One crew for the whole front
A house this age can show a dropped stoop, a sagging lintel and cracked brick at once, and one crew fixes all three.
Foundation and Leaning Chimney Repair in Kennesaw, GA
Houses from Kennesaw's 1990s and 2000s boom are settling on graded fill and wet creek ground, and Anglin's steadies stoops, walls and chimneys on steel piers.
The 1990s boom, now aging
Foundation repair for Kennesaw's 30-year-old subdivisions and Big Shanty brick
Foundation repair in Kennesaw mostly means houses built from 1990 through 2009, which make up 62 percent of the city's homes, on subdivision lots that were often cut and filled. Loose fill under stoops, garage corners and basement walls is a common place for settling to start, and we stop it with steel push piers.
Downtown is older, with a National Register district whose period of significance runs from 1875 to 1924. The same Anglin's crew repairs the brick and mortar, our Marietta office sits straight down I-75, and a free estimate starts with a call to 770-422-2924.
The storm door started catching
Why your Kennesaw storm door catches before it closes
The storm door catches before it shuts now, and you pull it the last inch. Outside, the stoop has dropped away from the threshold enough to see daylight under it. Over at the garage, a crack steps up through the brick from the corner of the door.
Your house went up between 1990 and 2009, like most of Kennesaw, on a lot cut on the high side and filled on the low side, and the fill under that stoop has been compressing ever since. Rain off the uphill side runs toward the same corner in every storm. Where the cracks start tells us whether the footing moved or only the brick, which are two different repairs.
Down I-75 from our office
What a family of masons brings to Kennesaw
Four generations of Anglins have run this company out of Marietta since 1930, and nobody who quotes your job works on commission.
Brick or footing, sorted out
Cracked subdivision brick isn't always a foundation failure, and when it isn't, we say so and quote the smaller repair.
Deep piers, no added cost
Where creek-bottom soil stays soft, a pier may have to go deep, and unlimited pier depth is included in the price.
Warranty stays with the house
About a third of Kennesaw households rent, and our lifetime pier warranty transfers to the next owner when the house changes hands.
Fill pushed into the hollows
Graded pads and Noonday Creek ground under Kennesaw foundations
Kennesaw soil maps show mostly Madison and Gwinnett clay loams, much of it labeled severely eroded, with clay right at the surface. That clay rates low for swelling, so the damage here comes from how the lots were built and where the water goes, and foundation repair starts there.
Fill pushed into the low spots
Building these subdivisions usually meant cutting the high ground and pushing that dirt into the hollows. When only the top few feet get packed, the fill below keeps compressing, and stoops, garage corners and basement walls over it sink first.
Lots draining to Noonday Creek
Noonday Creek begins near Kennesaw Mountain and runs about 20 miles to Lake Allatoona. In a USDA sample around Kennesaw, 9 percent of points landed on creek-bottom Cartecay soil mapped as frequently flooded. Butler Creek has a USGS gauge at Mack Dobbs Road, and soaked ground near either creek gives a footing less support.
Stoop or garage corner pulling loose
What people say when they call
- "front stoop that is starting to sink"
- "cracks above the garage in the middle"
- "Separation between garage and foundation"
- "Front porch is pulling apart"
One house in ten predates 1980
Leaning chimneys on Kennesaw's newest and oldest houses
Only about one Kennesaw house in ten was built before 1980, so century-old brick chimneys are a small share of the city. Leaning chimneys here come in two kinds.
It tilts in above the roofline
That brick was usually built on roof decking and rafters, not a load-bearing wall. We shore it, press it back with hydraulic jacks, and structural steel hands its weight to an interior bearing wall up under the roof.
It separates from the house at the base
The crack runs from the ground up to the soffit, and a widening gap between the chimney and the siding tells you the footing sank. Steel piers go under that footing, and the chimney comes back to the wall.
Our masons repair the joints the movement opened, and your roofer handles any flashing once the roof is closed up. Our leaning chimney repair page explains both kinds of lean in more detail.
More ways we can help
Year-30 fixes on Kennesaw boom houses
Most of these trace back to Kennesaw's 1990s and 2000s building boom.
Steps drifting off the house
A stoop that has separated from the front wall gets raised on piers and set back against the house with step and stoop repair.
Brick over wide garage doors
A sagging lintel shows up as stair-step cracks above the door, and garage lintel repair brings the brick back into line.
Basement walls on wet lots
A block wall holding back soaked soil can crack sideways and bow, and basement wall repair braces it with steel beams.
Walls from the original grading
Backyard retaining walls built when a subdivision went in can start to lean, and we repair the existing wall rather than build a new one.
City limits, or just the mail
Kennesaw's city line, historic core and subdivisions
Past downtown, Kennesaw is mostly 1990s and 2000s subdivisions, and the median home was built in 1998. Kennesaw State University and Kennesaw Mountain both sit outside city limits. So do plenty of houses with a Kennesaw mailing address.
Big Shanty and its neighbor districts
Big Shanty Village, a National Register district since 1980, covers parts of Main, Harris, Lewis and Cherokee streets. It includes Victorian and turn-of-the-century cottages.
Big Shanty is one of four National Register districts inside the local Kennesaw Historic District, with Cherokee Street, Summers Street and North Main Street. Design standards there cover stabilizing old buildings, and removing a tree takes Historic Preservation Commission approval.
Townhomes and 1960s and 1970s streets
Detached houses make up 58 percent of Kennesaw's homes, and attached townhomes add close to another 17 percent. About 1,300 homes here date from the 1960s and 1970s, and Pinetree Country Club on McCollum Parkway opened in 1962. Those footings have carried their weight for 45-plus years.
Creek gauges and housing numbers
- Kennesaw Historic Preservation Commission: the city board over the Kennesaw Historic District.
- NOAA gauge on Noonday Creek near Kennesaw: current creek levels upstream of Chastain Meadows Parkway.
- Census Reporter housing profile for Kennesaw: when the city's homes were built and what kind they are.
Stoop first, then the lintel
Sunken stoop and sagging lintel on a 1990s house
In general terms, this is how the job goes on 1990s and 2000s brick-front houses around Cobb County. The stoop comes first, with piers set beside it down to firm ground so it can be lifted back against the house.
Over the garage, the lintel is supported, the brick comes back into line and the cracked joints are repaired. A job like this usually wraps up in one day. The lintel repair carries a lifetime warranty, and the stoop repair carries five years.
Customer Reviews
The work matters.
So does your word.
Hear from homeowners about the repair, the crew, and the finished work.
★★★★★
“Very authentic people, generational local family business. They were very honest and clear about the work... Crew did a great job installing a few piers to raise a column on our porch and our front steps.”
Patrick S.
Porch column and front steps raised on piers
Big Shanty and subdivision questions
Kennesaw subdivision and historic-district questions, answered
Honest answers before you make a decision.
Still have QuestionsEverything that's moving
One Kennesaw estimate for stoop, brick and chimney
Call 770-422-2924 any day but Sunday. After hours, a live person takes the message. We'll look at everything that's moving and put the whole repair on a two-page contract.
Put the whole house on one free quote