Last updated: 2026-05-15.
Three quick checks. Width: a hairline crack under 1/16 inch is usually cosmetic. A crack wide enough to slide a nickel into is structural. Direction: vertical cracks in poured concrete are usually shrinkage or minor settlement, horizontal cracks in a block wall are a clay-soil pressure signal and need attention soon. Offset: if one side of the crack sits proud of the other, the wall is moving and a contractor needs to inspect. We do free inspections across the Madison metro and write the call either way.
A single crack injection runs $400 to $800. A bowing-wall stabilization with 5 to 8 carbon-fiber straps runs $2,500 to $6,400. A helical pier underpinning project runs $10,000 to $30,000 across 4 to 12 piers. A full interior waterproofing system runs $3,500 to $12,000. See the full cost guide for the line items behind each.
Genuinely free. No contract, no obligation, no pressure-tactic clock running on a "today only" price. 60 to 90 minutes on site, walking the exterior, walking the basement, running a zip-level across the slab. The only inspection we charge for is a written engineering report for a real-estate transaction, which is $250 to $400.
Yes, on every structural job. The Dane County building inspector requires a stamped plan for anything that changes load paths, removes structural concrete, or installs a steel lintel. We carry a working relationship with a Madison-based structural engineer, the stamp lands within a week of quote acceptance, and the $250 to $400 fee is called out as a separate line on the quote.
Free inspection within the week, usually within three business days. Crack-injection and sump-pump jobs start within seven to ten days of quote acceptance. Helical pier and full-system waterproofing jobs start within two to four weeks, the slower piece is usually the engineering review and the Dane County permit, not the crew schedule. Emergency water-intrusion calls (active flooding) get a same-day response.
Lifetime on the structural repair: piers, anchors, straps, crack injection. Lifetime on the dry-basement guarantee for any full interior waterproofing system we install. 5 years on standalone sump-pump installs, transferable to a new homeowner once. Warranty terms in writing on every quote, no asterisks, no exclusions for "acts of clay-soil swelling".
Push piers drive into the soil under the structural weight of the home above. They work best on heavy two-story buildings with enough mass to generate hydraulic resistance. Helical piers torque into place under their own hydraulic power, which means they work on ranch homes, porches, and lightweight additions where push piers would stall. Helical piers handle about 75 percent of residential underpinning in the Madison market. The cost per pier is similar: $1,500 to $2,500 for helical, $1,800 to $3,500 for push.
Almost never for the settlement, clay-soil swelling, or seepage damage we see most often. Standard Wisconsin homeowners policies exclude all three. Coverage opens up if a documented covered event triggered the damage: a burst service line that undermined the footing, a vehicle impact, a tree fall. Read the water-damage and earth-movement sections of your policy before you assume one way or the other, and call us first if you think a covered event may be in play. We will work with the adjuster on the engineering side.
Yes. Stoughton in particular carries an inventory of 1870s-to-1910s sandstone-and-limestone foundations that predate poured concrete entirely. Those repairs require hand-mixed lime mortar (not modern Type S) and a different pointing technique than concrete-wall work. Same range on the structural side, lower-and-slower on the masonry rebuild side. Free inspection like any other job.
Many wet-basement problems start at the yard, not the wall. The first fix is regrading the lot to fall at least six inches over the first ten feet away from the foundation. We do not do landscaping, but we will call out lot grade as a contributing factor on the inspection report and tell you whether the interior work alone will solve the problem or whether the exterior also needs attention. Honest answers, even when the answer is "you do not need us yet".
