A change in what we install

Why we no longer install concrete piers.

Motmot no longer installs concrete-with-rebar piers as a standalone repair. Every pier system we put under a house today is steel or hybrid. This page ranked for concrete piers for years, so rather than quietly delete it, we kept it up to explain the decision.

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The method, explained

What a pressed concrete piling is.

A pressed concrete piling is a stack of precast cylinders, most of them 12 inches tall, pressed into the soil one at a time using the weight of the house as the hydraulic press. A length of rebar through the center ties the stack into a single column. When the stack stops advancing, the crew calls that refusal, sets a cap and blocks, lifts the slab, and locks everything off.

The cylinders are cheap to cast, the pits are compact, and there's no steel pipe to buy, which is why concrete pilings are the least expensive pier repair in Texas and still the most commonly sold one. The low bid is real. So is the limitation that comes with it.

Precast concrete pier section with a steel bracket seated in an excavated pit beside a slab foundation — A concrete pier section seated in the pit on one of our past jobs. Stacked cylinders pressed to resistance, then capped and blocked.

Why we stopped

The depth problem in active clay.

The trouble is what the low price can't buy, and that's depth. Around San Antonio and up the I-35 corridor, the clay that moves foundations often runs 15, 20, sometimes 30 feet deep. A pressed piling usually can't be driven through all of it. Friction builds along the sides of the stack until it stops advancing, and it typically stops inside the same active clay that caused the settlement in the first place, short of the load-bearing strata below.

That refusal point is real resistance, and on the day of the job the pier is tight and the floor is level. The catch shows up years later. A piling standing in active clay rides that clay. If the drainage and moisture around the home aren't kept up, the soil around the piling swells and shrinks with the seasons, and even a properly installed pile pressed to refusal can move, settle, or shift with it. We've re-inspected enough of these repairs over the years to watch that pattern repeat. If you're weighing a concrete pier bid right now, our homeowner's guide to steel vs concrete piers walks these tradeoffs in more detail.

Know your dirt

Branyon clay shows the problem up close.

Across the river-terrace flats of Central Texas the clay is often Branyon, a deep smectitic clay the USDA logs with dry cracks 1 to 3 inches wide reaching 20 inches down or more.

Clay like that moves through a deep profile, not only at the surface. A stack of cylinders pressed to refusal inside it is still standing in soil that swells and shrinks with every wet and dry cycle, which is exactly the condition that lets a concrete repair drift years after the crew leaves.

Read the USDA Branyon series description →

The systems we stand behind

What we install instead.

Steel piers answer the depth problem directly. Each pipe section is driven until it refuses at pressures well above the working load of the house, which in practice means it's bearing on strata that doesn't respond to the weather. Our steel pier installation page walks through the process pier by pier.

Where the inspection supports it, we install hybrid piers, a driven steel starter finished with concrete sections. Concrete is still a good material in that role, because the steel handles the depth and the concrete carries the load nearer the surface. What we discontinued is the concrete-only pressed stack.

The reasoning comes down to fewer recurring cracks and fewer repeat repairs for the homeowner. Piers run $600 to $1,000 each regardless of method, so the savings on concrete were never as large as their reputation, and the lifetime transferable warranty on our piers is unchanged.

After the crew leaves

We re-check completed jobs every year.

Every repair we complete gets a yearly performance follow-up inspection. We shoot the elevations again and compare them against the baseline recorded the day the job closed, so any drift shows up in our measurements before it shows up in your drywall. Re-checking our own work every year is a big part of why we changed methods. When you know you'll be back to measure, you install the system you want to find.

Straight answers

Concrete pier questions, answered straight.

Are concrete piers bad?

No. They're the least expensive pier option, and under a light structure over shallow stable soil they can perform for years. The problem is that most settlement in our area happens in deep active clay, where a pressed stack usually can't reach load-bearing strata. Under the homes that actually need repair, concrete is most often the wrong tool for the depth.

Why did Motmot stop installing concrete piers?

Because the repairs we want to stand behind are the ones that don't come back. A piling pressed to refusal inside active clay can move, settle, or shift over the years if the drainage and moisture around the home slip, and few homes maintain those perfectly for decades. Steel and hybrid piers reach strata below the movement, which means fewer recurring cracks and fewer repeat repairs for the homeowner.

Is steel worth the difference in price?

The difference is smaller than most people expect. Piers run $600 to $1,000 each regardless of method, so you're not choosing between a cheap repair and an expensive one. You're choosing where the pier stops. A pressed concrete stack stops at refusal inside the clay. A steel pier stops on strata that doesn't move with the weather. For similar money per pier, we'd rather give you the depth, and the lifetime transferable warranty on our piers applies either way.

Do you still use concrete at all?

Yes. Our hybrid piers pair a driven steel starter with concrete sections above it, and that combination holds up well because the steel gets the depth and the concrete carries the load nearer the surface. We also pour driveways, patios, and slabs through our concrete flatwork service. What we discontinued is the concrete-only pressed pile as a standalone repair.

What if my house already sits on concrete piers?

We inspect homes with existing concrete pier work at no charge, the same as any inspection. If the piers are holding and the elevations are stable, we'll tell you so and leave it alone. If the company that installed them is gone, our warranty takeover program was built for exactly that situation.

From our past jobs

Pressed concrete pier work from our archive.

These photos come from concrete pier jobs we installed before the change. We keep them here because they show the method the way it actually looks in the field.

Technician tying rebar in a porch slab breakout before pouring back concrete during foundation repair — Tying rebar in a slab breakout at the porch. Steel reinforcement is the backbone of a concrete repair.

Precast concrete piling segments stacked and staged for foundation pier installation — Precast concrete piling segments staged on site before installation.

Cut concrete piling sections stacked on rock spoil beside a stone-veneer garage during foundation repair — Concrete piling sections cut to length at a stone-veneer garage corner.

Pressed concrete pier segments and cap installed beneath a grade beam during foundation leveling — Pressed concrete pier cylinders, block, and cap installed tight under a grade beam.

Brick home with pier holes and spoil along the rear foundation and concrete pilings staged on the lawn — Concrete pier cylinders staged along the rear foundation during a piering job.

Start with a free inspection of what you have now.

We measure first and recommend second. About a third of our inspections end with no repair needed, and when repair is the answer the recommendation will be steel or hybrid, specced to the readings.

Now booking free inspections in Central Texas.

Schedule a Free Inspection (210) 816-0034