Leveling a house means installing support below the soil that is moving, then raising the structure back toward its original elevation as far as it will safely go.
Driven, bored, or turned — which support suits this house?
All three reach competent ground below the zone where clay swells and shrinks. What differs is how they get there and what the house has to give up while they do. Pressed piles use the weight of the house itself as the reaction load and reach refusal the same day, which is why they are the common answer under a full-weight slab. Drilled piers are bored to a designed depth and poured, which means cure time before anything bears and a great deal of spoil leaving the site. Helical piers are turned in with a torque motor and suit light structures, additions and porches where there is not enough weight overhead to press anything. The question to ask any firm quoting one of them is why that one for this house. If the answer is about the house — its weight, its access, the depth to competent ground — it is a real answer. If it is about the equipment they own, it is not.
That choice has a page of its own: Pressed Piles vs Drilled Piers in Houston, TX.
What decides pier depth under a Houston house
The shallowest mapped water table under Houston sits at about 4.7 inches. Up to 51% of the soil is clay. Both numbers land in one place on a quote: depth. A pier has to reach past the layer that moves and bear on something that does not, and neither depth is fixed across a street. That is why depth is measured during installation rather than promised in advance.
The jobs this covers, and what each one costs to get wrong
Pressed Pile Installation
Concrete or steel cylinders driven one on top of another under the foundation using the weight of the house itself, until they reach refusal. It is the common answer under a settled slab in clay, because it needs no curing time and the house is the reaction load.
What moves the price. Pile count and depth to refusal, which varies street to street. Interior piles cost more than perimeter ones because the floor has to be opened and closed. Access for spoil around a tight side yard moves it too.
When Pressed Pile Installation is the wrong answer. If the slab has heaved rather than settled, adding support under the high side makes it worse. Lifting and supporting are different responses to opposite movements, and the survey is what separates them.
Drilled Pier Installation
Holes bored below the active clay zone and filled with reinforced concrete, sometimes belled at the base for bearing. It is used where the design calls for bearing at a known depth rather than at refusal, and on new or heavily loaded structures.
What moves the price. Depth, diameter and spoil. Boring through stiff clay generates a great deal of material that has to leave the site. Cure time adds days that pressed piles do not, and access for a drill rig rules some sites out entirely.
When Drilled Pier Installation is the wrong answer. On a typical single-story slab with room to work, pressed piles usually reach the same result faster and with less disruption. Ask why the drilled option is being specified for your house.
Helical Pier Installation
Steel shafts with helical plates turned into the ground with a torque motor, with installation torque read as a proxy for capacity. It suits light structures, additions and porches, and sites where there is not enough building weight overhead to press a pile.
What moves the price. Shaft count, torque reached and headroom. Confined access under a porch or inside a crawl space slows everything. Deeper competent ground means more extensions per shaft.
When Helical Pier Installation is the wrong answer. Under a full-weight house in deep clay, a pressed pile is usually the cheaper route to the same support. Helicals earn their place where the load is light or the reaction is missing.
Get an estimate in Houston
None of this can be priced from a description. Three things decide it. What the ground does with water. How much fall the site has. Where the water may go at the end. All three are facts about an address, and none of them show up in a photograph. Send the address and what you are seeing. Someone who does this work in Houston takes it from there. If it turns out to be a cheaper job than the one you came here for, that is worth hearing before anyone digs.
Houston Foundation Repair Co services.
Read what a Houston foundation repair job costs before calling anyone, and check the Houston Foundation Repair Co service area to see whether your street is covered.
Back to Houston Foundation Repair Co.
The ground under Houston
Questions people actually ask
Can a house be lifted all the way back to level?
Rarely, and attempting it can do more harm than the settlement did. Plumbing, brick and drywall have all set in the moved position, so the aim is usually to recover most of the movement and stabilize it.
How many piers does a house need?
It is set by where the movement is and what carries load above it, not by the size of the house. A survey showing the shape of the movement is what a pier count is built from.
How deep do piers go here?
Deep enough to bear below the layer that swells and shrinks with the weather, which varies street to street. Depth to refusal is measured during installation rather than assumed beforehand.
Will the work damage the inside of the house?
Perimeter work happens outside. Interior piers mean opening and closing the floor at each location, which is why they cost more per pier and why a quote should say how many of each it includes.
Does lifting a house break the plumbing?
It can, because the pipes have settled with the slab. A post-lift plumbing test is worth asking about before the work rather than after, and any firm that has done this before will expect the question.
Trusted across Houston, Texas and Harris County
What this site is good for
-
Residential and commercial
A house with a wet basement and a site with standing water on a hardstanding are different jobs at different scales. Both are covered, and the pages say which is which.
-
Free, and nothing attached
Working out which job you actually have costs nothing and commits you to nothing. There is no fee to you at any point, because this site is paid by the contractor and not by you.
-
Your details are not for sale
An address sent here goes to a foundation repair contractor working in the area. It is never sold, and never passed to a second firm.
-
Permits named, not glossed
The pages name the authority that issues the permit for this work and the inspection that goes with it, so you can ask to see one before the first cut.
-
Every figure sourced and dated
Soil, rainfall and housing figures each name where they came from and when they were retrieved. Where a published estimate carries a margin of error, the margin is shown too.
-
One town, covered properly
This site is about one place and the towns within a short drive of it. It is not a national directory with a city name dropped into a template.
-
An open pier cut past the slab edge. How deep it has to go is decided by the ground, not by the house. -
The lift itself, read off a dial indicator. Deciding where to lift is the part that takes the measuring.
Ground that is saturated has nowhere to put the next storm, and water sitting against a wall keeps working on it.
What happens after you send an address
-
The address first, and only then who you are
The first screen asks for the property address and checks that a contractor covers it. Only if one does does it ask for a name, a phone number and an email — there is no point taking your details to tell you nobody serves your street.
-
Your details are not for sale
It goes to a foundation repair contractor working in Houston. The details are never sold, and never passed to a second firm.
-
No cost, and nothing attached
There is no fee for sending an address and no obligation that follows from it. Deciding the work is the wrong work is a perfectly good outcome.
-
Who does the work
An independent foundation repair contractor, not the publisher of this site. Who runs this site, and where every figure on it comes from, is set out on the about page.