Foundation Elevation Survey in Wichita Falls, TX: Floor Readings You Keep, Free With the Inspection
Floor height readings taken room by room in your house, plotted on a drawn plan you keep, at no charge with the on-site visit.
- Free on-site inspection
- Readings on a drawn floor plan you keep
- Written itemized quote
Wichita Falls Foundation Works takes elevation survey readings room by room across Wichita Falls and Wichita County, plots them on a drawn floor plan, and hands you the drawing. The survey rides along with our free on-site inspection, and it comes with a written itemized quote, so the first honest answer a house gets here costs nothing. Sometimes the readings come back flat, and we will tell you nothing needs doing yet. Call (940) 202-0406 and we'll put the visit on your calendar.
What an elevation survey visit includes
A ZIPLEVEL base unit sits on the floor with a corded hand-held module carried room to room, or a laser level does the same job. One of us comes, no crew and no equipment in your yard, and the visit runs roughly an hour and a half to two hours, inside and out.
We plot every reading on a drawn floor plan, and a written itemized quote follows with any proposed work marked on it. A pier and beam house gets the same floor readings plus crawl space access. The readings map the floor; they do not diagnose the cause, and what caused it is a question for a plumbing test or a Texas professional engineer.
What you get in writing
The survey rides along with a free on-site inspection, and it ends in a written itemized quote. You get the warranty terms in writing, with the transfer terms spelled out, and we quote your scheduling window up front. All of it holds the same way across Wichita Falls and Wichita County.
Signs of floor movement Wichita Falls homeowners call about
- doors that stick or will not latch
- cracked sheetrock at the corners of door and window openings
- stair-step cracks in the mortar of the brick veneer
- nail pops and tape seams showing
- baseboards separating, a gap between the wall and the floor
- sloping or bouncing floors, the hallway feeling higher in the middle
- gaps opening above the door frames and separation at the cornice
- cracked tile and opened grout lines
- a chimney pulling away from the wall
Any one of them can be the first thing you notice. A photograph of any of it settles nothing on its own; readings do.
What Wichita Falls homeowners get from Wichita Falls Foundation Works
Floor readings on their own are often enough to price work. Sometimes the next step is a hydrostatic plumbing test, or a report from a Texas professional engineer, and we say which one applies instead of guessing out loud. No single tolerance figure governs the call. We read them as a pattern across the whole house, where the low corner sits and how the fall runs.
Texas does not license foundation repair contractors (the state licensing agency, TDLR, lists none); ask any company for proof of general liability insurance, a written warranty with the transfer terms spelled out, and whether an engineer's report is included or billed separately. The City of Wichita Falls licenses and registers contractors and requires a permit before repair or alteration work starts; ask to see both. The drawing and the quote are yours to keep either way.
Elevation survey, engineer's report and a plumbing test compared
Readings from our own visit ride free with the written quote. The same instrument bought alone from a third-party home inspector or an engineer or land surveyor costs more, because what changes is the signature and the liability, not the reading. A survey folded inside an engineer's report from a Texas professional engineer buys a sealed opinion on cause and remedy, not just readings.
Either way, zip level, laser or manometer matters less than whether every reading lands on a drawn plan. One set of readings tells you where the house sits today; a before-and-after pair, taken through a lift, documents what changed. Where the drain lines are the open question rather than the floor, a hydrostatic plumbing test is the job for that, and a sale file usually wants both, which pre-sale foundation inspection covers.
How the survey runs, first knock to written quote
- Book the visit, and we quote your scheduling window up front.
- Our estimator walks the outside first, then needs inside access to take readings.
- The base unit goes on the floor and we carry the hand-held module room to room; a laser level does the same job.
- We plot every reading onto a drawn floor plan. Nothing gets read out and forgotten.
- Your written itemized quote goes with the drawing, with any proposed work marked on it.
- We take readings again during and after a lift, the paperwork a buyer or an engineer asks for later.
Why North Texas clay, water and weather move foundations
USDA soil survey data for Wichita County map the built-up parts of the city as Urban land complexes, and Kamay is the soil most often mapped under the developed city. Its clay subsoil carries a plasticity index of 29 and a linear extensibility of 7.5 percent, which NRCS classes as high shrink-swell.
NOAA's 1991-2020 rainfall normals peak at 3.81 inches in May and fall to 2.02 by July, before climbing again in September. US Drought Monitor maps show extreme drought or worse covering part of Wichita County in 42 weeks of 2011, rising to 53 weeks of 2013 (county records as of September 20, 2026). The Census Bureau's 2020-2024 housing tables say the median year built runs 1972 for both city and county, plus or minus two years, which is a lot of houses riding that swing.
How much does a foundation elevation survey cost in Wichita Falls?
Ours comes at no charge with the on-site inspection. Bought stand-alone, a third-party home inspector runs $99 to $500, and an engineer or land surveyor $600 to $900. An engineer's report itself, a separate paid service from a Texas professional engineer, runs $300 to $1,000.
In practice, house square footage and room count, whether a drawn diagram comes with it, and whether a second survey documents the result after a lift are what move a stand-alone price. Call (940) 202-0406 and we'll put our free one on your calendar.
| Work | Typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Our on-site inspection with elevation survey and written quote | Free | Free on-site inspection; no charge for the first visit |
| Stand-alone elevation survey, third-party home inspector | $99 to $500 per survey | Bought on its own, without a repair quote |
| Elevation survey from an engineer or land surveyor | $600 to $900 per survey | The instrument is the same; the signature and the liability are not |
| Engineer's report from a Texas professional engineer | $300 to $1,000 per report | A separate paid service, not something our crew issues |
Swipe the table sideways to see the notes column.
Our visit is free. The paid rows are third-party work, quoted separately.
Elevation surveys across Wichita County
Readings get taken the same way across Wichita County and the towns beyond it, serving Wichita Falls and Wichita County alike. Burkburnett, Iowa Park and Lakeside City all sit on the same shifting clay, and we quote the scheduling window around the drive instead of folding it into your price.
What happens when you call
The inspection
A free on-site inspection comes first. We come to the property, look at the work in person, measure, and check the things that change the price before quoting anything.
A written, itemized quote
Every line item goes on paper before any work starts: prep, materials, labor, cleanup and the scheduling window. No verbal numbers.
Warranty terms in the contract
Workmanship and material warranty terms come in writing and go in your contract so you can read them before you sign.
Scheduling you can plan around
You get a start window and a working-day estimate up front, and the crew tells you before anything changes.
Who this is not for
Wichita Falls Foundation Works handles foundation repair and the related work listed on this site. It does not take on unrelated trades; if your job is outside that scope, a specialist in that trade is the right call.
Elevation survey questions from Wichita Falls homeowners
What is an elevation survey and what does it actually show?
It is a set of floor height readings, taken room by room and plotted on a drawn floor plan, using a ZIPLEVEL base unit and hand-held module or a laser level. It turns a vague feeling that your house is off into a map of where it is low and by how much, the same map any foundation inspection starts from.
Is the survey included with your inspection or is it extra?
It comes with our free on-site visit at no charge. Bought on its own, a third-party home inspector charges about $99 to $500, and an engineer or land surveyor charges $600 to $900 for the same readings.
How much floor movement is actually a problem?
We do not publish a tolerance figure, because no source gives one for Wichita Falls. What matters is the pattern across the whole house, which corner is low and how the fall runs, read next to the symptoms you can actually see. Ask any company quoting a single inches-of-fall rule where it comes from.
Can I take your survey to another company for a second opinion?
Yes. The written estimate and the floor diagram are yours to keep. Hand them to another company or to a Texas professional engineer, which is why we put it in writing in the first place. Nobody has to take our word for the readings.
Do you take the readings again after the lift?
Yes. We read interior elevations all the way through a lift, and a second set at the end documents where the house finished, the paperwork a buyer or an engineer asks for later, and exactly what a pre-sale foundation inspection file wants.
Does a pier and beam house get the same survey?
Same floor readings, plus crawl space access. On a pier and beam house, what the readings mean depends on what the pads and girders underneath are actually doing, so we get under there too.
A number on a floor diagram beats a stranger's opinion every time. It costs nothing to find out what your house is actually doing, and the answer can turn out smaller than the worry that sent you looking. Call (940) 202-0406 and we'll take the readings before anybody starts guessing. No rush, and no charge to ask.
Get a written quote
Call (940) 202-0406 or send the form. The next step is a free on-site inspection and a written quote with every line item before any work starts.
Call (940) 202-0406