Seven blocks of 15th Street between Peoria and Utica, and the 1910s to 1940s bungalows on both sides of it, all on pier and beam.
Cherry Street is the strip of 15th from Peoria to Utica, and the neighborhood around it is some of the oldest housing in Tulsa. Swan Lake sits just south, 15th to 21st, Peoria to Utica, with its 1920s bungalows, Tudors, and brick fourplexes. North of 15th toward 11th the lots get smaller and the houses get plainer. Bellview School went up in 1909. Most of the houses followed over the next 30 years.
Pier and beam, with brick piers on poured pads and a continuous brick or concrete perimeter wall. Crawl space clearance runs 18 to 30 inches. The 1910s houses near the strip are the oldest and have the roughest piers, often just brick stacked dry on a rock. The 1920s and 30s Swan Lake houses are better built but no younger.
A lot of the houses on 15th itself aren't houses anymore. They're restaurants, salons, and shops that moved into a 1920s bungalow and knocked out a wall or two. That matters, because a commercial kitchen or a retail floor full of inventory weighs more than a living room, and the piers underneath never got the memo.
Piers tilt. Girders sag. The floor drops in the middle where the heaviest load sits on the weakest supports. A hundred years of clay swelling in April and shrinking in August works a brick stack loose a quarter inch at a time. Doors drift open. Plaster cracks above the door frames on the low side of the house. A floor that's a half inch out across the living room becomes two inches across the hall.
Water does the rest. Low crawl spaces don't vent, and 90 years of damp rots sill plates and joist ends. We find joists that have dropped off the girder because the end rotted away. Cast iron drains under these houses crack and leak into the dirt for years, which keeps one corner wet and sinking while the rest of the house stays put.
The oaks and elms along the Swan Lake streets are 80 to 100 years old. A tree that size pulls hundreds of gallons out of the clay every week in July, and it pulls hardest on the side of the house it's standing on. That side settles first.
Plumbing is original in a surprising number of these houses. Cast iron drains and galvanized supply, both past their life. A slow leak under the kitchen is the most common reason a Cherry Street bungalow settles in one corner and nowhere else.
This neighborhood has been renovated hard over the last 15 years. Flips, Airbnb conversions, kitchens opened up, second baths added. New floors and fresh paint hide a sloped floor without fixing it. We've been under plenty of 2019 remodels and found 1925 piers and a car jack somebody left behind.
Crawl space work. We jack the dropped girders back to level over a few days so the plaster and brick come up gently. New concrete piers go under the sections that sank. Crumbled brick stacks get replaced. We sister new lumber alongside rotted joists and cut out rotted sill plates, then shim everything tight.
If the crawl space is wet, we fix the water first. Vapor barrier, a drain, downspouts carried six feet out. New piers on wet clay just move again.
For the commercial conversions on 15th, we add piers under the new load. A walk in cooler or a bar full of bottles needs more under it than a 1920s bedroom did.
Written quote after a free inspection. No phone numbers.
Yes. Crawl space work happens under the floor, so the shop can usually stay open. We schedule the jacking for early mornings or a closed day and keep the noise down.
One side of the house has settled and the other hasn't. Usually it's the side facing a big tree or the side with the old cast iron drain line. The level will tell us which. The fix is piers and shims on the low side.
Not necessarily. A lot of flips get new floors, paint, and trim, which hides a sloped floor without fixing it. Ask for the foundation paperwork. If there isn't any, have it looked at.
The district looks at exterior changes visible from the street. Foundation work under the house isn't that. You still need a City of Tulsa permit for structural work, and we pull it.
Yes. We crawl it, measure the floor, and write you a quote. No charge.
Nearby neighborhoods: Maple Ridge | Kendall Whittier
Related service: Crawl space and pier and beam repair
Related reading: Selling a Tulsa home with foundation issues | Drainage fixes that protect your foundation
We come look, you get a written quote. No pressure.