step is the same: an elevation survey on a floor plan, a crack map, a plumbing test on an older slab, and a written answer. Sometimes the answer is that the house is stable and the transaction proceeds with a record on file. Sometimes it is a pier plan with a number. Either way it is a number and a document, and Texas real estate runs on both.
