What foundation settlement repair costs
Most homeowners pay $5,000 – $14,000 to underpin one settled corner and $10,000 – $30,000 for one full side of the house. Full perimeter underpinning reaches $25,000 – $60,000. Almost all of that variation is pier count: a push pier costs $1,250 – $2,400 installed, a helical pier $1,400 – $3,100, and the rest of the job is a comparatively small share of the bill.
That makes settlement one of the more predictable repairs to price, once two numbers are settled: how many piers, and how deep. Pier count comes from the length of affected footing and the spacing an engineer specifies, usually 6 to 8 feet. Depth comes from your soil — piers are driven until they reach a stratum that will carry the load, which can be 12 feet in one county and 40 in the next. Depth is the reason two houses on the same street get different per-pier prices.
One caution about quoted totals: most pier bids stop at structural stabilization. Drywall, trim, sticking doors and paint come afterward at $1,000 – $5,000, and concrete or landscaping restoration is usually a separate line as well. Ask what the number includes before comparing two of them.
Settlement repair cost by line item
| Line item | Typical range | Unit | What drives it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Push pier (resistance pier) | $1,250 – $2,400 | per pier | Depth to load-bearing soil; house weight drives them |
| Helical pier | $1,400 – $3,100 | per pier | Screwed in; used where the house is too light to push against |
| Structural engineer report | $450 – $600 | per visit | Sets pier count and spacing independently |
| Permit and inspection | $75 – $400 | per job | Underpinning is permitted work almost everywhere |
| Slab jacking (interior floor) | $700 – $2,100 | per section | Lifting a dropped interior slab panel |
| Floor slab crack repair | $500 – $1,600 | per crack | Flooring removal and replacement |
| Crack injection after stabilizing | $350 – $900 | per crack | Sealing wall cracks once movement has stopped |
| Cosmetic restoration | $1,000 – $5,000 | per house | Drywall, trim, doors, paint — usually excluded from bids |
| Drainage and grading correction | $100 – $600 | per project | Addresses the erosion that caused the settling |
| Interior drain tile + sump | $2,300 – $7,500 | per basement | When water under the footing is the cause |
Source: Compiled from published 2025–2026 foundation contractor cost datasets and pier manufacturer installer pricing, normalized to installed cost including labor, excavation and backfill at the pier location. Per-pier figures assume typical residential depths of 12–25 ft. · Last reviewed July 30, 2026 · Reference data · How we compile these figures
Push piers use the weight of the house as the reaction force, which makes them the standard choice for a two-story home with a heavy footing. Helical piers screw into the soil under their own torque, so they work under lighter structures — porches, additions, single-story slab homes — where there is too little weight to push against. A bid that uses one type throughout a mixed structure is worth a question.
Cost by how much of the house has settled
| What has moved | Typical cost | Scope | What you are paying for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Settlement that stopped years ago | $1,000 – $5,000 | cosmetic only | Patch, tape and paint. The structure needs nothing |
| Interior floor slab dropped | $700 – $2,100 | per section | Slab jacking; the footing itself is fine |
| One settled corner | $5,000 – $14,000 | 4–6 piers | The most common underpinning job |
| One full side of the house | $10,000 – $30,000 | 8–12 piers | Pier count scales with the length of footing |
| Full perimeter underpinning | $25,000 – $60,000 | 20–30+ piers | Whole-house movement, usually expansive clay |
Source: Extent categories reflect the scopes most commonly bid in residential underpinning; pier counts assume 6–8 ft spacing per typical engineering practice. Costs use the same installed-cost dataset. Your engineer's spacing specification governs the actual count. · Last reviewed July 30, 2026 · Reference data · How we compile these figures
The top row is the one worth studying. A house that settled during its first decade and has held steady ever since carries cracked drywall and a sloping floor as history rather than as an active problem, and the correct spend is cosmetic.
The second row catches people out for the opposite reason. A dropped interior floor slab looks alarming — a visible step in the concrete, a gap under the baseboard — while the footing carrying the house is doing fine. Interior slabs float on the soil independently of the perimeter, so lifting one back at $700 – $2,100 a section is a concrete repair rather than an underpinning job. A quote that answers a sunken interior slab with perimeter piers is worth a second opinion before it is worth a signature.
Before you price anything: is it still moving?
Settlement that has stopped needs no piers. Confirming that costs nothing and takes one season, and it is the single biggest money-saver on this site. Do the measuring yourself:
- Mark the cracks. Pencil a line across each end and write the date beside it. A crack that grows past its mark is active.
- Measure the width. A crack gauge costs a few dollars; a business card edge works. Record the widest point.
- Photograph the floor slope. Set a 4-foot level on the floor with a tape in frame, same spot each time.
- Check doors and windows. Note which stick, and in which season. Some doors bind in humid summers and free up in winter, which is wood behaving like wood.
- Repeat across a full wet-and-dry cycle. Clay moves seasonally, so a single reading in August tells you very little.
Stable readings across a year mean the money belongs in drywall and paint at $1,000 – $5,000, and you have dated photographs to show the next buyer's inspector. Growing readings mean underpinning is genuinely warranted, and you will buy it knowing why rather than because a free inspection told you to.
Fixing the settlement and fixing the cause are two jobs
Soil stops carrying the load for a reason: erosion from a downspout discharging at the footing, a leaking supply or drain line washing fines out from under the concrete, expansive clay shrinking through a drought, organic fill decomposing, or consolidation under a house that is still young.
Piers transfer the load past that soil to something stable, which is a real and permanent solution for the piered section. What piers leave alone is the process itself. If a downspout is still eroding soil at the corner, the next unpiered section becomes the next quote. Budget $100 – $600 for drainage and grading correction alongside any underpinning job, and considerably more if a plumbing leak turns out to be the culprit — a camera inspection of the sewer line is a reasonable $250 – $600 to spend before signing a pier contract.
Buy the engineer's report before the pier bids
At $450 – $600, an independent structural engineer is the highest-leverage money in this category. The report states how many piers, at what spacing, and to what depth — and because the engineer sells no piers, that count is the honest one. Handing the same specification to three contractors turns three incomparable proposals into three prices for identical work, which is the only way bidding actually saves you money.
It also protects the resale conversation. A stamped report plus a receipted repair reads very differently to a buyer's inspector than a contractor's brochure and a warranty certificate.
Related reading: foundation repair cost for the whole-house picture, signs of foundation problems for reading the symptoms, types of foundation cracks, will homeowners insurance cover foundation repair, and the cost calculator for a range built around your affected length.