Foundation installation in Rio Rancho NM - a house that sits level on firm ground
Building a new home, addition or garage? We dig to firm ground and pour footings so your walls have something solid to stand on.
- Fully licensed and insured.
- Free quotes on site.
- We reply within 1 business day.
What does it take to put in a foundation in Rio Rancho?
Foundation installation in Rio Rancho means digging and pouring the concrete footings, the wide base under the walls, plus any walls on top of them, so the weight of your house, addition or garage rests on solid soil. When that's done right, the frame above stays level and the walls stay square.
Most people call Elite Rio Rancho Concrete Construction with a lot and a set of plans for a new home, an addition, a garage or a shop, and we work in Rio Rancho and the cities around it. The price moves with the size and shape of the footprint, how deep the footings go, how much soft ground has to come out and whether there's a basement. The schedule mostly turns on the permit, the inspections and how much digging the ground needs. If your plan is a slab poured right on the ground, that's our slab foundation building work. Either way, when I walk the lot I'll go over what your foundation needs before you decide anything.
How do you know your lot needs careful foundation work?
Plans for an addition
You've got drawings for an addition, a garage or a new home, and the framer is already asking when the foundation will be in. That usually means the footing layout needs checking against the actual lot first, because leaving it to the last minute leaves no room to fix a problem in the ground.
Loose dirt or old fill
Dirt piles from an old project, buried rubble or a low spot somebody filled in show up on plenty of lots around here. Fill like that usually settles, and once a footing is poured on it, the only fix is digging it back out from under the house.
Water sitting after storms
If water stands in one spot after a storm or after the sprinklers run, the ground is showing you where the water goes. Building over that spot without changing the grade usually means a wet crawlspace or basement later, which costs a lot more than reshaping the lot now.
How we handle foundation installation
I start by walking the lot and marking the footing lines from your plans. We dig the trenches and check the bottom, because we set footings on firm, undisturbed ground, the soil nobody has dug up or filled in, and where it's soft we dig it out and replace it before anything gets poured. Then we build the forms, set the rebar, the steel bars that keep the concrete from pulling apart, and pour. That trench bottom gets covered the day we pour and nobody sees it again, so it's the first place people want to save money, and it's the one place I won't, because a good wall on a bad bottom still moves.
A foundation usually ties into other concrete on the property. If all you need is concrete footings for a porch, a block wall or a post, we do that smaller job on its own. Builders putting up a shop or small commercial building often have us handle the concrete parking lot building too, so the lot and the building are planned to shed water together.
Footings and stem walls
For a home or addition over a crawlspace, we pour footings and a stem wall, a short concrete wall that lifts the framing up off the dirt. It's the usual setup when there's no basement in the plan.
Basement foundations
A basement usually ends up as real space for storage, a shop or living area, so keeping water out comes first in how the walls are planned. We work out the water protection with you before the first footing is dug.
Garages, shops and additions
Smaller buildings still need footings on firm ground, and an addition or attached garage has to line up with the house it joins. We check the height and line of the existing foundation before we set forms so the new part meets the old one.
Get a free foundation estimate for your lot
We reply within 1 business day. Then I come out, walk the lot with you and go over what the foundation needs, and the quote is free with no pressure and no obligation.
(505) 271-3053- Based in
- Rio Rancho, NM 87124
- Hours
- Mon–Fri: 6 AM–10 PM, Sat–Sun: 8 AM–10 PM
What happens after you call about a foundation?
Here's how a foundation job runs from your first call to the final walk-through, and who you'll be dealing with at each step.
Call or send the form
Call (505) 271-3053 or use the form, and we'll set a time to see the lot. Tell us the address and whether it's a new home, an addition, a garage or a basement.
Walk the lot together
I look at the ground, measure and talk through your plans with you. You get the estimate and a clear picture of what your foundation needs before you decide anything.
Permit, dig, form and pour
Once you say go, we handle any permit work, then dig to firm ground, build the forms and pour. Where the permit calls for an inspection before the pour, the pour waits for it.
Walk the finished foundation
Before we pack up, we walk the finished foundation with you. You see the footings and walls your framers will build on, and you can ask about anything you notice.
Why Rio Rancho owners call Elite Rio Rancho Concrete Construction for foundations
Owner on the estimate and job
I come out myself to look at your lot and write the estimate, and our own crew does the work. I run the jobs and I'm usually on site, so the person who planned your footings is there when they're dug.
In business since 2017
I learned this trade working next to older finishers, and the business has been at it full time since 2017, nine years now. Most of our calls come from homeowners, property owners and builders who need concrete done right underneath.
Fully licensed, insured, easy to check
We're fully licensed and insured. Anyone working inside Rio Rancho city limits needs a New Mexico license and an active city business license, and the state asks owners to check a contractor's license online before hiring.
Straight answers, even a no
I'd rather tell you what your foundation needs, or that you don't need us at all, than sell you something that won't hold up. If part of the job belongs to another trade, like soil testing or plumbing, I'll tell you so.
On a foundation, the part you can't see is the part that matters most. Your satisfaction, guaranteed. Request your estimate or call (505) 271-3053, and have the lot address, the project type and any soil report ready.
Foundation and footing work in Rio Rancho
A new foundation is the start of putting up or enlarging a building, and the city's building division requires a permit whenever a building or structure is built, enlarged, altered, repaired or moved, so plan on one for a new home, addition or garage. Before we start, we check with the permit office that covers your address, because not every address near here falls inside the city. If the job needs a permit, we take care of the application and the inspections, so you're not chasing paperwork while the trenches sit open.
Water is the other thing we plan around. The finished ground should slope away from the house, and a California soil guide lists irrigation, shifting groundwater and leaks from pipes, tanks and pools as common ways soil under a building gets wet. On jobs here and in Corrales and Bernalillo, we look at where the sprinklers, downspouts and any pool will sit before we set the final grade.
Questions about foundations in Rio Rancho
(505) 271-3053Rio Rancho lists a frost depth of 18 inches, and New Mexico's building code puts exterior footings at least 12 inches below the finished ground. Footings usually go below the frost depth so water freezing in the soil can't push them up and crack the house. We dig to what your plans and the inspector call for, and deeper where the ground at that depth isn't firm.
The price follows your footprint, how deep the footings go and how much soft ground has to come out before we pour. A basement adds wall height and the work of keeping water out, and a lot the concrete truck can't reach adds pumping. I'll give you a figure for your lot after I walk it.
A statewide New Mexico geology report recommends checking any site where construction is planned for collapse potential, soil that can drop when it gets wet, because most of the state has a low but significant chance of it. That's a planning step, not a finding about your lot. Soil testing is an engineer's work, not ours, but if you have a report, send it with your request and we'll build to it.
Clear brush and anything stored on the building spot, because tree roots, construction debris and ice should come out before footings are placed. We dig those out of the trenches ourselves, so tell us about old stumps, buried rubble or anything else you know is under the ground.
Yes, the city requires its own permit for electrical, plumbing and mechanical work in or on the structure before that work starts. We pour concrete and don't do those trades, so your plumber or electrician usually handles their permits, and we plan the pour around any lines that have to go in first.
Yes, the city lists termite protection as required for building in Rio Rancho. Treatment isn't our trade, so we ask at the estimate who's handling it and leave room for it before the concrete covers the ground.
Related concrete work for your build
Concrete footings
Need support for a deck, porch post, block wall or small shed rather than a whole building? Footings alone are a smaller job with the same rules underneath.
Concrete parking lot building
Putting up a shop or small commercial building? A concrete lot around it handles daily traffic and gives water a planned path away from your new walls.
Where we build foundations around Rio Rancho
Elite Rio Rancho Concrete Construction is based in Rio Rancho, NM, and builds foundations there and in the cities around it, including North Valley and Los Ranchos de Albuquerque. The five service areas below each have their own page, and if you don't see your city listed, ask us.
Rio Rancho, NM
Get your foundation planned right
Calling before your plans are final lets me look at the ground while there's still time to change the layout or the dig.