Almost every foundation repair company that publishes a warranty term calls it lifetime. That makes it useless for choosing between them - so here is the term that isn't, and what the document actually has to say.
We read 333 foundation repair companies' websites. 133 of them publish a warranty term. 129 of those 133 call it a lifetime warranty.
Of the 133 companies in this directory that state a warranty term, 129 say lifetime. Exactly 4 say anything else. If a contractor is selling you on their lifetime warranty, they are describing what everyone else also offers.
Not your lifetime. In this trade it conventionally means the life of the structure - as long as the house is standing - and the contract language, not the marketing word, is what governs (Anchor Foundation Repair, a Texas contractor writing about its own industry).
It also does not usually mean free forever. The same company describes its own terms as free pier adjustments for the first five years and reduced-cost adjustments after that - presented as typical rather than unusual. So "lifetime" can mean "we will keep coming back, and after year five you will pay something each time."
1. Who does it cover? Only you, or the next owner too?
2. What does a callback cost? Free adjustments, or reduced-cost after some year?
3. What voids it? Under-slab plumbing leaks and skipped hydrostatic tests are the two
common exclusions.
If "lifetime" is universal, the real variable is whether the warranty survives when you sell. It is worth real money at closing - a buyer's inspector who finds evidence of foundation work wants to know what protection comes with the house - and it is the term most companies leave off their website entirely.
Across all 333 companies here, and our source is what each one publishes, so a blank means silence rather than a stated no. Coverage varies by city - from 17% to 42% - but nowhere is it a majority. The silence is not evidence that the answer is no. It is evidence that you have to ask.
And transfer is rarely automatic. It typically requires a written request inside a defined window after the sale - one Texas contractor cites 30 to 90 days - and missing that window can forfeit the right even where the company would have honored it informally. That is a detail worth knowing before closing, not after.
Exactly as much as the company behind it. A twenty-five-year guarantee from a firm that has been in business four years is a different instrument from the same words on the letterhead of one that has been in business forty.
Across this directory, the median listed company has been in business 15.0 years, and 96 of the 220 with a known founding year have been in business twenty years or more. Tenure is the heaviest single input in our ranking for exactly this reason.
Every city page can be filtered to the 29% of companies that state transferability - start there.