Homewood sits just over Red Mountain from downtown, and its housing stock is a great deal older than most of the metro. Edgewood, Hollywood and Rosedale are largely 1920s to 1940s, and that age determines almost everything about the foundation work needed here.
Pier-and-Beam, Not Slab
Homewood is crawl space country. Houses of this era were built on masonry piers carrying wooden girders, with a vented crawl space underneath. Slab-on-grade barely existed as a residential method when most of these homes went up.
That changes the diagnosis. When a Homewood floor sags, the cause is usually under the floor rather than around the perimeter — interior piers that have shifted, wooden shims that have rotted or compressed, girders that have lost section to moisture or termites. The perimeter walls are frequently sound while the middle of the house has dropped an inch or more.
This is good news financially. Rebuilding interior piers on proper footings is a substantially smaller job than underpinning a perimeter with steel piers, and it is what a large share of these houses actually need.
Ninety Years of Moisture
A crawl space that has been ventilated to humid Alabama air since before the Second World War has had a long time to do damage. Expect to find fiberglass insulation on the ground rather than between the joists, a vapor barrier that is torn or absent, elevated wood moisture in the joists and subfloor, and in many cases fungal decay in the girders where they bear on piers.
Termite damage is common in this housing stock and needs identifying before anything is rebuilt on top of it. Old damage that has been treated and is inactive is a different matter from a live problem, but the structural loss is the same either way.
Shades Creek and Drainage
Shades Creek runs through Homewood and parts of the city have a long relationship with water. Lots near the creek and in the lower-lying streets can hold water in the crawl space after heavy rain, and that turns a slow moisture problem into a fast one.
Where there is standing water, drainage comes first. Sealing a wet crawl space simply hides it.
Working on an Older House
Lifting a settled floor in a 1930s house needs to be done gradually. Original plaster, tile and trim have spent decades adjusting to their current position and will crack if the house is jacked quickly. A careful contractor will raise in stages over weeks, and will tell you honestly that recovering full level is not always the right goal.
If someone quotes you a same-day full lift on a house of this age, be careful.