Foundation repair and replacement, reinforced concrete, retaining walls and structural framing across San Francisco and the Peninsula.
Foundations, retaining walls and structural framing are the parts of a building nobody sees and everything else relies on. They are also the parts where a shortcut does not show up for years and then shows up expensively.
Leafair takes on foundation repair and replacement, reinforced concrete work, retaining walls and structural framing across San Francisco and the Peninsula, building to structural engineer drawings and holding the work at each inspection.
Localised replacement, crack repair and reinforcement where the existing foundation is sound in part. Assessed by an engineer before any pricing.
Sections removed and rebuilt in sequence while the house stays supported. Sequencing and shoring are the whole job.
Footings, stem walls, slabs and grade beams — formed, reinforced and poured to the engineer’s detail, with reinforcement inspected before the pour.
Engineered walls with the reinforcement and the drainage behind them that stop water pressure destroying the wall from the back.
Beams, posts, shear walls and repairs to existing framing, including opening walls and carrying loads across new openings.
Digging out to depth on constrained lots, often by hand where a machine cannot reach the rear of a San Francisco property.
Leafair has built the foundation and retaining wall work shown in the foundation and retaining wall project — reinforced concrete, formed and poured on a constrained site. It is worth looking at the reinforcement photographs rather than only the finished wall, because the reinforcement is the part that does the work.
Structural framing on a larger scale appears in the Funston Street remodel, where foundation work and framing ran alongside a full interior renovation.
Access for machinery and spoil removal. Depth of excavation. Soil and water conditions. Proximity of neighbouring structures. How much of the existing house has to be supported and for how long. Whether the engineer’s solution is conventional footings or something more involved.
Every one of those is identified at the site visit rather than discovered later, and each appears as its own line in the estimate.
If your concern is earthquake performance rather than settlement, see seismic retrofitting. Structural work forms part of most home additions, ADU builds and whole-home remodels.
Sticking doors and windows, sloping floors, stair-step cracking in masonry and visible movement at the perimeter are common signals. None of them proves a foundation problem on its own — a structural engineer assesses the cause before anyone quotes a repair.
Yes. The house is supported temporarily while sections of the old foundation are removed and replaced in sequence. It is careful, slow work and the sequencing matters more than the concrete does.
Anything holding back meaningful height of soil does, and in San Francisco most do. The wall has to resist soil pressure and water pressure behind it, which means engineered reinforcement and drainage, not just a thick wall.
Access more than anything. If a machine cannot reach the work, excavation is done by hand and spoil is carried out. Add sloping sites, high water tables, neighbouring structures close to the line, and the need to keep the existing house supported throughout.
Leafair will walk the site, talk through what is realistic, and give you a written estimate priced line by line. Estimates are free.
