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Serving Santa Monica, CA and surrounding areas. (424) 322-4740
A sunken slab does not always mean a full tearout. Foundation raising in Santa Monica lifts settled concrete back to level - faster, cheaper, and far less disruptive than replacement.
Foundation raising in Santa Monica lifts a sunken or uneven concrete slab back to its original level position by pumping material beneath it to fill voids - most standard residential jobs take one to two days of active work, with smaller jobs often completed in a few hours.
Most homeowners in Santa Monica call about a patio that has tilted, a garage floor that has dropped on one side, or interior floors that feel noticeably uneven. Foundation raising makes sense when the concrete itself is structurally sound - it has just settled out of position because the soil beneath it shifted. Santa Monica coastal soils are sandy, loosely compacted, and prone to moving when they get wet or dry out, which makes settling more common here than in areas with denser inland soil.
If the settling is more severe or involves the structural slab under a new addition or ADU, our slab foundation building team handles full new pours when raising is not the right solution for the scope of work.
If a door that swung freely now drags on the floor, or a window will not latch the way it used to, the frame may have shifted because the foundation beneath it moved. In Santa Monica older bungalows and mid-century homes, this is one of the earliest signs homeowners notice. It does not always mean a major problem, but it is worth having someone take a look.
Diagonal cracks running from the corners of door frames or windows, or stair-step cracks along drywall seams, often point to uneven foundation settling. In homes built before the 1970s - which make up a significant portion of Santa Monica housing stock - these cracks develop gradually and are easy to dismiss until they get worse. New cracks, or existing ones that are widening, are a signal worth acting on.
Walk slowly through your home and pay attention to whether the floor feels level. A floor that tilts noticeably toward one side of a room, or where a marble would roll on its own, suggests the slab beneath has settled unevenly. This is especially common in Santa Monica homes near the beach, where sandy soil shifts more readily than inland clay-based ground.
Outside the home, look for concrete surfaces that have sunk on one side, creating a lip or trip hazard. In Santa Monica, this often happens along the side of a house where irrigation water or winter rain has slowly washed away the soil beneath the slab. A sunken patio or driveway section is one of the clearest and most fixable signs that foundation raising is the right solution.
We raise settled concrete slabs for residential properties throughout Santa Monica - patios, driveways, garage floors, walkways, pool decks, and interior slabs. Every job starts with an assessment of the concrete itself and the soil conditions beneath it, because the right lifting method depends on both. For mudjacking jobs, we pump a cement-and-soil mixture under the slab to fill voids and push the concrete back up. For polyurethane foam lifting, we inject an expanding foam that cures quickly and adds minimal weight to already-loose coastal soil. Concrete cutting is part of our scope when a section of slab is too damaged to raise and needs to be removed cleanly before a fresh pour replaces it.
Permits are part of every structural job we take on. If the City of Santa Monica Building and Safety Division requires one for your project, we handle the application and coordinate the inspection. We also assess drainage around the affected area - because lifting a slab without addressing the water issue that caused the settling is fixing the symptom, not the cause. For homeowners who need a completely new structural slab for an addition or ADU, our slab foundation building service handles that scope.
Works well for larger slab areas where cost is a priority and the soil conditions are stable enough to support the added weight of the grout mixture.
Best suited for Santa Monica coastal properties where sandy, moisture-sensitive soil benefits from a lighter injection material that cures within minutes.
For settled garage floors, basement slabs, or interior concrete that has dropped and created uneven surfaces or trip hazards inside the structure.
For patios, driveways, pool deck surrounds, and walkways that have sunk or tilted, creating drainage problems or safety concerns on the property.
Santa Monica sits on a coastal plain where soils are often sandy, loosely compacted, and prone to shifting when they get wet or dry out. Southern California climate swings between long dry periods and intense winter rain events - during droughts, soil shrinks and pulls away from foundations, and during wet winters, it expands and shifts. This repeated cycle is one of the most common reasons Santa Monica homeowners see foundation settling, and it is part of daily life in Santa Monica and neighboring Culver City alike.
A large share of Santa Monica residential neighborhoods - including Ocean Park, Sunset Park, and the North of Montana area - contain homes built between the 1920s and 1960s. Foundations from that era were built to older standards and have had decades to shift, crack, or settle. The city also sits near several active fault systems, and the 1994 Northridge earthquake caused widespread foundation movement throughout Los Angeles that some homeowners did not fully address at the time. Any raised or restored foundation here should account for the fact that the ground may move again, and choosing a contractor with specific coastal and seismic experience makes a difference in how long the results hold.
When you reach out, we ask basic questions - what you are seeing, how long it has been happening, and roughly where in the home or yard the problem is. We reply within one business day and schedule a site visit. You do not need to prepare anything - just be available to walk us through what you have noticed.
We walk the property, look at the affected areas, check drainage, and assess what caused the settling. This visit usually takes 30 to 60 minutes. At the end, you receive a written estimate that explains what work is recommended and why - no obligation, no pressure.
If the job requires a City of Santa Monica permit - common for structural foundation work - we handle the application. Permit approval typically takes one to two weeks. Once we have the permit, we schedule the work day and let you know if anything needs to be cleared from the area beforehand.
The crew drills small holes in the slab, injects the lifting material, and checks levelness throughout. Most jobs take a few hours to a full day. Afterward, the holes are patched, the area is cleaned up, and we walk you through what was done. Most surfaces are walkable within hours and ready for vehicles within 24 hours.
Free on-site estimates. No obligation. We pull the permits and handle the whole job.
(424) 322-4740Sandy, moisture-sensitive soil near the Pacific behaves differently than denser inland ground, and the lifting method needs to account for that. We assess whether mudjacking or foam lifting is appropriate for your specific soil conditions before committing to an approach - not after. That distinction is the difference between a job that holds and one that re-settles within a few years.
Santa Monica Building and Safety takes structural permits seriously, and unpermitted foundation work creates real problems at resale. We manage the permit application from submission through city inspection. Every structural job we complete is officially on record with the city - that protects you now and when you eventually sell.
We have completed foundation raising jobs across all of Santa Monica and throughout 12 service areas in the greater Los Angeles area, from Torrance to Burbank. That breadth means we see a wide range of soil conditions, housing stock, and permit office requirements - and we apply that experience to every job, regardless of scope. Verify our California contractor license on the CSLB site before we start anything.
Many Santa Monica properties were built between the 1920s and 1960s, and foundations from that era have been through decades of earthquakes, wet winters, and dry summers. We assess the whole picture when we visit - not just the visible symptom - so you are not paying to fix the same problem a second time within a few years.
Coastal soil knowledge, proper permitting, and honest site assessments are the things that make foundation raising last in Santa Monica. We bring all three on every job we take on, from Ocean Park to the North of Montana corridor.
When a section of slab is too damaged to raise, precision cutting removes it cleanly so a fresh pour can go in its place.
Learn moreFor additions, ADUs, or detached structures that need a full new slab poured from the ground up rather than an existing surface raised.
Learn moreSanta Monica winter rains put more stress on a foundation that has already settled - call now to lock in your estimate and get the work done before the storms arrive.