Why Behncke Construction

The right repair.
Not just another system.

Behncke Construction · Quad Cities foundation, basement and structural repair since 1948

There are a lot of contractors in the Quad Cities. Here is the short version of what makes us different: we are a construction company, not a company built around selling one basement product. We find out what is actually wrong with your house before we tell you how to fix it — and nearly eight decades in this same river-valley soil is what taught us the difference.

Since 194878 years, same name
Referral-drivenNot commercial-driven
8× Locals Love UsTop Contractor, consecutive
Top 3 · Quad-City TimesBest of the Quad-Cities 2026
Career crewsDecades in the trade

Request a Free Evaluation Call or Text 563-332-6045

The short answer

Six reasons homeowners call us first

If you only read one section of this page, read this one.

We diagnose before we prescribe

A wet basement and a moving foundation wall can each have several different causes. We work out which one you actually have, then recommend the repair that addresses it — not the one that happens to be on the truck.

We are a construction company

Foundations, masonry, concrete, drainage, waterproofing, structural wood, egress windows. Because we do all of it, we are not forced to make your problem fit the one product we sell.

Our work comes from referrals

Most of our business comes from past customers, neighbors, friends and family, and professionals who know our work — not from advertising campaigns.

The crew is the company

You are not hiring a 1948 date on a truck door and then getting a green crew. Our estimator is a mason. Our foreman has been laying block since 1994.

Methods proven over decades

We have watched repair products get popular, disappear, and come back under a new name. We use what we have watched hold up in Quad Cities basements over the long term.

You can go look at the work

Dozens of documented projects from real Quad Cities homes — photographed, written up and published. Not stock photos, and not theoretical.

How we grew

We would rather earn tomorrow’s customer with today’s work than buy their attention with another commercial.

Behncke Construction was not built on saturation advertising. It was built one basement at a time. A large share of our work still comes the same way it always has — from previous customers, from word of mouth, from friends and family recommendations, from realtors, engineers and inspectors who have seen our repairs, and from people who recognized our beams in a neighbor’s basement.

That model only works one way. If the repair does not hold, the referrals stop. It has kept us honest for 78 years, and it is the reason we would rather talk you out of a repair you do not need than sell you one you will regret.

Advertising can buy a phone call. It cannot buy a neighbor’s recommendation.

Our core difference

We are not built around selling one system

A company that only installs one thing will find a reason to install that one thing. We would rather figure out what is causing the problem, because the honest answer changes from house to house.

The same symptom, different causes

Water on a basement floor might be a grading and downspout problem. It might be a failed drain tile. It might be a cove joint. It might be condensation rather than seepage at all. Four different causes, four different repairs, and only one of them is right for your house.

Sometimes the answer is smaller

Not every crack is structural. Not every wet basement needs a full interior system. Not every foundation needs the newest product being promoted this year. When a house needs a small fix, that is what we will tell you — and we would rather lose the bigger ticket than sell it.

Sometimes it is more than one thing

A single problem often has a water component, a masonry component and a structural component. Because we work across all of those trades, we can address the whole thing instead of solving the part that happens to fall inside one specialty.

The trades we actually perform

Not sure what you are looking at? Start with a foundation inspection, a second opinion on a quote you already have, or our annual basement & foundation checkup.

The people who show up

Our experience isn’t just in our name. It’s on the jobsite.

A company can be old and still send an inexperienced crew. That is the part homeowners cannot see from a website, so here is ours. These are the people who will actually be at your house — and five of them alone bring more than 145 years in the trade.

40 yrsCharlieLead carpenter

32 yrsJasonForeman · mason since 1994

27 yrsJoeOwner · carpenter & mason

25 yrsCharlesCarpenter

22 yrsKyleEstimator · mason

Your estimate is done by a mason, not a salesman.

Kyle has had a trowel in his hand for 22 years. When he looks at your wall, he is reading it as someone who has rebuilt walls like it — and he prices the repair the house needs. There is no commissioned rep in this process, which is a large part of why there is no pressure in it either.

Behind them, an in-house crew — Tarrence, Tristin, Kenny, Jacob, Don and Weston — learning the trade the way it has always been passed down here: on the jobsite, from the people who have done it longest.

Training the trade, not just hiring it

We hire and train deaf craftsmen.

The trades are learned by watching and doing, which is one reason this work suits deaf craftsmen well. Behncke has hired and trained a number of deaf employees rather than assuming a jobsite could not accommodate them. It has made us a better crew, and it is part of how we have kept experienced people on staff for as long as we have.

Since 1948

What 78 years actually buys you

A founding date is only useful if it changed how the company works. Here is what ours changed.

We have seen the products come and go

We have been here long enough to watch repair methods get popular, disappear, and occasionally return under a different brand name. That is a genuinely useful vantage point. It means we are judging a method by how it has performed over decades, not by how well it is currently being marketed.

We know this ground specifically

The same clay soils, the same freeze-thaw cycles, the same century-old block and stone walls, the same river valley. Experience here is not the same as experience somewhere else, and it is the part a company new to this market cannot buy.

We adopt new methods on evidence

New is not automatically better, and old is not automatically better. We use newer technology where it earns its place and keep older methods where they still outperform. The deciding factor is long-term performance, not novelty.

We get called back to our own work

When you have worked in the same towns for 78 years, you end up back in houses you repaired decades ago. Very few contractors get that feedback loop. It is the most honest quality-control system there is.

A warranty is worth what the company behind it is worth. Read why we think longevity matters more than the word “lifetime” →

What we are known for locally

Engineered steel I-beam wall bracing

When a basement wall is bowing, we reinforce it with a full-height W4×13 structural steel I-beam — restrained into the floor framing above, embedded roughly four inches into the concrete floor below, and mortared continuously against the wall so the steel and the masonry are in contact across the whole repair instead of touching at a few high spots.

That mortar step costs us labor, and it is the reason people who know our work can recognize a Behncke basement on sight. Our standard detail was prepared and sealed by a licensed professional engineer registered in the State of Iowa, and it is one of the few repairs we back with a lifetime warranty.

See how our steel bracing works

Still deciding what your wall needs? Compare bowing wall repair options — including the cases where bracing is the wrong answer and the wall should be rebuilt.

Behncke Construction steel I-beam braces mortared against a block basement foundation wall in the Quad Cities

A completed row of steel I-beam braces on a block foundation wall. Real Behncke work, no renderings.

Not theoretical

We are doing this work every week, in your towns

Every project below is a real Behncke job, photographed and written up. Davenport, Bettendorf, Moline, Rock Island, Blue Grass, LeClaire, Eldridge and Muscatine.

Rock Island, Illinois

Comparing contractors

What to look for — and how we answer it

We are not going to characterize anyone else’s business. These are the questions we think are worth asking any Quad Cities contractor, including us. Ask all of them, of everyone you are considering.

What to look for	Behncke Construction
Established local history	Since 1948 — 78 years, same name, same market
How the company gets its work	Primarily referral and repeat customers
Multiple construction disciplines	Yes — foundations, masonry, concrete, drainage, waterproofing, structural wood
Experienced, long-tenured crews	Yes — 145+ years among five craftsmen alone
Who performs your estimate	A working mason, not a commissioned salesperson
Diagnosis before a predetermined system	Core philosophy — cause first, repair second
Engineered structural methods	Yes — PE-sealed steel bracing detail, licensed in Iowa
Published local project library	Yes — dozens of documented Quad Cities projects
Third-party local recognition	Yes — 8× Locals Love Us; Top 3, Quad-City Times 2026
Willingness to recommend the smaller repair	Yes — including telling you to wait

If a contractor cannot answer these comfortably, that is information too. Get a second opinion →

Recognition & standing

Verified, local, and not self-awarded

8× Locals Love Us Top Contractor

Eight consecutive years, voted by local customers.

Quad-City Times Best of the Quad-Cities 2026 award badge

Top 3 — Best of the Quad-Cities 2026

Named one of the top three contractors in the Quad Cities by Quad-City Times reader vote.

Iowa state buildings masonry contractor badge

Trusted on Iowa state buildings

One of only three masonry contractors selected statewide to service Iowa state buildings.

Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce member badge

Quad Cities Chamber member

Invested in the communities we work in.

Fully licensed & insured

Protecting our customers, our employees and your property.

Better Business Bureau

Accountable to an outside standard, not just our own.

Where we work

Behncke Construction is based in Davenport, Iowa and serves the Quad Cities and surrounding communities.

See our full service area →

Have someone look at it who doesn’t need it to be a big job.

Tell us what you are seeing. We will come out, tell you what is actually causing it, and recommend only the repair your house needs — including when that repair is a small one, or none at all yet.