Foundation installation in El Paso TX - a slab built to stay level under your house
Planning a new house or addition and need the foundation under it? We'll walk your lot, then plan it, prep it and pour it properly.
- Licensed and fully insured.
- Free on-site estimates.
- We respond within 1 business day.
What goes into a new foundation installation in El Paso?
Foundation installation in El Paso, TX is getting the concrete under a new house, addition or shop designed, dug out, poured and cured so the building sits on a slab that resists cracking and settling.
Most people who call us have plans in hand, or nearly, and want to know what the foundation will take before the framer shows up. The price moves with the size and shape of the building, the slab and steel your engineer calls for, and how much digging and fill your lot needs to reach solid ground. The schedule turns mostly on final plans, the permit and the weather on pour day, and the written estimate spells out what's included in your job. If your house is already standing and part of it has dropped, that's foundation raising, which is a different job.
How do you know it's time to plan a foundation?
Plans for a bare lot
You've got house plans and an empty lot, and nothing else can start until the foundation's in. If the slab gets left to the last minute, the framer, the plumber and the pour all end up squeezed into the same week.
A room added on
You're adding a bedroom, a garage or a casita off the house, and it needs its own foundation that meets the old one. When the two aren't planned to line up at the right height on the same kind of ground, the crack usually shows up right where old meets new.
Water sitting where you'll build
After a storm, water pools on the spot where the house is going, or runs toward it from the street. If it sits there now, it'll sit under your slab later, and fixing the grade before the pour costs far less than chasing it afterward.
How we handle foundation installation
We build from the engineer's design and don't guess at it, so the thickness, the steel and the edges are what the drawings say. Before any digging, we plan where the water runs off the lot and where the plumbing goes under the slab, because that's where settling tends to start. Then we dig out the subgrade, the soil the slab sits on, down to firm ground and pack it in layers, set the forms and tie in the rebar, the steel that holds the slab together if it cracks. We check the plumbing and grades once more, pour when conditions make sense, and keep the new slab from drying out too fast while it cures and gains strength. When a budget gets tight, people want to trim the base work first because nobody sees it once it's poured, and that's the one place I won't cut, since the base decides how your house sits for decades.
Plenty of designs carry the walls on concrete footings, wider and deeper strips of concrete under the load-bearing lines, and we pour those with the slab or on their own when the plans call for it. For a shop or business building, we can also build the concrete parking lot around it, so the drainage on the lot and around the building gets planned as one.
Rebar-reinforced slab
Steel bars tied in a grid inside the concrete keep any crack tight instead of letting it spread. It suits most houses and additions, and the engineer sets the thickness and the steel.
Post-tensioned slab
Steel cables run through the slab and get pulled tight once the concrete is strong enough, squeezing it together so cracks stay closed. It's common under houses, and your engineer decides whether your plans call for it.
Get a written estimate for your new foundation
We reply within one business day to set a time. I come out, look at your lot and plans, and write the estimate myself. It's free, done on site, and there's no obligation.
- Based in
- El Paso, TX 79901
- Hours
- Mon–Fri: 8 AM–10 PM, Sat–Sun: 6 AM–9 PM
What happens after you call us about a foundation in El Paso?
Here's how a foundation job runs with us, from your first phone call to the day your framer can start.
Call or send the form
Call (915) 265-1446 or use the form, and we'll set a time for me to come out. Have the address and any foundation plans or engineering drawings ready, since that's what the price is built on.
Walk the site with me
I look at the lot, measure it and ask how you'll use the building. You get a written estimate that says what's included and what isn't, so you can hold it up against other bids without guessing what's missing.
We prep the ground and forms
We line up any paperwork the job needs, then dig out, pack the base and set the forms. The pour date waits until the weather and the ground are right for it.
Pour day and the cure
Our own crew does the pour, and I'm on site for it. The slab cures before the forms come off and the framing can start.
Why El Paso homeowners call Formcraft El Paso Concrete Company for a foundation
A framer who switched to concrete
I framed houses for years and got tired of building walls on slabs that weren't right, so I learned concrete under a finisher here in El Paso and started this business in 2013. I know what your framer needs from the slab before they ever show up.
Licensed and fully insured, every job
We're licensed and fully insured. A foundation means digging, heavy trucks and a crew on your property, so that's worth asking every bidder about.
No promise of a crack-free slab
I'd rather lose a job than promise a slab with no cracks at all, because concrete doesn't work that way. What you get is a straight plan for the base and the joints that keep cracks small, backed by our satisfaction guarantee.
The part nobody sees once it's poured is what holds your house up, so let's look at your lot before anyone digs. Request an estimate or call (915) 265-1446.
Foundations and site work in El Paso
El Paso city rules require a notice to Texas One Call before any excavation, so the buried lines on your lot get marked before we dig a single trench. When a job calls for a permit, we handle the paperwork with whichever office covers your address, whether that's the city, the county or the state in New Mexico, since we work across El Paso and the cities around it on both sides of the state line. The city also keeps a contractor registration, and it's a fair question to put to every contractor when you're comparing bids.
The ground around here can change from one lot to another, loose sand in one spot and hard, rocky layers in the next, so I look at what's actually under your building instead of going by the house next door. We see the same mix on jobs in Horizon City and Sunland Park.
Questions about foundation installation in El Paso
Does a new house foundation in Texas need an engineer?
Under Texas engineering law, an engineer is responsible for a building's foundation design unless the work is exempt, so your first step is finding out which applies to your house. If you're hiring an engineer through a website, the state engineering board urges extreme caution with sites offering engineering for Texas projects, so confirm the engineer is legitimate before you go ahead.
Do I need a building permit for a new foundation in El Paso?
Yes, if your lot is inside the City of El Paso, because the city requires a permit to build, alter or repair a building or structure there. Applications go through the city's One Stop Shop. If your lot sits outside the city limits, a different office may cover it, so that's one of the first things we check.
Are El Paso County soils hard on concrete slabs?
Mostly no. A summary of federal soil data rates most of El Paso County's mapped acres low for shrink-swell, which is how much the soil swells when wet and shrinks as it dries, though some acres rate moderate, high or very high. Treat that as a starting point, not a verdict, because your own lot's soil decides how much it matters. Post-tensioned slabs are used on steady ground too, to reduce cracking, so it's worth asking your engineer whether one fits your house.
What is the best time of day to pour a foundation in El Paso?
The best time is whenever the weather is easiest on the concrete, which in an El Paso summer often means early morning or overnight. The national hot weather concreting guide warns that heat makes concrete set faster, finish harder and crack more, and it suggests scheduling pours for favorable times of day or night. The same guide calls for protecting the slab from moisture loss while it's placed and cured, so ask any crew when they plan to pour and how they'll keep it from drying out.
What causes a new concrete foundation to settle?
The usual causes are poor drainage, plumbing leaks under the slab, tree roots pulling moisture out of the soil, and soil that wasn't packed well during construction. Every one of those starts below the concrete, so they have to be worked out in the plan before the first truck shows up.
How much does foundation installation cost in El Paso?
There's no fair number until I've seen your plans and your lot, since two houses the same size can need very different ground work. Beyond the footprint, the price moves with how much soil has to come out and get packed back, how much steel the design calls for, the plumbing that goes in before the pour, and whether a truck can reach the forms or the concrete has to be pumped in. Your written estimate shows what's in the price, so you can set it beside other bids.
Concrete work that goes with a new foundation
Concrete footings
When walls, columns or an addition need concrete under them to carry the load, footings get poured to the engineer's size, often alongside the slab itself.
Concrete parking lot building
For a shop, office or business building, a concrete lot around the new foundation can be planned with it so water drains away from both.
Cities we serve around El Paso
Formcraft El Paso Concrete Company is based in El Paso, TX, and pours foundations across the city and the cities around it, from Socorro to Santa Teresa. These 12 areas have their own page, and they aren't the only places we work.
El Paso, TX
Send us your foundation plans for pricing
Send the address and any engineering drawings you have, and I can price the job off the real design instead of guessing.