Getting your bearings in Greenwood
- Greenwood Road — U.S. Routes 79 and 80 — is the main route through the center of town.
- Interstate 20 crosses the north side of town, with exits 3 and 5.
- Downtown Shreveport is about 15 miles east, and Waskom, Texas, about 6 miles west.
If you are calling from Greenwood, naming the nearest cross street off Greenwood Road or the closest I-20 exit helps the specialist place the house.
If your house sits over a crawl space
Some houses sit on a slab and some are raised over a crawl space; this page is mostly for the second kind. A raised house has one big advantage when something seems wrong: you can look. You do not have to go all the way under the house to learn something useful — a flashlight through the access door or a vent is often enough to see the first few feet.
Before you call, look for:
- standing water or wet, muddy soil, especially a day or two after rain;
- wood that looks dark, soft, or crumbly where the framing meets a pier;
- piers that lean, have cracked, or no longer touch the beam above them;
- shims that have slipped or crushed;
- a musty smell that gets stronger near the access door.
Do not crawl into a tight, wet space alone or poke at wiring or plumbing. Photos from the opening are plenty — the specialist will go under during the evaluation.
What those signs can point to
Published repair guidance for raised foundations groups the problems into three families: piers that settle unevenly, wood that rots where moisture lingers, and beams or joists that shift out of line. Inside the house those show up as floors that dip, bounce, or creak, and as doors that stick. The pier and beam repair page walks through how each is fixed from below.
Water first
Replacing rotted wood without dealing with the moisture that rotted it is how the same repair gets done twice. LSU AgCenter guidance for crawl spaces is to cover the ground with plastic sheeting and to keep the ground under the house from sitting lower than the yard, so rain does not pond there. If water is part of what you saw, read drainage and crawl space work before the evaluation.
What to expect it to cost
For raised houses, published national ranges put repair at $1,500 to $15,000 and leveling at $1,500 to $10,000 — national figures, not local prices. If a French drain is part of the plan, published Shreveport cost guides put it at $24 to $37 per linear foot. Ask for the moisture work and the structural work as separate lines so you can see each one.
Permits. Greenwood is in Caddo Parish. Ask your specialist who pulls the permit.
Nearby service areas: Blanchard and Bossier City. See every service area by parish.