Foundation installation in Moses Lake WA - the right base for your lot and budget

Most people who call us have a lot, a house in mind and plans that aren't drawn yet, which is the best time to talk, because a foundation is cheapest to change on paper. The price turns mostly on which type you pick, how deep we dig, the size of the footprint, how much the lot slopes and how the walls are protected, and the schedule turns on the permit, the plans and the weather on pour day. Before I price anything, I check with the city or county office that covers your lot so the permit side is planned from the start, and your estimate puts the full scope in writing. If you've already settled on a slab, our page on slab foundation building goes further into it.

I start by helping you weigh a slab against a basement for your lot and budget before your plans get drawn, and if you go with a basement, we talk through keeping water off the walls and draining it away from the footing. Once the permit is in hand, our crew digs out and packs the subgrade, which is what the concrete sits on, then sets the forms and the rebar, the steel that holds the concrete together if it cracks, and pours the footings, walls or slab. The base is the part nobody sees on day one, so it's the first thing people want to trim, and it's the last place I'd cut, because a nice finish on top of loose dirt settles right along with the dirt.

Footings, the wide strip of concrete a wall stands on, come with every foundation, and they're also a job of their own when you're adding a garage, a room or a deck, which our concrete footings work covers. If the building is a shop, office or rental, the same crew can handle concrete parking lot building around it, so we plan where water runs off the lot and the building together.

The City of Moses Lake takes permit applications for new construction through its Permit Portal, and it requires a separate permit before any grading or clearing, so no dirt moves until that's issued. The application includes construction plans such as a site plan, a floor plan and wall details, and it has to list the prime contractor's current state contractor's registration number, the prime contractor being the main contractor on the job. Before we price your job, I check with the city, or with the county if your lot falls under it, and when a permit is needed we handle the application or help you with yours, then build to what that office decides.

We're based in Moses Lake, where winters freeze the ground and summers run hot, and both show up in the concrete. On hot days we pour early, before midday heat dries the top too fast and leaves it weak and dusty, and we plan new builds the same way in Ephrata, Othello, Quincy and the other cities around the area where we work.