Crawl space inspection
Someone gets under the house and looks at every pier, beam, joist and shim, along with the ground conditions and any signs of long-term damp.
Pier and Beam Foundation Repair
The 1920s to 1950s houses in Fairmount, Ryan Place and the older streets around them sit on piers and beams with a crawl space underneath. When the floors start to slope or bounce, the good news is that almost everything causing it can be reached and looked at.
- Referral Service
- Slab & Pier and Beam
- Residential & Commercial
Signs That Need Attention
- Floors that dip toward the middle of a room
- A hallway or floor that feels springy when you walk it
- Interior doors swinging open or closed on their own
- Visible gaps where the baseboard meets the floor
- Musty smell or standing water in the crawl space
Pier-and-beam problems are usually a combination: shims that have compressed, a beam that has sagged between supports, piers that have settled into wet ground, and sometimes rot where the wood has stayed damp for years. Each one is fixable, and unlike a slab you can see exactly what you are dealing with before quoting it.
What the Service Includes
Every crawl space is different. The inspection decides which of these the house actually needs, and the quote should list them separately rather than as one lump.
Elevation readings across the floor
The same survey used on slab houses is taken upstairs, so the lift can be planned against numbers instead of feel.
Pier repair or replacement
Original piers that have cracked, leaned or settled are rebuilt or replaced, and new supports are added where beam spans are too long.
Shimming and a controlled lift
The house is raised in small increments across multiple supports, so the structure, plaster and plumbing are not asked to move all at once.
Rotten wood replaced
Sill plates, beams and joist ends that have gone soft are cut out and replaced. Lifting onto rotten timber does not hold.
Crawl space drainage and ventilation
If water sits under the house, that is addressed too, because damp ground under piers is what caused most of the settlement in the first place.
Your Options
Pier-and-beam repair is often more forgiving than slab work: the structure is accessible, the lift can be taken slowly, and you can go back in later to adjust. It is also the reason these houses are still standing a century on. The cost comes down to how many supports need work, how much wood is rotten and how easy it is to move around under the floor.
If your house is on a slab instead, see slab foundation repair. Where the floors need bringing back to level as a whole, read about foundation leveling, and if the crawl space stays wet, drainage correction belongs in the same scope.
Where the work is mostly about the ground, the moisture and the timber rather than the overall level of the house, see crawl space repair. Ask about a foundation inspection, read the common questions or check service in Weatherford, where older pier-and-beam homes are still common near the square.
Pier and Beam Foundation Repair Questions
What affects the cost of pier and beam repair?
How many supports need work, how much timber has to be replaced and how easy the crawl space is to work in. A house with two feet of clearance and a clear hatch is a straightforward job; one with eighteen inches, ductwork in the way and standing water is not. An independent provider should price it after getting under the house and seeing the actual conditions.
Is a sloping floor in an old house always a problem?
No. Many houses from the 1920s and 1930s have settled a little and then stopped, and have been perfectly stable for decades. What matters is whether it is still moving. If the slope has changed in the last year, or doors that used to work have stopped working, that is active. Elevation readings now give you a baseline to compare against next season.
Can I put shims under the beams myself?
Please do not. Crawl spaces have low clearance, live wiring, gas lines and sometimes standing water, and lifting part of a loaded house on a single jack can break plumbing, crack plaster and drop the structure. Looking through the access hatch from outside is fine. Going under it with a bottle jack is not a job for a homeowner.
Can you convert a pier and beam house to a slab?
That is rarely sensible and it is not what these houses need. The crawl space is an advantage: plumbing is reachable, the structure can be adjusted later, and repairs are less disruptive than opening concrete. Repairing the existing system properly almost always makes more sense than replacing the whole foundation type.
Arrange a crawl space inspection
Mention the age of the house and how the crawl space is reached.