Common questions
Including the ones about how this service works and what Illinois actually requires of a contractor.
No. Champaign County Foundation Repair is a referral and matching service. We take your project details and pass them to an independent foundation contractor working in this county. That contractor gives you the estimate, signs the contract with you, and performs the work. We do not perform foundation work and we are not a party to your agreement with the contractor.
Illinois does not issue a statewide general contractor license, and there is no state board that licenses general contractors. Regulation happens at the municipal level. Some construction trades are handled at the state level: plumbing is licensed through the Illinois Department of Public Health, and roofing contractors are licensed through the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. General construction and foundation work are not covered by a statewide credential, which means anybody advertising a state foundation license in Illinois is describing something that does not exist.
Check registration with the municipality where the work will happen. The City of Champaign requires contractors to be registered with the city in order to pull a permit, and other municipalities in the county have their own requirements. Ask for written proof of general liability coverage and workers' compensation, ask whether the permit will be pulled by the contractor or by you, and get the scope in writing before any money changes hands.
It depends entirely on what is wrong and how deep the fix has to go. Sealing a non-structural crack in a poured wall is a small job. Injecting foam under a settled driveway panel is a moderate one. Underpinning a settled corner with steel piers is a large one, because the cost scales with how many piers are needed and how far down they have to reach competent soil. Anyone giving you a number before looking at the house is guessing, and on variable glacial drift the depth question genuinely cannot be answered from photographs.
Call (217) 882-0544 and describe what you are seeing. Timing depends on the contractor's current schedule and where in the county you are. Jobs in Champaign, Urbana and Savoy are generally easier to fit in quickly than ones in the outlying villages, which often get grouped with other work in that part of the county. If you can be flexible on the date, say so, because it usually gets you seen sooner.
Usually not on the day you find it, but a few conditions warrant moving quickly. A horizontal crack in a block wall with visible inward bowing means the wall is losing the argument with the soil behind it. A crack that has widened measurably over a single season is actively moving. Water entering under pressure during rain is a problem that compounds. Fine vertical cracks in a poured wall are generally shrinkage and can be scheduled at your convenience.
Because freeze-thaw is doing mechanical work on your soil. Water expands roughly nine percent when it freezes, and in the saturated silty clay common across this county there is a great deal of water available to freeze. Footings and slabs get lifted, then set back down slightly off their original position when the ground thaws, because fine material migrates into the gap while it is open. Repeat that through a winter and the movement accumulates in one direction. This is why footings have to be placed below the local frost depth, and why the shallow footings under older porches, stoops and piers are the first things to move.
Yes, and the signs are less obvious than in a basement. Slab homes show movement through floors that are out of level between rooms, cracks that travel across tile or through a finished floor, gaps opening where baseboard meets the floor, and exterior brick separating near a corner. Because you cannot see the foundation, elevation readings across the floor are how a contractor establishes what has actually moved.
In most cases, yes, if the work is structural or involves excavation. Inside the City of Champaign permits run through the Building Safety Division of the Fire Department, the city adopted the 2021 International Codes in January 2024, and applications have gone through an online portal since the start of 2025. Urbana runs its own building department, each village administers its own, and properties outside municipal limits fall under Champaign County zoning. Ask the contractor directly who is pulling the permit and confirm they are registered where the work is happening.
Where the house is, roughly when it was built, whether it is basement, crawl space or slab, what you are seeing and where, and whether it has changed recently. Photos help a lot. If you have noticed water coming in, note when it happens: only during heavy rain, only in spring, or constantly. That single detail narrows down the cause more than almost anything else you can say.
We take requests from across Champaign County, including Champaign, Urbana, Savoy, Mahomet, Tolono, St. Joseph, Rantoul, Philo, Sidney, Thomasboro, Ogden, Pesotum, Fisher and Sadorus. Every one of those sits within about fifteen miles of central Champaign, which is why the county functions as a single service area. Availability in the outlying villages depends on contractor scheduling in that part of the county.
Your details go to an independent foundation contractor covering your area. They contact you directly to ask follow-up questions and arrange a time to look at the property. Any estimate, contract, scheduling and warranty discussion happens between you and that contractor.
Below the local frost line, which is the depth to which soil is expected to freeze in a given area. Illinois does not set a single statewide figure and requirements are established locally, with published figures for this part of the state generally falling in the range between roughly three and three and a half feet. Because sources vary and municipalities set their own requirements, confirm the number that applies to your address with the relevant building department rather than relying on a general figure. The principle does not vary: a footing bearing above the frost line will be lifted by frost heave, repeatedly.
Where the choice exists, drainage almost always comes first. On this soil, water is the mechanism behind most foundation movement, and a structural repair performed while water continues to arrive is a repair on a clock. There are exceptions: a wall that is actively bowing or a structure that is unsafe needs stabilising regardless. But if you are looking at a settled corner and a downspout that has been discharging against it for fifteen years, correcting the water is not optional preparatory work. It is the part of the job that makes the rest of it last.
Sometimes, and the case is strongest when the stakes are high or the advice is contradictory. A structural engineer has no repair to sell and will put a finding in writing, which is useful when you are buying a house, when quotes run into five figures, or when two contractors have given you incompatible explanations. It is an additional cost on top of the repair. For a straightforward leaking shrinkage crack it is usually unnecessary. For a proposed full-perimeter underpinning it is often the cheapest insurance available.
Some of it, and the parts you can do are the ones with the best return. Extending downspout discharge, clearing window wells, cutting back mulch beds that have risen above the siding line, and re-establishing fall in the first few feet from the wall are all within reach of a homeowner with a shovel and a weekend, and they address the mechanism behind a large share of the calls we route. Structural work, excavation to footing depth and anything involving underpinning are not do-it-yourself projects, both for safety reasons and because permitting and inspection apply.
Call (217) 882-0544. Describing the symptom out loud usually gets you further than typing it.