Local Expertise Foundation and Waterproofing Services for Gilbert's Newer Construction
Built around the well-regarded Gilbert Community School District and tied closely to Iowa State University five miles south in Ames, Gilbert has spent two decades as one of central Iowa's fastest-growing small towns. Families come for the schools, the Ames-Gilbert bike trail, and quiet streets near Upstill Park and the Gilbert Historical Museum, and that steady building boom along US Highway 69 is exactly what brings JLB here. We work Gilbert out of our Boone office, a short run west across Story County, and reach the same in-house crew at (515) 444-9234 on every call.
Drainage is what drives most of the foundation trouble in Gilbert. The town sits low to the Ioway Creek and Skunk River basins, where rain and snowmelt collect in the dense, clay-rich till rather than draining away, and saturated soil presses against basement walls with real force. That hydrostatic load is what bows block courses inward, opens horizontal cracks, and pushes seepage through the cove joint where wall meets floor. Story County's heavy Iowa clay makes it worse: it expands as it soaks up water through a wet spring and pulls back as it dries, so footings are flexed one way, then the other, year after year. When winter sets in, the same waterlogged ground freezes and thaws repeatedly, and each cycle nudges a small crack a little wider instead of letting it hold.
Because JLB keeps foundation work, waterproofing, and concrete under one roof, a Gilbert homeowner can settle a sticking door, a damp basement, and a heaving driveway with a single contractor instead of juggling three. Our crew pours driveways, patios, sidewalks, and garage approaches across town, mixing and prepping the subgrade for central Iowa's freeze-thaw so the slab holds. On the same visit we can stabilize the foundation it sits beside and route water away from it, so the repair and the flatwork are handled together rather than in disconnected trips.