Foundation pier cost

Underpinning a settling house costs $7,000 to $30,000, with most projects landing near $16,000. Steel push piers are $1,500 to $3,500 each and helical piers $2,000 to $4,000. A typical house needs three to eight; a badly settled one needs eight to twelve.

Piers are priced per pier, not per foot of wall. The number is an engineering result, not a preference, and it is the single figure to get in writing before you compare any two quotes.

What each type costs and when it is used

Push piers are steel tube sections driven down using the weight of the house itself, through a bracket bolted to the footing, until they reach bedrock or refusal. They then carry the house on that bearing. They need a heavy enough structure to push against, which is why they suit full-masonry and two-storey houses.

Helical piers are screwed into the ground like a large screw, carrying load through the soil rather than needing bedrock. Installation torque is measured and correlates to capacity, so the installer knows when each one is deep enough. They work under light structures and additions where push piers cannot.

Add 10% to 20% on top of the pier count for engineering, permits and the lift.

Stabilise or lift

These are different scopes at different prices, and the distinction is often buried in a quote.

Stabilisation stops further movement. The house stays where it is, cracks stop growing, doors stay as they are. Cheaper, lower risk, and often all that is needed.

Lifting jacks the house back toward its original elevation. It closes some cracks and can free stuck doors. It also risks opening new cracks elsewhere, because a house out of level for twenty years has settled its finishes into that shape. Plaster in particular does not enjoy being moved back.

Full recovery to original level is rarely achievable and rarely the goal. A good contractor talks about maximum practical recovery and says so plainly. One who promises the house will return exactly where it was is overselling.

Ask which you are being quoted. It changes the price by 20% to 40%.

Get the engineer first

This is the recommendation to take from this article.

An independent structural engineer costs $400 to $1,500 for an inspection and a written report. They do not sell repairs. The report says whether the movement is active, where it is, what caused it, how many piers are needed and where, and whether piering is the right answer at all.

With that report, three contractors bid the same scope and the quotes are comparable. Without it you get three different diagnoses at three different prices and no way to judge them, from an industry that knows you are frightened.

Some contractors employ engineers. That is not the same thing.

Fix the drainage or pay twice

Most foundation settlement is water. Clay soil swelling and shrinking, poor drainage concentrating it against one corner, a large tree drawing the soil dry, or a leaking supply line under the slab.

Piering a house without correcting the cause transfers load to the piers and leaves the rest of the foundation riding the same seasonal movement. The piered sections stay put and the unpiered sections keep moving, which sometimes makes the cracking worse.

Drainage correction is a small fraction of a piering budget: gutters and extensions for a few hundred dollars, regrading for $500 to $3,000, a yard drain at $10 to $35 per linear foot. It belongs in the scope. If the quote does not mention water at all, ask why.

Reading the quote

• The number of piers, their spacing, and a drawing showing where
• Whether it is stabilisation or lift, and what recovery is expected
• Depth expectation, and the rate charged if piers go deeper than estimated
• Whether interior piers are needed, which means working through the floor
• Access and restoration: excavation beside the house, landscaping, patios
• The warranty, whether it transfers, and what it actually covers
• Who pulls the permit and who signs off

That depth clause is the most common reason a final bill exceeds the quote. Ask the per-foot rate beyond the estimated depth, and what the contractor's recent average depth has been in your area.

Frequently asked questions

How long does the work take?

Three to seven days for a typical exterior piering job. Interior piers through a slab take longer and are far more disruptive, because the work happens inside the house.

Will my yard be destroyed?

Each exterior pier needs a hole roughly three feet square beside the foundation. Landscaping in those spots does not survive, and equipment needs a route in. Ask what restoration is included; most contractors backfill and leave, and the planting is yours.

Does insurance cover it?

Almost never. Standard policies exclude earth movement and settling. The exception is settlement caused by a covered peril, most often a plumbing leak washing soil out from under the slab, so have the cause identified before assuming.

Is a lifetime warranty meaningful?

Only as far as the company is. A transferable warranty from a firm trading in your area for twenty years is worth something at resale. The same document from a two-year-old company is worth less than the paper. Ask how long they have operated locally, not nationally.

Can I wait and watch?

For slow movement, yes, and monitoring is legitimate. Measure the cracks monthly for six months through a wet and a dry season. Movement that stops may need nothing. Movement that continues gets more expensive every year, because the number of piers grows with the extent of the settlement.