Foundation raising in Orange TX - a home lifted to the height your address needs

Raising a typical single-family home usually costs about $20,000 to $80,000 per home across the US, and that's the market range, not our price. Where yours lands depends on how much of the work each contract includes, so compare what each estimate covers, not just the bottom line. FEMA says reusing as much of the existing foundation as you can is usually the cheapest route, but a design professional then has to check that the old foundation can carry the raised house, so budget for that review. Satisfaction guaranteed on every job.

Plan on several weeks in all, and plan to stay somewhere else at least while the house is going up, because being inside during the lift isn't recommended. Nationally the whole process averages 4 to 8 weeks, and the lift itself takes 2 to 7 days once the prep is done. Your furniture and belongings can stay where they are.

The county requires a Development Permit for any building built or moved onto a property, and for any improvement worth more than half the building's value, so the county is the office to ask about your lift. If you're inside Orange city limits, the city runs its own flood program. Either way, we handle the permit side with whichever office covers you when the job calls for one.

Inside city limits, the city's Building Official runs the flood program off FEMA's flood maps, and the Base Flood Elevation, the height floodwater is expected to reach in the base flood, sets how high the house goes. Out in the county, the flood zone found after your Development Permit Application sets the height, and homes in Flood Zone A also have to give the county's Environmental Health and Code Compliance Department an Elevation Certificate. If you're in the city, you can look up your property's flood risk on the city's property floodplain site before you call.

FEMA's national guidance says slab houses are easier to lift with the slab still attached. It's still a harder job than lifting a house on a crawlspace or basement, and FEMA says it should go only to a highly skilled contractor, so ask anyone you talk to how much slab lifting they've done. Ask me that at the estimate, too. We're licensed and fully insured.

You can't apply for a Flood Mitigation Assistance grant yourself, because eligible cities, counties and special districts apply to the Texas Water Development Board or FEMA on your behalf. That means any application would go in through your city or the county, not straight from you. Either way, we can price the work so you know what you're looking at.