Call Brazos Foundation Repair for a free on-site crawl-space inspection – (254) 503-5077
Pier-and-beam repair re-levels a raised wood floor by resetting the supports under it: new shims, rebuilt piers, sistered joists, and new girders where wood has failed. A typical Waco re-level runs $4,500-$12,000 and takes 2-4 days. Because the supports sit in an open crawl space and are built to be adjusted, pier-and-beam is usually cheaper and more forgiving to re-level than a slab on the same Blackland Prairie clay.
Written by the Brazos Foundation Repair team – 10 years repairing foundations in Waco & Central Texas.
Last updated: September 2026
A pier-and-beam foundation is a raised wood floor carried on masonry supports over an open crawl space, normally 18 to 36 inches tall. Five parts carry the load, and each one is a separate point of failure.
Between each pier cap and the girder sits a shim: a tapered wood or steel wedge that fine-tunes height. Shims make this foundation adjustable – and drop it out of level when they crush, rot, or fall out.
Six failure modes account for nearly every sagging floor in Waco’s older neighborhoods. Most homes have two or three at once, and they feed each other – water causes rot, rot causes settlement, settlement lets in more water.
Seeing symptoms upstairs rather than causes below? Start with uneven and sagging floors.
Our free inspection is a documented site evaluation, not a walk-around. A crew member goes into the crawl space with a light and a probe, and we shoot a measured elevation survey across the floor so the sag is a number, not an opinion.
We record elevation readings room to room, the drop from high point to low point, pier count and condition, girder bearing, joist deflection, wood moisture, standing water, blocked vents, insect damage, and plumbing leaks under the house. You get the readings and a measurement-based repair plan in writing. Some lenders or buyers ask for a third-party structural report – we will tell you if that applies.
Free crawl-space inspection – (254) 503-5077
Price follows how many support points need work and whether wood must be replaced. Shimming is cheap; a new girder is not.
| Problem found | What we do | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| Shims crushed or fallen out, pier sound | Re-shim with hardwood or steel, reset bearing | $75-$200 per point |
| Interior pier settled or crumbling | New footing pad, new concrete or block pier | $300-$900 per pier |
| Deep or unstable soil under a support | Pressed-concrete or steel piers to load-bearing strata | $700-$1,200 per pier |
| Joist sagging, split, or over-spanned | Sister a new member full-span and bolt through | $150-$400 per joist |
| Girder rotted, split, or sagging | Replace the beam section, correct the bearing | $600-$2,500 per beam |
| Span too long, floor bouncing | Add interior piers to shorten the span | $400-$1,000 per support |
| Bare, damp crawl-space soil | Vapor barrier, clear and add vents | $1,200-$3,000 |
| Water standing under the house | Grading, crawl-space drainage, French drain outlet | $1,500-$6,000 |
| Whole-home re-level | Full lift sequence across all supports | $4,500-$12,000 |
Disclaimer: figures are typical Central Texas market ranges. Your exact price is set after a free on-site inspection.
Compare methods on our foundation repair cost page for Waco. Financing is available.
Most jobs run 2-4 days. Here is the sequence.
Doors and windows usually free up within a day or two. Hairline plaster cracks often close partially; finish work is separate.
Because the supports are reachable and adjustable. Slab repair means digging access holes, tunneling under the house, and driving piers to load-bearing strata before anything lifts. A pier-and-beam crew walks into the crawl space and jacks straight against the girder.
| Pier-and-beam | Slab-on-grade | |
|---|---|---|
| Access to supports | Direct, from the crawl space | Excavation or tunneling |
| Typical whole-home cost | $4,500-$12,000 | $8,000-$25,000+ |
| Future adjustment | Re-shim, often in a day | New piers, full mobilization |
| Plumbing repairs | Visible and reachable | Tunnel or break concrete |
| Main enemy | Moisture, wood rot | Clay shrink-swell |
The trade-off is maintenance: wood needs a dry crawl space. For slab methods see foundation repair in Waco, TX; for whole-structure lifts see house leveling.
Broadly, anything built before the mid-1950s: Waco’s historic and near-downtown neighborhoods, the older streets around Baylor, the early-century bungalow and craftsman blocks near the Brazos River, and farmhouses out toward China Spring, Lorena, and McGregor.
They all sit on the expansive clay the USDA NRCS soil survey maps across McLennan County. Its active zone in Central Texas commonly runs 8 to 15 feet deep, and it moves most under the interior piers, where footing pads are shallowest.
Can you fix a sagging floor without replacing the flooring? Usually yes. Re-leveling the supports corrects most sagging. Finish flooring is only replaced when it is water-damaged or rotted through.
How level can an older pier-and-beam home actually get? We lift back toward level, not to dead flat. Forcing an 80-year-old frame to perfect level cracks plaster and breaks tile.
Do you replace all the piers or just the failed ones? Just the failed ones, plus any support the measurements show is overloaded. Sound piers get re-shimmed. The plan lists every point.
Is a vapor barrier really necessary in Waco? On bare crawl-space soil, yes. A sealed barrier plus open vents cuts the humidity that rots girders and draws termites.
Will the repair stop the movement from coming back? It stabilizes the supports we set and stops the movement caused by failed piers and crushed shims. Clay keeps moving, so drainage control extends the interval.
Does homeowners insurance pay for pier-and-beam repair? Usually not. Soil movement, settlement, and rot are standard exclusions in Texas. Coverage varies – read your policy.
Why does my floor sag toward the middle of the house? Interior piers sit on shallow pads and drop faster than the perimeter beam when clay dries out. Crawl-space damp weakens the girders at the same time.
Call Brazos Foundation Repair – (254) 503-5077 – for a free on-site crawl-space inspection in Waco, Woodway, Hewitt, Robinson, and Temple.
Pair the repair with drainage solutions in Waco to keep the crawl space dry.
Disclaimer: figures are typical Central Texas market ranges. Your exact price is set after a free on-site inspection. Texas does not license foundation repair contractors at the state level – ask any contractor for written measurements before you sign.