Working class bungalows from 1910 to 1940, a streetcar suburb that got cut in half by the interstate, and a renovation wave that's hiding as many foundation problems as it fixes.
Kendall Whittier sits east of downtown, roughly from Interstate 244 south to 11th Street and from Utica over to the University of Tulsa. Whittier Square at Admiral and Lewis is the old commercial heart, with the Circle Cinema from 1928 and a National Register listing from 2012. The neighborhood started as a streetcar suburb around 1909 and filled in with small frame bungalows for people who worked downtown and in the refineries. Then Interstate 244 came through in the 1960s and the neighborhood spent 40 years going downhill. It's been coming back since Kendall Whittier Main Street formed in 2010.
Pier and beam, built cheap. These were working class houses and the piers underneath show it. Brick stacks on a rock or a thin pad, sometimes just stacked without mortar. Perimeter walls of brick or early concrete. Crawl space clearance of 16 to 24 inches. Wood siding over wood framing, with a few brick bungalows along the nicer streets near TU.
Compared to Maple Ridge a mile south, the construction was lighter. That cuts both ways. These houses settle more, but they also lift back easier when we go under them.
The same thing that goes wrong under every pier and beam house in Tulsa, but more of it. A century of clay swelling in spring and shrinking in August rocks the brick stacks until the girders are sitting on the edge of them. The floor drops in the middle. The front door drifts open. Plaster or drywall cracks above the door frames on the low side.
Water is the bigger problem here. A lot of these houses sat vacant or under deferred maintenance for decades. Gutters gone, downspouts dumping at the foundation, crawl spaces that stayed wet for 30 years. Rotted sill plates are nearly universal. Joist ends that have gone soft and dropped off the girder are common. Termites found a lot of them.
This is the part that's specific to Kendall Whittier. Hundreds of houses here have been flipped or rehabbed in the last ten years. Some of that work is excellent. Some of it is new vinyl plank over a floor that's three inches out of level and a coat of paint over a crack that's going to come back by Christmas.
We've been under a lot of recent remodels and found stacked concrete blocks shoved under the sagging girder, a bottle jack left in place, or a 2x6 nailed to the side of a rotted joist. None of that is a repair. It's a delay.
If you're buying here, get the foundation paperwork. Permits, pier locations, a warranty. If there isn't any, the fresh floors don't mean anything.
The elms and hackberries in the yards are 60 to 90 years old and sit close to the houses on these small lots. The side facing the tree settles first in a dry summer.
Plumbing is original cast iron and galvanized in most houses that haven't been fully rehabbed. A slow drain leak under the kitchen keeps one corner wet and sinking. In the flipped houses, check whether the plumber ran new lines or just replaced the fixtures.
Crawl space work. We jack the dropped girders back to level over a few days. New concrete piers on proper pads go under the sections that sank, and loose brick stacks get replaced. We cut out rotted sill plates and slide in new treated lumber without opening the wall. Rotted joists get sistered. Then everything gets shimmed tight.
If the crawl space is wet, we fix the water first. Downspouts carried six feet out, a vapor barrier, a drain if the lot needs it.
Small houses, small jobs, most of the time. Written quote after a free inspection.
Get under it or have someone get under it. Look for new piers with permits, not stacked blocks. Look at the sill plates and joist ends for rot. Put a level on the hallway floor. Fresh floors and paint tell you nothing about the foundation.
Yes. We support the wall from the crawl space, cut out the rotted section, slide in new treated lumber, and lower the wall back onto it. The wall never knows it happened.
Only if the block is just stacked. Somebody added it when the floor went soft. We replace loose stacks with poured piers on a proper pad. The original brick piers that are still plumb can stay.
A sloped floor caps your rent and kills a sale to any buyer using a lender. A pier and beam re level on a small bungalow is one of the cheapest foundation jobs in Tulsa, and it comes with a transferable warranty.
Yes. We crawl it, measure the floor, and write you a quote. No charge.
Nearby neighborhoods: Cherry Street | Florence Park
Related service: Crawl space and pier and beam repair
Related reading: Foundation repair permits in Tulsa | DIY foundation repair and where it goes wrong
We come look, you get a written quote. No pressure.