# Contractors guides > How to vet a foundation contractor, read a quote and spot the upsell. Independent guidance from Foundation Repair Lab. Canonical: https://foundationrepairlab.com/reviews/ Last updated: 2026-11-08 ## How to vet a foundation contractor Foundation repair is a high-ticket, high-pressure sale, and the difference between a good contractor and a bad one is rarely visible in the truck. It is in the diagnosis, the scope and the warranty document. These are the criteria we use to describe a company, and the ones you can check before signing. | | Criterion | Weight | What good looks like | Independent diagnosis | 25% | Engineer's report before a scope, or a measurement-based inspection | Written scope | 25% | Method, pier count, depth assumption, restoration, permits | Warranty | 20% | Written, transferable, backed by a named entity | Track record | 20% | Five-year-old jobs you can visit; licence and insurance on file | Price transparency | 10% | Unit pricing, not a lump sum with a discount deadline ## Red flags in a quote - A discount that expires today — foundation problems are not a today problem. - No pier count, no depth, no method, just "foundation repair". - A lifetime warranty with no document, or one that excludes "settling" (the exact thing you are paying to fix). - Pressure to sign before an engineer has seen the house. - Financing presented as a discount rather than a loan. - No licence number on the proposal, or a licence that does not match the company name. ## Questions that separate the good from the rest - What is the measured floor elevation difference, and where did you measure it? - How many piers, at what spacing, and to what depth is bearing assumed? - Who stamps the engineering letter, and is it included in the price? - What happens if the piers hit refusal at half the expected depth — is the price fixed? - What is restored: drywall, flooring, landscaping, paint? - What voids the warranty, and who honours it if you close? - Can I speak to a customer whose job is five years old? ## How to compare three quotes Put them in the same table: method, count, depth, engineering, permits, restoration, warranty, price. If one quote is 30% cheaper, the difference is almost always scope — fewer piers, no engineering, no restoration — rather than efficiency. Ask each contractor to quote the engineer's scope exactly; the comparison then becomes honest. The [cost hub](/cost/) explains what each line should cost, the [insurance hub](/insurance/) covers warranty transfer, and the [comparison hub](/compare/) covers repair versus replace. ### Do foundation repair companies lie? Some oversell, and the pattern is predictable: a free inspection, a scary diagnosis, a discount with a deadline. Independent engineering and three comparable quotes remove most of the risk. ### What licence should a foundation contractor have? It varies by state: a general contractor licence, a specialty structural licence, or both. Ask for the number, check it against the state database, and confirm the name matches the contract entity. ### Is a lifetime warranty real? When it is a written document from a company with a track record and a transfer clause, yes. When it is a verbal promise, it is marketing. ## How we describe a contractor We do not publish star ratings for individual companies, because a rating without the scope, the soil and the house is noise. What we publish is the criteria: whether the diagnosis is independent, whether the scope is written, whether the warranty is transferable, and whether the company can produce a five-year-old job. Those four questions separate most good contractors from most bad ones before money changes hands. Where a claim about a warranty or a licence could not be verified, the page says so rather than repeating the sales copy. The same standard applies to our own [methodology](/methodology/). ## What a good inspection looks like An inspection that ends in a number is a sales call. A good one starts with measurements: floor elevation readings at six or more points, a crack map with widths and displacement, a crawl space or basement walk-through, and a drainage assessment. Ask to see the readings and keep a copy — they are the baseline against which any future movement is judged. If the inspection never left the driveway, the diagnosis is not ready. ## Guides in Contractors - [Checking a Contractor Licence and Insurance](https://foundationrepairlab.com/contractor-license-check/) - [Do You Need a Permit for Foundation Repair?](https://foundationrepairlab.com/foundation-repair-permit/) - [What a Foundation Repair Day Looks Like](https://foundationrepairlab.com/foundation-repair-process/) - [How to Read a Foundation Repair Quote](https://foundationrepairlab.com/foundation-repair-quote/) - [Red Flags in Foundation Repair Sales](https://foundationrepairlab.com/foundation-repair-red-flags/) - [Foundation Repair Scams and How They Work](https://foundationrepairlab.com/foundation-repair-scams/) - [How to Choose a Foundation Contractor: A Buyer's Guide](https://foundationrepairlab.com/how-to-choose-a-foundation-contractor/) - [Questions to Ask a Foundation Contractor Before Hiring](https://foundationrepairlab.com/questions-to-ask-foundation-contractor/)