Start with conditions, not a product
Cracks and sticking doors are clues, not diagnoses — Durham's Piedmont clay and mature tree cover across rolling watersheds is exactly why soil moisture, grading, drainage, framing, and foundation type all need to be weighed together before proposing a repair.
Build a complete scope
- Measurements taken across a full wet and dry season, not a single visit
- Whether the structure is on brick piers, block walls, or engineered fill
- What is being done outside about water collecting against the wall
- The method selected, with the options considered and set aside named
- Access, finish restoration, and precisely what the warranty covers
Durham context
Durham's eras fail differently, and knowing which one a house belongs to is most of the diagnosis. Nineteenth-century district housing and the early streetcar neighborhoods commonly sit on brick piers and unreinforced perimeter walls, where movement appears as sloping floors and separated piers rather than one clean crack. Postwar ranches are typically block crawl-space walls that take lateral pressure poorly when uphill water loads them on a rolling lot. The fast-growing suburban edges sit on engineered fill, which raises questions about compaction and about how recently it was placed. Under all of them, Piedmont clay swells when wet and shrinks when dry, which is why movement in Durham is so often seasonal rather than steadily progressive -- and why watching across a full wet-and-dry cycle before committing to piers frequently changes the recommendation.