Whatever's wrong under your house — standing water, wood rot, sagging floors, fallen insulation, mold — we diagnose it on the spot and hand you a fixed-price plan the same day. No pressure, no scare tactics.
A licensed local crew — usually out in 24 to 72 hours. Written scope, fixed price, no pressure.
Three weeks ago I got called out to a 1976 split-level on Sardis Rd, north side of the road between the Downtown Matthews spur and the Idlewild intersection. The homeowner had noticed her kitchen floor felt spongy near the sink and a hallway door had stopped closing over the winter. Under the house: 22 inches of clearance, foil fiberglass in shreds, and a rim joist that gave under a screwdriver for a run of 40 inches directly under the kitchen sink drain. The subfloor above it was black. Two floor joists were spongy at the bearing point on the interior brick pier that had settled an inch and a half below the girder. It was not a mystery — the drain had been leaking for probably eight years, the pier had lost its bearing years before that, and the whole assembly was carrying the kitchen load through joist tension across the failed section. That is a Matthews crawlspace repair, not an encapsulation.
I do repair work as its own line of business separate from encapsulation because Matthews stock generates it constantly. The 1970s and 1980s split-level tract that covers the Sam Newell, Sardis, and John St corridor is now 40 to 50 years old and every one of them was framed with fiberglass batts sitting in joist bays above ductwork that was going to condense from day one. The pre-1970s brick pier houses closer to Trade St have piers that have moved. The 2000s subdivisions along Independence have builder partial encapsulations that trapped moisture between the plastic and the block for two decades. Every era generates its own repair scope.
Repair scopes I run in Matthews break down into six categories: rim joist and sill plate replacement, joist sistering, girder repair or replacement, brick pier shoring and re-setting, subfloor patching, and vapor barrier + insulation replacement. Sometimes a Matthews job is one of those. More often it is three or four bundled into a single scope because once you start pulling out rotted framing you find more rotted framing behind it. Every scope I write out separates the categories with photos so you can see what you are paying for and what the sequence is. No package pricing, no round numbers that hide what is under them.
Free on-site inspection anywhere in Matthews and out to Mint Hill, Stallings, Weddington, and Indian Trail. Fixed written quote. What you sign is what you pay.
The process on a Matthews crawlspace repair starts with figuring out what actually failed and in what order, because on these split-level houses the visible symptom (spongy floor, binding door, cracked drywall) is usually the third or fourth thing that went wrong, not the first.
Assessment sequence. First hour under the house is walking the perimeter with a flashlight and moisture meter, probing every girder, rim joist, and sill plate with a screwdriver. On Matthews split-levels I default to assuming the ductwork chase leaked somewhere and I follow the ductwork path looking for the wet spot. On pre-1970s Trade St houses I probe every brick pier with a level first because pier settlement is upstream of everything else. Photos of every soft spot, moisture readings recorded, then a written scope with sequence.
Structural sequencing. Structural repairs run in a specific order on any Matthews job: pier shoring first (Grip-Tite adjustable steel post or Tiger SmartJack on a new footing dug to 12 inches on undisturbed soil per Mecklenburg code), then girder repair or replacement, then joist sistering, then rim joist and sill plate replacement, then subfloor patching from above. Skipping the sequence — sistering joists while the pier below is still settled, for example — means you are locking in the wrong geometry and the framing will move again inside two winters. Union County code (which applies once you cross the line to Stallings or Weddington) has the same 12-inch footing requirement and their inspectors will fail you if the new footing is set on backfill instead of undisturbed soil. Every new footing gets photographed before pour.
Rim joist and sill plate work. This is the most common Matthews repair scope. Standard fix is to sister a new pressure-treated 2x10 alongside the rotted section, mechanically fastened with structural screws at the specified spacing, then treat the remaining wood with a borate solution to arrest any active fungal decay. Full replacement is only needed if the rot has propagated through both the rim and the sill plate below. When a full section has to come out we brace the house temporarily with adjustable steel posts, cut out the rotted section back to sound wood on both ends, install new pressure-treated sill plate on the block with the required anchor bolts, install new rim joist, and remove the shoring. On the 1970s split-level stock we hit this most often under the kitchen (drain leaks), under the master bath (drain leaks and shower pan failures), and along the ductwork chase (decades of condensate). Building permit required through Mecklenburg CityInspect for anything larger than a spot repair.
Joist sistering. Standard on any Matthews split-level with more than isolated joist damage. New 2x10 alongside the compromised joist, fastened with structural screws at code spacing, blocking added where the joist crosses a pier or girder. Concurrent with rim joist work where the two overlap.
Girder repair. On the 1970s-80s stock the girder is typically a triple 2x10 or 2x12 spanning between exterior piers with an interior pier at midspan. When the interior pier settles and the girder starts to sag, we shore the girder with adjustable steel posts, cut out any rotted section, sister new material alongside, and re-shim to the corrected elevation. Full girder replacement is rare but happens on older Trade St houses where the girder was undersized to begin with.
Permits. Structural work of any kind is a Mecklenburg building permit — we file through CityInspect.charlottenc.gov. Union County goes through Monroe. Encapsulation work bundled into the same scope does not need its own permit. Permits are our responsibility, not yours, and they are included in the written quote.
Repair materials on Matthews jobs are pretty standard but the sizing and sequencing is what matters. For rim joist and sill plate work I stock #2 SPF pressure-treated 2x10 by the pallet because we hit it on so many Matthews split-levels. Structural screws are GRK RSS or FastenMaster LedgerLok depending on load path — nails are not adequate on retrofit sister work under load. Sill plate bolts are 5/8-inch anchor bolts embedded in epoxy (Simpson SET-XP) on any retrofit installation because you cannot re-use the original 40-year-old anchor bolts that were embedded in the poured foundation wall.
Adjustable steel posts for pier shoring are Grip-Tite Model 5 or Tiger SmartJack depending on load and travel needed. Both are code-listed for permanent installation on a properly poured footing. On Matthews jobs I typically pour a 24-inch by 24-inch by 12-inch deep concrete footing at each new pier location using bagged high-strength concrete mixed on-site (Sakrete 5000 Plus or Quikrete 5000). Rebar cage is two #4 bars in each direction. Post goes on a steel bearing plate on top of the cured footing.
Borate treatment for arresting active decay is Bora-Care applied at label rates to any wood that stays in place after cutting out visibly rotted sections. It penetrates several inches into the fiber and stays effective for the life of the wood as long as the wood does not get re-wetted. On Matthews split-levels where the moisture source has been addressed (leaky drain fixed, ductwork sealed, encapsulation installed) borate is a durable secondary defense against re-establishing decay fungi.
Subfloor patching from above is 3/4-inch tongue-and-groove OSB or plywood glued and screwed to the joists. On any patch adjacent to plumbing (kitchen sinks, bath fixtures) I run a full sheet across the affected area rather than piecing in a smaller patch, because the seam at the edge of a small patch is where the next leak will find its way through. For subfloor patches under tile floors we replace back to a joint line the tile installer can work with.
Yes — Matthews is a regular crawlspace repair route. Free on-site inspection anywhere in Matthews, fixed written quote before we touch anything.
Matthews repair work is defined by the 1970s-80s split-level tract stock producing rim joist and sill plate rot at rates I do not see in other Charlotte submarkets, driven by decades of ductwork condensate leaking above fiberglass batts in joist bays that were framed against interior brick piers that have since settled.
28104, 28105. All Mecklenburg County addresses covered.
You do not know for sure until somebody looks. Warning signs from the house side: floors that feel spongy or bouncy in specific spots (usually under kitchens and bathrooms), interior doors that suddenly stop closing or start binding, drywall cracks running diagonally from door corners, gaps opening between baseboards and the floor. On the inspection I probe every girder, rim joist, and sill plate with a screwdriver, check every interior pier for settlement, and look for the moisture source that caused the damage. If the wood is still sound and only moisture management is needed, encapsulation alone is the fix. If wood is spongy or crumbling, structural repair comes first and encapsulation is the second phase.
Yes and it is standard scope on any pre-1980s Matthews house with brick pier construction. Cedar shims were the standard shim material through the 1960s and they rot within 20 to 30 years in a wet crawl. What we do: dig a new footing 12 inches deep on undisturbed soil below the pier location, pour concrete to code spec with rebar reinforcement, and install a Grip-Tite or Tiger SmartJack adjustable steel post between the new footing and the underside of the girder. The post is adjustable so we can re-shim the girder back to its correct elevation and lock it in. The old brick pier can stay in place as long as it is not carrying load anymore. Every new post gets photographed for the permit inspection.
Structural repair of any kind — sistering joists, replacing rim joist, replacing sill plate, new pier footings, girder work, subfloor patching — requires a Mecklenburg building permit and inspection. We file through CityInspect.charlottenc.gov and it is our responsibility as part of the scope, not yours. If your house is on the Matthews side that crosses into Union County (Stallings, Weddington), permits go through the Union County office in Monroe. Encapsulation work bundled into the same scope does not need its own permit but does need an electrical permit for the dehumidifier circuit. All of that is in the written quote and included in the price.
Repair sequencing means we do structural work in a specific order — pier shoring, then girder, then joists, then rim and sill, then subfloor from above — so we are not locking in the wrong geometry at any step. A typical Matthews split-level repair with one pier to shore, 30 feet of rim joist to replace, and four joists to sister runs three to four working days with a two-person crew. Add a day for permit inspection if the schedule does not overlap. If we bundle encapsulation into the same scope (which most Matthews jobs do), add another two days after structural repair is inspected and closed out. Whole scope from first day to broom-clean is usually a working week.
Free on-site Matthews inspection. Fixed written quote. Call (980) 227-1769 or book below.