Foundation repair cost by state

The same foundation repair costs $13,100 in Arkansas and $19,300 in Illinois, a 47% spread across the lower 48. Foundation work is labor-heavy — excavation, piers, hydraulics, backfill — so it tracks wages more closely than most trades.

The table below prices one job in every state: eight push piers installed along one elevation of a settling foundation, with excavation and reinstatement.

How these figures are built

We hold a national rate for the job and adjust it by state.

The labor adjustment comes from Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics data: each state's mean hourly wage for the construction trades divided by the national mean. It is a measured figure.

The material adjustment is a model rather than a measurement, moving by a quarter of the labor spread. Alaska and Hawaii carry a freight premium.

We treat 70% of foundation work as labor and permits. Steel piers cost the same everywhere; the excavation, the hydraulics and the crew do not.

Foundation repair cost, by state

The soil matters more than the wages

This is the one vertical where geography changes the problem, not just the price.

Expansive clay in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and parts of the Midwest and the south swells when wet and shrinks when dry, moving foundations seasonally by an inch or more. It is the single biggest driver of foundation work in the country, and in those regions the local solution is usually piers plus a watering program around the perimeter, which sounds odd and is genuinely what is recommended.

Frost heave in the northern states lifts anything not founded below frost depth. Repairs there are about depth rather than moisture.

Karst and limestone in Florida, Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky brings sinkholes and voids, which is a different and more serious diagnosis.

Seismic regions add retrofit work: bolting the sill to the foundation and bracing cripple walls, which is $3,000 to $10,000 and is separate from any settlement repair.

High water tables in coastal and river regions drive waterproofing rather than structural work.

So a Texas quote and a Minnesota quote for "foundation repair" are frequently for different jobs.

What moves a quote more than the state

The number of piers, obviously, and that is a structural judgement rather than a sales one. Eight piers against sixteen is the whole price.

Pier type. Push piers at $1,500 to $3,500 each, helical at $2,000 to $4,000. Helical suits lighter structures and poor soils.

Access. A pier under a garage floor or through a finished basement costs substantially more than one in an open flower bed.

What has to be put back. Concrete, patio, landscaping and interior finishes are often quoted separately, and they are a real part of the total.

Frequently asked questions

Texas is near the bottom. Does that mean foundation work is cheap there?

No, and this is the most important caveat on the table. The multiplier indexes what an hour of construction labor costs, not how much work a house needs. Texas is 0.83, among the cheapest hours in the country, and it also sits on expansive clay that shrinks and swells with the season, which is why it has more foundation repair per house than almost anywhere else.

A cheap hour and a big job give you a large bill. Read this table as the price of labor, never as the risk to your foundation.

Should I get an engineer before quotes?

Yes, for anything structural. A structural engineer at $400 to $1,500 does not sell repairs, and their report turns three incomparable diagnoses into three prices for one defined scope. It is the best money in this whole subject.

Are these figures for a whole house?

No. They price one elevation of a settling foundation, which is the common job. Underpinning an entire house is two to four times that.

How current are these numbers?

The wage data is refreshed when the BLS publishes it and the national rate is reviewed each quarter. The date the figures were last set is shown with the cost figure at the top of this page.

My quote is three times the high column.

That may be correct for a whole-house underpinning, a sinkhole, or a job including substantial reinstatement. It is also the range where a second opinion, and an independent engineer, pay for themselves many times over.