How to Repair a Pier and Beam Foundation: Methods & Costs

How to Repair a Pier and Beam Foundation: Methods & Costs

How do you repair a pier and beam foundation? The crew goes under the house, jacks the floors back toward level, and fixes whatever failed — usually shimming or replacing settled piers, sistering rotted joists, or replacing a damaged beam. Most repairs take one to three days, and the house stays standing on temporary supports the whole time. Costs typically range from $1,500 for minor shimming to $10,000 or more for major releveling with pier replacement.

Pier and beam is the classic foundation of older Shreveport neighborhoods — Highland, Cedar Grove, Broadmoor, and parts of South Highlands are full of them. These foundations are easier to repair than slabs because everything is accessible from the crawl space. The trade-off: wood framing and piers need periodic attention in Louisiana’s damp soil.

The short version: pier and beam repair means releveling the house on its piers and fixing the wood or masonry that failed. Shimming handles minor settlement; pier replacement and releveling handle the big stuff. A free crawl space inspection with elevation readings shows exactly which one you need.

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Why Pier and Beam Foundations Are Everywhere in Shreveport

Drive through Highland, Cedar Grove, or the older streets of Broadmoor and you are looking at pier-and-beam country. Before slab-on-grade became the default, most Shreveport homes were built this way: the house sits on a grid of brick or concrete piers, with wooden beams and floor joists spanning between them and a crawl space underneath. It was the practical choice for a region with swampy ground, heavy rain, and flooding.

The design has real advantages. Plumbing and wiring run through the crawl space instead of being buried in concrete, so repairs never require jackhammering a slab. And when something goes wrong, a technician can crawl under and see the entire structure.

The trade-off is maintenance: wood framing near damp soil is vulnerable to rot and termites, old brick piers can crumble, and Caddo Parish’s expansive clay moves piers over the decades. None of that makes it a bad foundation — it makes it a serviceable one. Everything that can fail is reachable, and everything reachable is fixable.

How Pros Diagnose a Pier-and-Beam Foundation

A proper diagnosis has two halves: what the house looks like from above, and what the structure looks like from below. From above, the technician takes elevation readings across the floors with a highly accurate level, mapping exactly where the house has dropped and by how much.

From below, the crawl space inspection checks every part of the support system:

• Piers for cracking, crumbling, leaning, or sinking.
• Beams for rot, sagging between piers, and insect damage.
• Joists for rot at the bearing ends, overspanned runs, and notching from old plumbing work.
• Sill plates where the framing meets the piers, a common moisture-wicking spot.
• The cause — standing water, plumbing leaks, poor drainage, or a missing vapor barrier.

This two-part diagnosis is what the repair plan is built on — and why a phone quote for pier-and-beam work is meaningless. Our article on how long pier and beam repair takes explains what inspection day looks like.

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Method 1: Shimming and Minor Releveling

Shimming is the lightest-touch repair in the pier-and-beam toolkit, and it handles the most common situation: piers that are still solid but the house has settled slightly on top of them. The crew jacks the low section of floor up in small increments and slides steel or composite shims between the top of the pier and the beam, building the gap back up until the floor reads level.

Steel shims are the modern standard — they do not compress, rot, or attract termites like the old wood shims did. Each pier gets shimmed to its own measured height, because settlement is never uniform.

Shimming typically costs $1,500 to $5,000 for a whole-house relevel, depending on the number of piers and how far the house has dropped. It is usually a one- to two-day job. The honest limitation: shimming only works when the piers themselves are sound.

Method 2: Sistering Joists and Repairing Wood

When the inspection finds rotted or damaged joists, the standard fix is sistering: a new joist fastened alongside the damaged one so the new lumber carries the load. It works well here because the joists are fully accessible from the crawl space — no demolition, no opening up floors.

Sistering handles joists with localized rot, usually at the ends where moisture collects. When rot runs through most of a joist, or the beam itself is compromised, the damaged member gets replaced outright. All replacement lumber should be pressure-treated, which resists both rot and the termites that love damp Louisiana crawl spaces.

Per-joist costs typically run $200 to $600 for sistering and $500 to $1,500 for full replacement. Beam sections run higher. Wood repair is often bundled with releveling, since the crew is already under the house with jacks in place. For more on how these wood repairs hold up over time, see our guide to pier and beam foundation lifespan.

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Method 3: Pier Replacement and Adding Piers

Sometimes the piers themselves are the failure. Old brick piers — common in pre-1960s Shreveport homes — can crack, crumble, or lean as mortar deteriorates and clay soil moves beneath them. Concrete block piers fare better but still fail when their footings were poured too shallow or the soil beneath them washed out. A failed pier is not a shimming candidate; it gets replaced.

Replacement means jacking the house off the bad pier, removing it, pouring a proper footing, and setting a new concrete block or poured pier with a steel cap — shimmed to the exact height the elevation map calls for.

The related fix is adding piers where the original builder skimped. Some older homes have joist spans that are simply too long between piers, which causes bouncy floors even when nothing has settled. Adding intermediate piers shortens the spans and stiffens the floor. New piers typically cost $500 to $1,500 each installed.

Full Releveling: How It All Comes Together

Most real-world jobs combine methods: shimming here, new piers there, sistered joists under the bathroom where old plumbing leaked. The sequence: elevation map first, then the crew works section by section — jacking floors gradually, making the structural fixes, shimming to target heights, and re-checking with the level as they go.

Gradual is the key word. A house that has settled over twenty years should not be yanked level in an afternoon — fast lifting cracks drywall, pops tile, and stresses plumbing. Pros lift in stages and let the structure adjust. Here is how the methods compare side by side:

Method	Typical cost range	Timeline	Best for
Shimming / minor releveling	$1,500-$5,000	1-2 days	Mild, even settlement on sound piers
Pier replacement (per pier)	$500-$1,500	Adds 1 day	Cracked, crumbled, or leaning piers
Adding piers (per pier)	$500-$1,500	Adds 1 day	Overspanned joists, bouncy floors
Joist sistering (per joist)	$200-$600	Same day	Localized rot or damage
Full relevel + pier replacement	$3,500-$10,000+	2-3 days	Major settlement with failed piers

After the lift, the crew should hand you updated elevation readings — your proof of what changed. Expect some cosmetic fallout: drywall cracks may open and a few doors might need adjusting. A reputable contractor warns you before starting, not after. Our pier and beam foundation repair services page walks through the full process.

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How Long Repairs Last and How to Maintain Them

Done right, pier-and-beam repairs last for decades. New concrete piers on proper footings, pressure-treated lumber, and steel shims do not have the failure modes of the originals. The weak link in a repaired system is almost never the repair — it is the moisture and soil conditions around it.

Maintenance is mostly about water and wood. Keep gutters clean and downspouts discharging away from the house. Make sure grading slopes away from the foundation so rain does not pond under the crawl space. Fix plumbing leaks fast — a slow drip onto a joist will undo good wood in a few years.

Two more habits pay off. Keep a termite bond with annual inspections — in Louisiana this is standard practice, not optional, because subterranean termites target exactly the wood your repair just replaced. And have the foundation re-checked every few years, or sooner if doors start sticking again.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to repair a pier and beam foundation?

Minor shimming and releveling typically runs $1,500 to $5,000. Full releveling with pier replacement usually lands between $3,500 and $10,000 or more. Individual repairs — sistering a joist ($200 to $600), replacing a pier ($500 to $1,500 each) — get bundled into the total.

Can you live in the house during pier and beam repair?

Yes. The work happens underneath the house in the crawl space, and the structure stays supported on jacks and piers the whole time. It is noisy and there will be equipment around, but nobody has to move out.

How long does pier and beam repair take?

Most jobs take one to three days. Simple shimming is often a one- to two-day job; full releveling with pier replacement and wood repair takes two to three days.

Do I need to replace all my piers?

Almost never. Piers get replaced individually based on condition — cracked, crumbled, leaning, or undersized ones go, sound ones stay.

Why is my pier and beam house sloping?

Usually settled or failed piers, rotted beams or joists, or soil movement under the footings — Louisiana’s expansive clay and poor drainage drive most of it. An elevation survey plus a crawl space inspection pinpoints the cause.

How often should a pier and beam foundation be checked?

Every few years is a good rhythm for Shreveport-area homes, plus a check after any major plumbing leak or extended flooding under the house.

Is pier and beam better than slab in Louisiana?

Each has trade-offs. Pier and beam is easier and cheaper to repair because everything is accessible, and it keeps living space above flood-prone ground. Slabs need less day-to-day maintenance but cost more to fix when they fail.

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Get a Free Pier and Beam Inspection in Shreveport

Sloping floors, bouncy rooms, sticking doors — whatever tipped you off, the next step is the same: an elevation survey and a crawl space inspection that show exactly what is happening under your house. Our free inspection maps the settlement, checks every pier, beam, and joist, and gives you an honest repair plan with real cost ranges.

Call Pelican Foundation Repair at (318) 585-2003, or visit Pelican Foundation Repair to schedule. We repair pier and beam foundations across Shreveport and the surrounding areas — see our service areas list.

Pelican Foundation Repair 6118 Fairfield Ave, Shreveport, LA 71106, USA 318-585-2003 https://foundationrepairshreveport.com/