Foundation installation in Junction City KS - a basement or crawl space that stays dry

Most people who call us about this are planning a new home or a room addition and want to know which foundation fits the lot before the plans are final. The price moves mostly with the type you choose and how much digging, delivery and site work the lot needs. The schedule turns on the city's inspections, the weather and what we find once we dig. I'll measure and walk the site with you, then send a written estimate so you're working from your own numbers instead of a guess.

First I sit down with you and talk through slab, crawl space or basement, because that choice sets the digging, the forms and the drainage for everything after it. Then we dig out and pack the subgrade, the soil the foundation sits on, so it doesn't settle later. We set the footings with whatever rebar the plans call for, which is the steel inside that holds the concrete together if it cracks, and then we form and pour the walls. Drainage at the footings is what keeps a basement or crawl space dry, so we put real care into how it goes in, and on a slab we settle where every drain goes before anything is poured. When a budget gets tight, people usually want to cut the base and the drainage first because nobody sees them once the dirt is back. I'd rather cut somewhere else, since you can't redo a foundation the way you can redo a patio.

Concrete footings are the first concrete in the ground on any foundation, and we also pour them on their own for decks, porches and garages. If the property needs parking as well, concrete parking lot building takes the same kind of base work on a bigger scale, and it's worth planning alongside the building so the water off both has somewhere to go.

Junction City requires a permit for a new house or a room addition, and its list names those jobs, not foundation installation by itself, so I won't guess whether your foundation needs its own permit. Questions go to the city's Building and Codes office. I check with the city or county office on every job, and when a permit is needed we pull it before work starts. It's worth settling early because the city charges double the permit fee, up to a maximum of $500, when a building permit is taken out after the project has started. For a new home, the city's list also includes a site plan or survey prepared and signed by a registered Kansas design professional, so it helps to have that lined up before we're ready to dig.

We watch for shrink-swell soil on basement jobs, because the state's extension service warns that soil that dries out and then gets wet again can swell, press on a basement wall and crack it, or even make it collapse. We don't know what's under your lot until we dig, so we take care with drainage and backfill around the walls, the same as we do on jobs in Manhattan and Abilene.