Slab & pier-and-beam · Lifetime transferable warranty
House leveling, measured in tenths of an inch — not eyeballed.
A floor that slopes, doors that rack, a corner that dropped after the drought — leveling brings the house back toward the elevation it was built at, and the piers underneath make it stay. Every lift here starts and ends with the same instrument: the elevation map.
The honest version
“Level” is a measurement, and sometimes a judgment call.
No house in Central Texas is dead-level — slabs are built to a tolerance, and decades on expansive clay move everything some amount. What matters is differential elevation: one corner two inches below the rest is a structural problem; a quarter-inch drift across forty feet is a Tuesday. Our inspection maps your floor in a grid of readings, so the leveling conversation starts from numbers — how far, which direction, still moving or done — instead of from a salesman's wince. If the map says your slope is cosmetic, we'll tell you that, free, in writing.
When the readings do justify a lift, the goal is the house's own original plane — recovered carefully, in stages, with the map re-checked between every stage. Doors that stuck start latching mid-job; it's the most satisfying afternoon in this trade.
How a lift actually runs
Five steps, each one documented.
Elevation survey
A grid of floor readings across the whole house establishes how far each area sits from the original plane — the before picture, in tenths of an inch.
Pier plan
Piers are marked where the readings demand support — typically every 6 feet along the affected run, with corners getting priority. The plan and per-pier price are the quote; here's the napkin math behind an honest pier count.
Support installation
Steel, concrete, or hybrid piers go in beneath the grade beam — driven or pressed until the soil proves it's carrying the load. For pier-and-beam homes, this step happens in the crawlspace instead: beams, sills, and blocks.
The staged lift
Hydraulic rams at each pier raise the settled section in small increments. Between stages we re-shoot elevations — lifting to the map, not to the eye.
The after map
You get the final elevation survey alongside the original: the same grid, re-measured, showing what was recovered. That document follows the house — buyers and inspectors take it seriously.
Two kinds of houses
Slab leveling and pier-and-beam leveling are different jobs.
A slab gets leveled from outside (and occasionally through it): piers beneath the grade beam, rams, a staged lift. A pier-and-beam house gets leveled from underneath — in the crawlspace, by adjusting the beams, sills, and blocks the floor actually rests on. The crawlspace version is usually faster and friendlier to the budget, and it's the right scope for most pre-1960s homes from Monte Vista to Hyde Park.
The trap to avoid: a slab-style perimeter pier quote for a house whose real problem is a sagging beam. It happens constantly, and it can be a five-figure answer to a four-figure question. Our inspection includes the crawl — the quote matches the foundation you actually have. Full details on the crawlspace side live on our pier & beam foundation repair page.
What holds the lift
The piers underneath decide whether it lasts.
A lift is only as permanent as what's bearing the load. The method comes from the soil and the readings — here's how to compare them honestly.
Money, plainly
What leveling costs, before anyone visits.
Leveling is priced by the piers that make it permanent: a settled corner (4–6 piers) typically runs $3,000–$9,000, a full side $6,000–$22,000, and crawlspace-level pier-and-beam adjustments frequently come in under slab-pier money entirely. Catching movement early is the single biggest cost lever — a two-pier corner today beats a ten-pier run after three more droughts. The cost guide walks the full math, and the calculator gives you a defensible starting number tonight.
Straight answers
House leveling questions, answered straight.
From real jobs and inspections
Leveling work, measured end to end.
Find out what your floors are actually doing.
Free elevation survey, written readings, and a straight answer — level it, monitor it, or leave it alone.