About Cincinnati Foundation Pros

I'm Ryan Becker. Greater Cincinnati foundation behavior is my specialty: the engineering standards, the regional geology, and the repair literature, read closely and put in plain language so a homeowner staring at a stair-step crack understands what they are looking at before anyone quotes a number.

Most of what I study is specific to this ground. Greater Cincinnati sits in one of the most landslide-prone parts of the country, and both the USGS and the Ohio Geological Survey document the Kope Formation, the weak clay-rich shale that weathers into unstable colluvial slopes under Mt. Adams, Mt. Auburn, Price Hill, East Walnut Hills, and the Covington and Newport hillsides. Layered on top of that are expansive lacustrine and glacial till clays that swell in a wet spring and shrink in a dry summer, freeze-thaw that heaves shallow footings every winter, pre-1940 stone and early block basements across the older Hamilton, Kenton, and Campbell county neighborhoods, and poorly compacted fill under the newer Boone and Campbell county subdivisions. That mix is why generic national repair advice so often misses here, and why I keep the guidance on this site tied to specific neighborhoods and specific soils.

The standards I follow closely are the ones that decide whether a repair actually holds. That means the IRC foundation provisions as adopted in the Ohio Residential Code, the ICC-ES evaluation reports that set the installation parameters for each pier system, Foundation Repair Association workmanship guidance, and the part a licensed Professional Engineer's stamped report plays in permitting and later at resale under Ohio's Residential Property Disclosure Form. The purpose of this site is to hand you that homework and leave you able to ask better questions of everyone who quotes your repair.