Over the last 30 days we published two guides a day on foundations, crawl spaces, drainage, hillside lots, earthquake retrofits, permits, and cost factors. That’s a lot to scroll through when all you want to know is where to start with the crack in your garage slab.
This post is a map, not a new guide. It sorts everything by where you are right now: what you’re seeing, what’s under your house, what kind of lot you’re on, or what decision is in front of you. Each section lists the guides that go deeper, then points to the one or two pages on our site that cover that topic as a service. Nothing here diagnoses your house. If you’d rather talk it through, skip to the end.
How to use this map
Pick the section that sounds like your situation and read the first guide listed. Each guide links onward to its neighbors, so you don’t have to follow this page in order. If two sections both sound right, that’s normal. A sticking door and a cracked stem wall can share a cause, and the guides are written to cross-reference each other.
A sensible path for a new concern runs like this: describe the symptom, start a dated record, get it looked at, understand the scope, then sort out permits and money. The sections below follow roughly that order.
If you’re seeing cracks
Start by sorting what kind of crack it is and whether it’s changing.
- Hairline vs structural foundation cracks: the vocabulary, slab vs stem-wall cues, and when to get an evaluation.
- Seasonal vs progressive cracks: why some cracks open and close with San Diego’s seasons while others only grow.
- Foundation crack direction explained: what horizontal and vertical cracks in stem walls, footings, and slabs are linked to.
- Crack monitoring with telltales and photos: gauges, crack maps, repeatable photos, and a simple log to hand an evaluator.
- Stair-step and horizontal wall cracks: crack patterns in brick, block, and stucco walls.
- Structural vs cosmetic wall cracks: a room-by-room guide, and why a patch can hide a question.
- Epoxy vs polyurethane crack injection: what each resin does and its limits.
Service pages: foundation cracks is our overview of crack concerns, foundation crack repair covers the repair side, and wall cracks covers interior and exterior wall cracking.
If floors, doors, or windows feel off
These symptoms can come from the foundation, the framing, or neither. The guides help you sort which before anyone guesses.
- Uneven floors: how to measure and what to do next: measuring and documenting patterns without made-up tolerances.
- Sloping floors causes checklist: settlement, heave, framing moisture, finish floors, and original construction.
- Sticking doors and windows as settlement clues: humidity and hardware lookalikes versus movement patterns.
- Sinking foundation early signs: progressive tilt, new cracks, racked openings, and underfloor clues.
Service pages: uneven floors, sloping floors, sticking doors and windows, and sinking foundation.
If something is settling or the slab is moving
Settlement is one kind of soil movement, and the repair families differ a lot.
- Slab settlement vs soil movement: telling down, up, sideways, and concrete-only behavior apart.
- Soil moisture cycles and settlement: drying clay, first-time wetting, and washed-out soil.
- Concrete leveling vs structural repair: lifting or filling a slab versus restoring support.
- Settlement repair timeline, phase by phase: monitoring, soils work, design, permits, inspections, and closeout.
- Underpinning explained for homeowners: stabilize vs lift, partial support, neighbor notice, and records.
- What helical piers do and foundation pier methods compared: how pier families are installed and verified.
Service pages: foundation settlement repair, slab foundation repair, and foundation underpinning.
If it’s under the house: crawl spaces and raised floors
If your house sits on a raised wood floor, the crawl space is where the evidence is.
- Older homes: foundation types: how to tell which foundation an older La Jolla house sits on.
- Older raised foundations: what to watch: moisture, posts and pads, sill plates, and access, without treating age as a diagnosis.
- Wet crawl space warning signs, crawl space waterproofing overview, sump concepts and moisture control, and vapor barriers in crawl spaces: the moisture side.
- Crawl space encapsulation vs repair: why sealing a crawl isn’t structural repair, and the order of work.
- The raised foundation repair process and crawl space foundation repair process: how the work unfolds, element by element.
- Access limits that change repair scope: openings, clearance, obstructions, hazards, and work hours.
- Footing damage homeowners can spot: what to photograph and what not to patch yourself.
Service pages: raised foundation repair, crawl space foundation repair, and footing repair.
If water keeps showing up
Drainage shows up across the sections above, since water ties into crack, settlement, crawl space, and hillside questions alike. These posts focus on it directly.
- French drains vs grading: what the code asks of the ground around a house and the order of decisions.
- Coastal moisture and foundation drainage: marine air, rain pulses, irrigation, and reverse grade.
- Exterior drainage maintenance calendar: gutters, downspouts, area drains, grade, and irrigation by season.
- Delaying drainage fixes: cost factors: how waiting can widen a repair scope.
Service page: foundation drainage.
If you’re on a slope or have a retaining wall
Hillside lots and retaining walls share water and soil with the house, so these guides cross-link heavily.
- Mount Soledad hillside foundation considerations and coastal lot foundation checklist: mapped hazards, overlays, and lot-level questions.
- Hillside drainage before structural repair: tracing runoff and where City rules send it.
- Leaning retaining wall causes and drainage behind retaining walls: pressure, weeps, and subdrains.
- Retaining wall monitoring checklist: keeping a dated record.
- Retaining walls near foundations and when walls need structural evaluation: where wall and house affect each other, and when to bring in an engineer.
Service pages: hillside foundation repair and retaining wall repair.
If you’re thinking about earthquakes
- Cripple wall bracing basics in California and seismic bolt-and-brace overview: how bolting and bracing work as a system.
- Soft-story seismic concepts: why rooms over a garage behave differently.
- Seismic retrofit vs foundation repair: two different problems, where they meet, and what goes first.
- Preparing for a seismic evaluation: what to gather and clear beforehand.
Service page: seismic retrofit.
If you need someone to look at it (and who does what)
- What a foundation inspection covers: home inspection limits vs engineering and City inspections.
- Foundation evaluation: what to expect: a visit walked through from preparation to the written result.
- How inspections inform repair scope: how findings turn into a scope you can compare.
- When to involve a structural engineer and PE/SE vs contractor roles in California: who may design, stamp, build, inspect, and observe.
- Structural repair vs foundation repair and load path basics: where one kind of work ends and the other begins.
- Buyer’s foundation inspection guide and seller foundation documentation checklist: foundations in a sale.
Service pages: foundation inspection, structural inspection, structural engineer, structural repair, and foundation repair for the repair process as a whole.
If you’re planning permits, money, and hiring
- San Diego permit basics for foundation work: exemptions, review paths, geotech, and inspections on La Jolla lots.
- What drives foundation repair cost: the cost stack and how to read a quote.
- Questions to ask a foundation company: an interview script for before you sign.
- Today’s companion post, the foundation cost factors FAQ: insurance, property tax after a seismic retrofit, liens, and other money questions, answered without price tags.
Service page: foundation repair cost.
What this map leaves out
There are no prices here, and there won’t be on the blog. We publish cost factors only. There’s no ranking of which problems La Jolla homes have, either, because we don’t have data that would support one. And no list of guides can tell you what’s going on under your own house. That takes someone on site.
If you landed on our homepage first and came here looking for orientation, the sections above line up with the site menu: foundation, structural, seismic, hillside and retaining walls, problems, and resources.
Next step
We’re a foundation and structural repair company serving La Jolla citywide. We aren’t engineers; when a repair needs engineered design or soils input, we coordinate with licensed engineers as needed. If one of these sections sounds like your house, request a Free Quote or call (650) 739-6537. Mention which guide you were reading. It helps us know what you’ve already seen. This post is general education, not an assessment of any specific property.