From brick houses near the Square to 1980s basements cut into hillsides, Marietta foundations sink where clay stays wet or slopes lost their topsoil, and Anglin's, a Marietta family business since 1930, sets them back on steel piers.
Anglin's does foundation repair in Marietta from the office our family has run here since 1930. We drive steel push piers under settled footings, bring leaning chimneys back to plumb, and the same crew restores the brick and mortar afterward. Estimates are free at 770-422-2924, and most jobs wrap up in one day.
Marietta's houses span nearly two centuries, from 1830s homes in the historic districts to a citywide median build year of 1987, and the problems differ by era.
From the yard you can see a line of daylight between the chimney brick and the siding. It was not there a few summers back. Up close, the mortar joints near the top have opened and a crack runs down toward the ground.
Around here that happens two ways, from a footing laid generations ago near the Square or from backfill beside a 1980s basement. Either way it moves a little more each wet season, and we measure the lean before quoting anything, because how far it has gone changes what the repair takes.
Four generations of our family have worked out of this town, and these are the habits that come with that.
Olin L. Anglin founded the company in 1930, Skip and Scott run it today, and Alec and Brett represent the fourth generation. The contract runs two pages, the price on the contract is the price at the end, and a live person answers after hours.
A Whitlock Avenue or Church Street house has to look original afterward, so the people who set the piers also match the mortar.
Pier depth changes from lot to lot, from creek bottoms to the Square, and we never bill extra for it.
Cracked brick on an older house often traces to rusted wall ties, and when it does we say so and skip the piers.
The USDA soil survey changes across town. Around the Square the ground maps as urban land mixed with Cecil soil, cut and filled as Marietta grew, while Whitlock Avenue and Church and Cherokee streets turn to Pacolet and Madison soils on 10% to 25% slopes. See foundation repair for the pier work.
That subsoil is roughly half clay, rated low for shrink and swell. The usual trouble is water: clay beside a clogged downspout stays saturated, softens and lets the heaviest corner of the house sink.
A porch, stoop or chimney set on backfill that was never compacted properly settles apart from the house.
Sope Creek starts inside Marietta west of I-75, Rottenwood Creek runs through town, and the Northwest Marietta district reaches Noses Creek. Creek-bottom soil in south Marietta is mapped as frequently flooded, which gives a footing weak bearing.
Our owners call leaning chimneys the bread and butter of the business, and in Marietta the direction of the lean says a lot about the house.
On an older house in the historic districts the chimney can be solid masonry, and a settled footing takes the whole stack with it.
That footing sits on backfill beside the basement, and the chimney separates as the soil gives.
The mason rested the upper brick on roof decking rather than a bearing wall.
For a settled footing we set steel piers down to load-bearing ground, and during the lift push poles braced in the yard press the chimney toward the house, since piers alone won't bring it back to plumb.
Brick anchors hold it to the wall and our masons repoint the joints. We say up front that a roofer handles the flashing. Here's how our leaning chimney repair process runs.
The rest of our work in town tracks the age of the house.
About a fifth of homes in this ZIP predate 1960, some on crawl spaces where we level sagging floors from below.
Steps are named in the preservation ordinance, so we lift sinking steps and stoops on piers and match the brick. A crack stepping up from a garage door corner usually means the steel lintel overhead has sagged.
Walls cut into Marietta's slopes hold soil on one side, and we brace the ones pushing inward with steel beams.
Lots mapped at 10% to 25% slope lean on retaining walls, and we stabilize existing ones with piers or tiebacks.
Marietta is the Cobb County seat, and its oldest streets fan out from the Square onto real grade.
About 10% of the city's houses predate 1960, while roughly four in ten went up in the 1980s and 1990s in subdivisions graded into the hills toward Kennesaw Mountain. Those newer houses are old enough for fill under stoops and basement walls to show it.
The Northwest Marietta Historic District holds buildings from about 1838 to 1898 and runs out Kennesaw Avenue to Noses Creek. Whitlock Avenue's district spans Greek Revival houses to 1930s Craftsman bungalows on slopes mapped as eroded.
Central and south Marietta, ZIP code 30060, holds the oldest housing of any Marietta ZIP, with a median build year of 1976. A third of its houses went up in the 1950s and 1960s, and about a fifth predate 1960. Footings that old have seen 50-plus wet winters and clogged gutters.
This is one of our own Marietta projects, completed in May 2026. The chimney had tilted away from the house for about 10 years and sat roughly four inches out, with a visible gap at the wall, because its footing had settled.
Structure and masonry were both finished the same day.
Hear from homeowners about the repair, the crew, and the finished work.
“It became clear to us that Anglin's was the ONLY company that really understood the root cause of the issues and how to provide a permanent fix... After they stabilized everything, they did all the masonry repairs (the cosmetics) and it all looks beautiful.”
Honest answers before you make a decision.
Still have QuestionsTell us what's cracking or leaning, and we'll set up a free look at the house.
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770-422-2924