Foundation raising in Merced CA - your house sitting higher on a new base
Worried about water reaching your floors? We lift the house, build a new foundation under it and set it back down higher.
- Licensed and insured.
- Free in-person estimates.
- We reply within 1 business day.
What does it take to raise a house in Merced?
Foundation raising in Merced lifts your house off its old base and holds it on stacked timber supports, called cribbing, while a new foundation goes in underneath, so the house ends up sitting higher than it did before.
Most people who ask about this want their floors higher off the ground, usually to keep water out, and they want a straight answer on cost and time. The price mostly turns on what your house sits on, how high you want it, how much room a crew has to bring equipment onto your lot and how much of the work a bid actually covers. The schedule turns largely on building and curing the new foundation while the house waits on its supports. Your written estimate is where those pieces become a number for your house, because it lists what's included and what isn't.
How do you know if your house should be raised?
Water reaching your door
After a hard rain, standing water creeps up toward your door or the bottom of your siding. That usually means the floor sits low for the ground around it, and every storm you wait through is another chance for water to get inside.
Wet crawl space after storms
You find puddles or a muddy line under the house after a wet spell. It usually means water collects under the floor, and the longer it sits there, the longer the framing stays damp.
Floor barely above the yard
On some slab homes, the floor sits just a step above the dirt outside, which leaves little room when water rises. It's a lot easier to plan a raise on your own schedule than right after water gets in.
How we handle foundation raising
On a raise, the utilities get disconnected first so nothing gets pulled loose as the house goes up, and then we lift the house and stack timber cribbing under it to hold it steady. With the house up, our crew builds the new foundation and lets it cure, which means giving the concrete time to gain strength before it carries weight, and then we set the house down on it and everything gets hooked back up. Raising bids can cover very different work, since a lift-only price leaves the utilities, the new foundation and the reconnection to you or to other contracts while a turnkey price rolls it all into one number, so ours lays out exactly which of those it includes. We also talk early about your time out of the house so you can budget for a place to stay.
A raise usually changes how the house meets the ground around it, so the work rarely stops at the foundation. When an old walk or slab section is in the way, we take it out with concrete cutting, and when the garage ends up higher than the old approach, we pour a new one through our concrete driveway building work.
A lift of a few feet
This suits most owners who want a modest gain in height without a big jump in cost. The first few feet add fairly little, because the crew is supporting the same footprint at any height.
A taller lift
This suits a house that has to go well above the ground around it. Every added foot means more cribbing stacked and kept steady while the new foundation goes in, so most of the extra cost is temporary support work.
Get a written foundation raising estimate
We reply within one business day to set up a visit. The estimate is free and done in person, you get it in writing with what's included and what isn't, and there's no pressure to book.
- Based in
- Merced, CA 95340
- Hours
- Mon–Sun: 8 AM–9 PM
What happens after you call about raising your house?
Here's how a raise goes from your first call to the house sitting on its new foundation, with you knowing what's included before any work starts.
Call or send the form
You reach us by phone or through the form, and we set a time to come out. Tell us whether the house sits on a slab or a crawl space so we know what we're walking into.
Look over the house together
I come out, look at how the house sits and how much room there is to work, and ask how you plan to use it once it's raised. That's when lift height and access get settled.
Get the written scope
You get a written estimate that says what's covered and what isn't, so you know exactly what the number pays for. We settle the plan with you before any forms go in.
Lift, build and set down
On pour day we work quickly, finish clean and look after the new concrete while it cures. The house goes back down onto the foundation once that wait is over.
Why Merced homeowners call Standard Merced Concrete for a raise
The owner walks your house
I come out to your house in Merced or nearby to look at the job myself, and our crew does the work with me running it on site. You deal with the person making the calls from the first visit until the house sits back down.
A licensed, insured crew
Standard Merced Concrete is licensed and insured. That matters on a raise, because your house sits on temporary supports while we work underneath it.
Running jobs since 2023
I started the business in 2023 after working summers on concrete crews all through school, where I learned to move fast without cutting corners. The ground under a foundation and the time it gets to cure are the parts we don't hurry.
If you're weighing a raise, send us your details with your foundation type, the size of the house and the height you have in mind, and we'll set a time to come look.
Raising houses and the concrete around them in Merced
If your home is in an identified Special Flood Hazard Area, a mapped high-risk flood zone, FEMA says your community's permit file has to hold an official record showing the raised house is properly elevated, and that record is how the work shows it meets the local floodplain rules. Whether your address falls in one is something we sort out at the estimate visit, and when a job needs a permit, we check with the city or county office that covers your address and take care of the permit steps with you.
Parts of the San Joaquin Valley are sinking, which is called subsidence, and a study of that ground change found it can make flooding worse, pointing to Corcoran in the spring of 2023. That's part of why we look at how water moves around your house and talk through lift height with it in mind, and we have the same conversation on jobs in Atwater and Livingston, since we're based in Merced and work across the cities around it.
Questions about foundation raising in Merced
How much does it cost to raise a house in Merced?
Raising a typical single-family home across the US usually costs about $20,000 to $80,000 per job, and that's a national planning figure, not our price. Where your house lands depends on its foundation, the lift height, your lot and what the bid covers. Your written estimate gives you the figure for your house.
Is a slab home harder to raise than a crawl space home?
Yes, a slab home usually costs more to raise. Pier-and-beam and crawl space houses are typically the cheapest because a crew can reach under the floor with less digging, while on a slab home the slab is either separated from the house or lifted with it, which adds engineering and labor.
What is the best way to lift a house that sits on a slab?
One retrofitting guide describes lifting a slab house with its floor attached by setting metal I-beams below the slab and raising the house with jacks. New masonry foundation walls are then built underneath. We'll go over what fits your house at the estimate visit.
How long does raising a house take, and how long are we out?
A raising project usually runs six to twelve weeks, and you'll be out of the house for part of that time. Temporary housing almost never shows up in a contractor's bid, so give it its own line in your household budget.
Which California license covers raising a house?
California's Contractors State License Board puts raising, lowering, cribbing and underpinning structures, including their foundations, in its building moving and demolition classification. That's the license category for the lift and the support work under the house.
How do I handle repairs while my house is raised?
Ask up front who will do them, because the building moving and demolition license doesn't cover alterations, additions, repairs or rehab to the parts of the house that stay in place. If you're planning repairs, sort out who handles that work before the house goes up.
Concrete work that often follows a raise
Concrete cutting
When an old walk or slab section is in the way after a raise, cutting lets us remove just that piece cleanly and leave the rest alone.
Concrete driveway building
A house that sits higher often needs a new driveway approach to meet the garage, and a fresh pour lets us build the base and slope right.
Where we take foundation raising jobs
Standard Merced Concrete is based in Merced, California, and works across the cities around it. That includes Turlock and Chowchilla among the 12 cities listed here, along with others nearby.
Merced, CA
Get a written scope for your raise
An early visit lets us check how your house sits and what equipment can reach it before you settle on a lift height.