Reading the signs your Savannah foundation is moving

Start by working out which kind of house you have

Savannah has two very different building stocks. The older raised houses, mostly downtown, in Midtown and on Isle of Hope, sit on brick or masonry piers with a crawl space underneath. The newer subdivisions in Pooler, Richmond Hill and parts of Wilmington Island are mostly built on a concrete slab, though that varies by builder and year, so check yours. If you can see a vented brick wall around the bottom of the house, you have a crawl space. If the floor sits directly on concrete, you have a slab. For crawl spaces, go to the crawl space page.

Signs on a slab house

• Cracks in drywall that start at the corners of doors and windows and run diagonally.
• Doors that rub the frame in wet weeks and clear it in dry ones.
• A crack in the garage floor or the brick veneer that you can slide a coin into.
• Gaps opening between the baseboard and the floor along one wall.

Hairline cracks are common in new concrete and are usually cosmetic. A crack that keeps widening, or that shows up beside a drainage problem, is worth a professional look.

Why wet ground matters here

The county planning commission puts most Chatham soils in the highest runoff group, with a shallow water table and slow drainage (Metropolitan Planning Commission, Natural Resources draft, read 2 November 2026). Ground that stays wet is soft, and a house settles where the soil under it holds the most water. Gutters that dump at the foundation, a low spot next to the slab, and a yard that slopes toward the house make it worse. Sorting out the water is often the first step, before anyone talks about piers or lifting.

Tropical Storm Debby showed how little a flood map predicts. In August 2024 about 10 inches fell on Savannah, and homes flooded in Pooler on Tappan Zee Drive even though the owner of one said his insurer put him outside a flood zone (GPB, 7 August 2024; News4JAX, 7 August 2024).

What repair companies generally do

This is background, not a recommendation for your house. When a slab or footing has settled, companies commonly drive steel piers or helical piers down to firmer soil and transfer the load to them. For small voids under a slab, some use grout or foam to fill and lift. Cracks may be sealed with epoxy or polyurethane. The right choice depends on what is actually wrong, which is why an engineer or a written scope matters. A written scope should name the method, the number and location of piers, who designs it, the permit and the warranty terms.

Get the water story first

Ask whoever looks at the house where the water goes. Where do downspouts end? Does the yard drain away from the slab? Is there a low corner that stays soggy two days after rain? If the answer is yes, a pier job without drainage work can leave you with the same problem again.

For rough national prices, see the cost page. For the permit side, see which office to call.