Pier & Beam Foundation Repair Cost (2026)

If your home was built before about 1960 in San Antonio, Austin, or the towns between, it’s likely pier-and-beam — a wood floor structure resting on beams and piers over a crawlspace, rather than a slab poured on the ground. The good news for your wallet: because the structure is accessible from underneath, repairing it is usually a different, and cheaper, job than slab work. Our corridor-wide cost guide covers slab pricing; this is the pier-and-beam layer.

Why pier-and-beam usually costs less than a slab repair

A slab repair means excavating around the house and driving piers beneath the grade beam — heavy, expensive work. A pier-and-beam repair happens in the crawlspace: a crew adjusts the shims and blocks the floor already rests on, replaces any rotted beam or sill, and adds supports only where original piers have failed. Same goal — a level, stable floor — reached with far less excavation. That’s why a whole-house pier-and-beam re-level often runs in the low-to-mid four figures where a comparable slab job runs five.

What drives the price up

• Rotted beams & sills: wood that’s failed from moisture or termites has to be replaced before anything can be leveled — typically $1,000–$3,500 per section.
• How far it’s settled: a single sagging corner is a section re-level; a whole floor out of plane is a whole-house job. The elevation survey sizes it exactly.
• Crawlspace access: a tight or low crawlspace is slower, harder work — and that’s labor, which is most of the bill.
• Failed original supports: where old cedar posts or dry-stacked piers have given out, new concrete or steel supports go in — priced per support.
• Moisture & drainage: standing water under the house rots wood and feeds movement. A vapor barrier and leak or drainage correction sometimes join the scope so the repair lasts.

Getting your real number

The honest order of operations is the same as for any foundation: measure first, price second. A free Motmot inspection includes the crawlspace, a floor elevation map, and a written scope that lists exactly which beams, supports, and adjustments your house needs — turning the ranges above into a firm number. Pier count and member condition do the pricing; here’s the napkin math behind it, and the calculator gives you a defensible starting figure tonight.