Pier and Beam Foundation Repair.

If your floors slope, your piers have shifted, or you can feel the give when you walk across a room, the work happens below the floor rather than around the perimeter. That is the real difference between pier and beam and slab repair, and it changes the method, the access and the hours.

Why a pier and beam house moves

The ground under Central Texas is the same ground either way. Houston Black and the other high plasticity clays through the Blackland Prairie swell when they take on water and shrink back in a dry summer. A pier and beam structure sits entirely inside that active zone, so when the soil under an interior pier gives up a half inch, the beam above it follows and the floor telegraphs it.

West of the Balcones Escarpment the problem usually flips. There the trouble is shallow rock under one pier and a soft pocket under the next, which produces the same uneven floor from the opposite cause. Either way the fix starts with measuring, not guessing.

What the repair actually involves

Slabs get exterior steel piers. Pier and beam homes need interior support and shimming off stable ground, which means going into the crawlspace and working each bearing point.

• We map the floor with a free elevation survey accurate to a sixty fourth of an inch, so the high and low points are known before anyone picks up a jack.
• We inspect the crawlspace itself, the existing shims or blocks, the beam and joist condition, and how wet the ground under the structure stays.
• Failed or sunken supports are replaced or re-supported on ground that carries load, and the structure is shimmed back toward a level plane in controlled steps.
• Where the supports are riding the active clay, we drive galvanized steel piers to refusal on load bearing strata so the new support is not sitting on the same moving soil.
• We re-survey at the end so the finished elevations are documented, not assumed.

What drives the price

Most foundation projects here fall between $4,500 and $14,000. On a pier and beam house the number tracks the number of bearing points that need work, how much headroom the crawlspace gives a crew, and whether moisture under the structure has to be dealt with at the same time. A crawlspace you can sit up in costs less to work than one you have to belly through.

The free survey is what turns that range into a real figure. You get the measured plan and the written scope whether or not you hire us, and the warranty terms for your specific scope come with that estimate.

Signs worth measuring

• Floors that slope, bounce or feel soft in one part of the house
• Doors and windows that stick on one side of the home only
• Gaps opening between the floor and the baseboard, or between cabinets and the wall
• Visible dips toward a corner, or a floor that is high in the middle
• Piers you can see are leaning, cracked, or no longer touching the beam
• Standing water, damp soil or a musty smell under the house

Frequently asked