Foundation installation in Williston ND - a solid base planned around the freeze

Most people who call us have a builder, a set of plans and a lot, but no foundation type or date yet. The price moves with the type you pick, how big and deep it goes, how much digging and base work the lot needs, how much steel goes in and whether the pour runs into cold weather. The schedule depends on the weather, the permit and the inspections more than on how fast we work, and I'll put your own figure in writing at the estimate.

I start by walking the lot with you and your builder if you have one, so we can compare foundation types and pick a start date that gives the work a fair shot at finishing before the freeze. Then our crew digs out and packs the subgrade, the ground the footings sit on, because loose dirt settles and takes the concrete down with it. We set the forms and tie in the rebar, the steel that keeps concrete from pulling apart. After that we pour and keep the concrete covered while it cures, which is the stretch where it gains its strength, and only then do we strip the forms. Once the walls go up, nobody sees the base again, so it's the first thing people want to cut, and it's the last place I'd save money.

Foundations rarely come alone. If you're building an addition, a deck or a porch instead of a whole house, concrete footings may be all the job needs. For a shop or office going up on a new lot, concrete parking lot building usually comes next so your customers aren't parking in the mud.

Who issues your foundation permit depends on where the lot sits. The City of Williston has its own permit applications, one for new homes and one for alterations, which covers additions and remodeling. Outside a city's jurisdiction, the Williams County Building Division issues building permits, and you need one before you build or alter a structure or do grading or drainage work. Whichever office handles your lot enforces the state building code and can add its own local changes, so the exact rules come from that office. Before work starts, we figure out with you whether the city or the county covers your address, and we take care of the permit paperwork when the job calls for one.

On foundation jobs in Williston, ND and the cities around it, we mostly see new homes, shops and additions, and the short warm season shapes them more than anything else does. That's why we check the slope and where the water runs before a single form goes up, and why we settle the start date at the estimate instead of later.