Foundation Repair Warranties
Foundation Masters warranties are written per scope. Qualifying foundation repair and sinkhole repair carry a lifetime transferable warranty, new construction foundation work carries ten years, helical pier systems carry twenty five years transferable, and concrete and timber piling carry fifteen.
Four terms rather than one, because four different things are being warranted. A company that offers a single number for everything is either overpromising on part of it or underpromising on the rest.
This page explains what each one covers, what none of them cover, and how the transfer works. The written warranty issued for your specific project governs in every case.
Straightforward Terms, Written Per Project
Foundation Masters is a licensed Florida engineering firm, CA# 30969, and a structural repair contractor. We warrant the work we perform, and the term depends on what was performed rather than on what sounds best in a proposal.
Qualifying foundation repair and sinkhole repair carries a lifetime transferable warranty. Qualifying new construction foundation work carries ten years. Helical pier systems carry a twenty five year transferable warranty and concrete and timber piling systems carry fifteen years. Those last two are system warranties and they sit alongside the repair warranty rather than replacing it.
Because many components are designed and fabricated in house, quality control runs across engineering, manufacture and installation. That is not a marketing line. It is the reason we are willing to write the terms above.
Coverage on any given project depends on the approved scope, soil conditions, structural design, installation method and final documentation. The written warranty issued for that project is the governing document, and this page is a plain language summary of it.
- Foundation repair and sinkhole repair: lifetime, transferable, on qualifying projects performed by Foundation Masters.
- New construction foundation work: ten years, on qualifying projects performed by Foundation Masters.
- Helical pier systems: twenty five years, transferable.
- Concrete and timber piling systems: fifteen years.
- Transfers are handled through our warranty transfer page so the record follows the property.
- Every warranty is issued in writing against a defined scope of work.
- Exclusions are stated below rather than buried, because a page that criticises fine print should not have any.
- Questions about an existing warranty go to the office on (813) 614-1718.
Four Scopes, Four Different Promises
The obvious question about the list above is why it is not one number. The answer is that the four scopes fail in different ways, over different timescales, for different reasons, and a single term applied across all of them would be dishonest at one end or the other.
A foundation repair is a correction to an existing structure that has already moved. What we are undertaking is that the movement we diagnosed and corrected stays corrected. That is a commitment about our diagnosis and our execution, and if we got either wrong the failure will show itself in the same place for the same reason. There is no natural expiry on that promise, which is why it runs for the life of the structure and transfers with it.
New construction is a different undertaking. There is no prior movement to diagnose, no existing structure to correct and no established failure to be right or wrong about. What is being warranted is the design and installation of a new foundation under a new building, which is a shorter and more conventional exposure. Ten years reflects that.
The system warranties are different again. A twenty five year helical warranty and a fifteen year piling warranty are about the hardware and its installation, not about whether the repair strategy was correct. Those two things can come apart. A pier can be manufactured properly, installed properly and still be in the wrong place if the diagnosis was wrong, which is exactly why the repair warranty exists as a separate and longer commitment sitting above them.
Read that way the structure stops looking complicated. It is four promises about four different things, and the longest one attaches to the part we control most completely, which is whether we understood the problem before we fixed it.
Written Per Project
Every warranty is issued against a defined scope of work, so what is covered is a document rather than a conversation somebody remembers differently later.
Transferable
The repair and helical system warranties follow the property to the next owner, which is where a warranty is worth the most, since the buyer had no say in the original repair.
Backed by Documentation
Engineering opinion, boring logs, sealed drawings and installation records. A warranty without the file behind it is difficult to enforce and easy to dispute.
A Warranty Covers a Scope. It Does Not Cover a Building.
This is the single most misunderstood thing about foundation warranties, and it is misunderstood in the same direction every time. An owner reads lifetime warranty and hears that the house is now insured against foundation problems forever. That is not what any warranty in this industry says, including ours, and it is worth being direct about that on the page rather than in a phone call two years later.
What a warranty covers is the work that was performed, in the area it was performed, against the failure it was designed to correct. If we underpin the north east corner of a structure and that corner moves again, that is squarely covered and it is what the warranty exists for. If the south west corner moves three years later for a completely different reason, that is a new condition on an area nobody repaired, and no warranty document written by anybody makes it otherwise.
The same logic applies to causes rather than locations. A repair designed against the conditions found at the time cannot answer for conditions introduced afterwards. A service lateral that begins leaking next year, a neighbour who regrades and sends water across your lot, a pool installed after the fact, dewatering next door, a storm that changes the drainage on the whole street. Those are new inputs, and a warranty is not a subscription against the future behaviour of the ground.
Nor does a structural warranty restore finishes. Stopping the movement and repainting the wall are two different scopes, and cosmetic repair is normally carried out after the structure has been shown to be stable rather than as part of the same line item.
None of that is fine print. It is what a warranty is, and stating it plainly is the difference between a document that holds up and a sales tool that produces an argument. If a competitor is offering you something broader than this, the useful question is not how long it lasts. It is what it actually says, and whether the company that wrote it expects to be around to argue about it.
What Each One Covers
Coverage on any project depends on the approved scope, soil conditions, structural design, installation method and final documentation. The written warranty issued for that project governs.
Foundation and Sinkhole Repair
Lifetime, transferable. On qualifying foundation repair and sinkhole repair projects performed by Foundation Masters.
Covers the repaired area against recurrence of the condition that was diagnosed and corrected. Transfers with the property, which is why it carries weight in a resale, a refinance or an insurance review.
New Construction Foundations
Ten years. On qualifying new construction foundation work performed by Foundation Masters.
Covers the design and installation of a new foundation. Scope depends on the approved design, the soil conditions established for the site, the installation method and the final project documentation.
Helical Pier Systems
Twenty five years, transferable. On helical pier systems supplied and installed by Foundation Masters.
A system warranty covering the hardware and its installation. It sits alongside the repair warranty rather than replacing it, because a correctly installed pier and a correct repair strategy are two separate things.
Concrete and Timber Piling
Fifteen years. On concrete and timber piling systems supplied and installed by Foundation Masters.
The same principle as the helical system warranty, on a different material and a different installation method. See our pile systems for how the selection is made.
What a Warranty Does Not Cover
Every warranty in this industry has boundaries. Ours are here rather than in a footnote, because a page that warns you about fine print should not rely on any. The written warranty for your project is the governing document, and these are the categories it addresses:
- Areas of the structure that were outside the repair scope and were not part of the work performed.
- New movement arising from a different cause than the one diagnosed and corrected.
- Conditions introduced after the repair, including new water sources, plumbing or irrigation leaks, regrading, dewatering nearby, or construction on an adjoining property.
- Damage from events outside the design conditions, such as flooding, storm surge or other catastrophic loss.
- Cosmetic and finish repair, which is normally a separate scope carried out after the structure is shown to be stable.
- Work performed by other contractors, before or after ours.
- Alterations to the repaired work, or to the drainage and site conditions the repair was designed around.
- Recommendations made in our engineering report that were declined or deferred by the owner.
That last one matters more than it looks. If the report says the water path has to be closed and only the piers are installed, the repair is incomplete by our own documentation, and the warranty reflects the work that was actually done.
The File Behind the Document
- A written engineering opinion naming the cause of movement.
- The elevation survey the diagnosis was based on.
- Soil boring logs and subsurface data.
- Sealed structural drawings and calculations where the scope required them.
- Installation records, including depth and capacity data at each support point.
- Permit documentation and inspection sign offs.
- The written warranty itself, issued against the defined scope.
Keep that package together. It is what a building official, an insurer, an adjuster, a lender or a future buyer will ask to see, and assembling it years later is considerably harder than filing it once.
For how the credentials behind that file work, see certified foundation repair.
Common Questions About Foundation Repair Warranties
What warranty comes with my repair?
It depends on what was performed. Qualifying foundation repair and sinkhole repair carries a lifetime transferable warranty. Qualifying new construction foundation work carries ten years. Helical pier systems carry twenty five years transferable, and concrete and timber piling systems carry fifteen. Most repair projects therefore carry two warranties running at once, the repair warranty and the system warranty for whatever was installed. The written warranty issued for your project sets out exactly which apply.
Why are there four different warranties?
Because four different things are being warranted and they do not share a failure mode. A repair warranty is a commitment about a diagnosis and a correction on an existing structure. A new construction warranty covers the design and installation of a new foundation with no prior movement to be right or wrong about. A system warranty covers hardware and its installation. Collapsing all of that into one number would either overstate what a piling warranty can honestly promise or understate what we stand behind on a repair.
What does lifetime actually mean?
The life of the repaired structure rather than the life of the current owner, which is why the warranty transfers on sale. It does not mean the whole building is covered against all future foundation problems. It means the work we performed, in the area we performed it, against the condition we diagnosed and corrected. That distinction is the difference between a warranty and an insurance policy, and being clear about it up front avoids a difficult conversation later.
Is the warranty transferable?
The repair warranty and the helical pier system warranty are transferable, subject to the written terms issued for that project. Transferability matters most at the moment of sale, because a buyer who had no involvement in the original repair is being asked to accept that it was done properly. A transferable warranty with the engineering file behind it turns that from a matter of trust into a matter of documentation, which is why realtors and title companies ask for it.
How do I transfer a warranty?
Through our warranty transfer page, which associates the warranty record with the new property owner. Doing it at the point of sale rather than afterwards is considerably easier, because everybody involved still has the paperwork and the transaction is still open. If you are mid transaction and need documentation quickly for a lender, an insurer or a title company, call the office and we will deal with it in that timeframe rather than a normal one.
What does the warranty not cover?
Areas outside the repair scope, new movement from a different cause than the one corrected, conditions introduced after the repair such as a new leak or a regrade next door, damage from events outside the design conditions such as flooding or storm surge, cosmetic and finish repair, work performed by others, alterations to the repaired work or the drainage around it, and recommendations in our report that were declined or deferred. Those are stated here rather than in a footnote for a reason.
If my house moves somewhere else, is that covered?
Not automatically, and this is the most common misunderstanding. If the area we repaired moves again, that is what the warranty exists for and it is covered. If a different part of the structure moves later for a different reason, that is a new condition on ground nobody repaired. It is still worth calling us, because we will already have the borings, the survey and the engineering file for the property, which usually makes the second investigation faster and cheaper than the first.
What if a new water source appears after the repair?
A repair is designed against the conditions found at the time. A service lateral that starts leaking two years later, an irrigation change, a pool installed afterwards, a neighbour regrading and sending water across the lot, or dewatering on an adjoining site are all new inputs the design never accounted for. That is outside warranty coverage, and it is also the reason our reports identify every water path we find, so that the ones that matter get closed while the work is open.
Does the warranty cover cracks and cosmetic repairs?
Structural repair stops the cause. It does not by itself restore drywall, stucco, masonry, tile or paint. Some cracks close substantially during a lift and others do not, and cosmetic work is normally a separate scope carried out after the structure has been shown to be stable. Doing the cosmetic work first is the common mistake, because it removes the evidence you would otherwise use to confirm the structural repair worked.
What documentation should I keep?
The written engineering opinion, the elevation survey, the boring logs, the sealed drawings and calculations, the installation records including depth and capacity at each support point, the permit documentation, and the warranty itself. Keep it as one package. That file is what a building official, an insurer, an adjuster, a lender or a future buyer will want, and a warranty presented without it invites exactly the questions it was meant to answer.
I am buying a house with a prior Foundation Masters repair. What should I ask for?
The warranty document, the engineering report that names the cause, and the installation records. Then transfer the warranty as part of the closing rather than after it. It is also worth asking whether every recommendation in the original report was carried out, because a repair where the piers went in and the drainage correction did not is a different asset from one where the whole scope was completed. We can review the file and tell you which you are buying.
What if the repair was done by another company?
We cannot warrant work we did not perform, but we can inspect it and tell you what you have. That is a normal request during a purchase, a refinance or an insurance review, and it is often the most useful hour spent on a transaction. We will look at what was installed, whether it addressed the cause, whether the documentation supports the claim being made about it, and what condition the structure is in now.
Why should I be careful about warranties used as a sales tactic?
Because a warranty is easy to print and a diagnosis is not. If a company leads with the warranty rather than with the cause of movement, the soil conditions, the drainage, the repair design and the installation method, they are selling you the paperwork rather than the repair. Ask what the cause is, what evidence establishes it, and what happens if the cause turns out to be something else. The answers tell you far more than the term length does.
Does a longer warranty mean a better repair?
No, and it is worth saying so on a page that offers a lifetime warranty. A warranty is a promise from a company that has to still exist to honour it, and the term costs nothing to write. What actually determines whether a repair holds is whether the cause was correctly identified, whether the depth came from borings, whether the water path was closed and whether the installation was verified. The warranty is the last line of defence. The engineering is the first.
Buying, Selling or Refinancing
If you are buying, selling, refinancing or insuring a property with prior foundation repair work, the warranty is one document in a larger question. We provide foundation inspections that evaluate visible movement, cracking, drainage, prior repairs and the documentation behind them.
On a property with previous work the useful questions are whether the repair addressed the cause, whether the full recommended scope was completed, whether the movement has stopped, and whether the paperwork supports what is being claimed. Those are answerable, and answering them before closing is considerably cheaper than after.
Many foundation problems are connected to drainage or uncontrolled groundwater, so warranty coverage is worth reviewing alongside the condition of the drainage system, the slab, the walls, the foundation supports and the surrounding soils.
What Stands Behind the Warranty
A warranty is only as good as the work and the documentation under it. These are the disciplines that produce both:
- Certified Foundation Repair
- Foundation Inspection Florida
- Geotechnical Engineering Florida
- Civil Engineer Florida
- Soil Borings
- Structural Engineering Drawings
- Our Pile Systems
- About Jeff Earl
Those disciplines do not replace contractor execution. They make it sharper and more accurate.
Repairs the Warranty Applies To
The warranty follows the work. These pages cover the work itself and the ground conditions that decide what the correct repair is.
Warranties That Hold Up Technically
Foundation Masters issues written warranties against defined scopes of work, supported by engineering documentation prepared for permitting, insurance and real estate transactions. We coordinate with building officials, associations, realtors, insurers, lenders and adjusters. For current Florida structural design and foundation requirements, see the Florida Building Code. Our Certificate of Authorization and the licence of the engineer who seals our drawings can both be verified through the Florida Board of Professional Engineers.
The written warranty issued for your project is the governing document. This page is a plain language summary of how the terms work and what they do and do not reach.
Transfer It. Review It. Or Ask What It Actually Says.
Whether you are transferring a warranty at closing, reviewing prior repair work on a property you are buying, gathering documentation for a lender or an insurer, or trying to work out what somebody else has actually offered you in writing, Foundation Masters can help you read it.
Built on real diagnosis, technical depth, and clean execution.