Foundation installation in Hilo HI - a solid base for your house, planned before the pour

No, shear walls can be built as set sections, with a wall on each end and each side of the house, rather than around the whole perimeter. That keeps the digging and concrete to those sections, and on older post-and-pier homes we often bring in a structural engineer first and talk through with you which sections need walls.

A licensed structural engineer or architect, because a state homeowner's guide advises consulting one when a house is being retrofitted, even if the owner does some of the work. If you plan to handle part of the job yourself, bring that expert in before you start, and if you already have plans, have them ready when you call.

A new-construction foundation pour for a typical full 2,000-square-foot house in Hawaii usually costs about $20,000 to $48,000 for the job. That's the going range statewide, not our price, and it's for a new house, not for adding shear walls under an older one. Your written estimate gives your own figure, and our work is satisfaction guaranteed.

The state's contractor license classes include a C-35 class for pile driving, pile and caisson drilling, and foundation work. State rules leave foundations and load-bearing parts out of some classes, so ask any contractor which class they hold and check it against the state's list of license classes. We're licensed and insured, and if you'd rather run the job yourself, a state rule lets an owner-builder act as their own general contractor after registering for an exemption with the County Building Permit department, which can tell you its current steps.

Plan it before the foundation goes in, because physical barriers that keep termites out fit best when they're part of the plan for a new house. One kind, particle barriers, can be hard to install in some situations or without proper training, so ask whoever puts one in about their training. On a new home we go over termite protection with you before the forms go up.

Clear what you can from around and under the house, because we take the lattice off the work area and dig out the soil before the pour, going less deep where we hit solid rock. Move anything stored under the house, and keep cars and pets out of the side yards while we work.