Garland, Texas · Crawl space homes
Pier and Beam Repair in Garland, TX
Free inspections for older Garland homes. No obligation.
If your floors have started to bounce or slope, and your house has a crawl space, this is the right page. A pier and beam house sits above the ground rather than on it. Wooden beams carry the floor, those beams rest on piers, and a crawl space sits underneath. When piers settle or the wood weakens, the floor above sags or slopes. Pier and beam repair resets those supports and replaces whatever has rotted.
Published Dallas Fort Worth range for foundation repair: $3,338-$7,118. What drives the price
- Free inspectionIt costs nothing
- Written findingsMeasured, then put in writing
- Engineer-sealed plansThe engineer's plan goes to the city
- No obligationStopping after the inspection is fine
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This is older-home work. Census figures put about 11.4% of Garland's 84,954 homes before 1960, or roughly one home in nine, from the years when pier and beam was still the normal way to build in Texas. From about 1960 onward, builders here moved to poured slabs.
If your house is from the 1950s or earlier, you're probably in the right place. If it was built later, slab foundation repair is more likely what you need.
What Pier and Beam Repair Involves
The big advantage of pier and beam is access. Someone can get under the house and see the problem directly, which isn't true of a slab.
Crawl space check. Someone goes under the house and looks at every pier, beam and joist. They're looking for settled piers, crushed shims, rot, insect damage and standing water.
Floor height readings. Floor heights are measured through the house, the same as for slab work. This shows how far out of level things have drifted, and where.
Re-shimming or pier replacement. Minor settling is corrected by resetting the shims on the existing piers. Where a pier has dropped badly or its footing has failed, the pier itself is rebuilt or replaced.
Wood replacement. Rotted beams, joists and sill plates are cut out and replaced. There's no point leveling a floor that rests on failing wood.
Fixing the moisture. If the crawl space is holding water, that gets dealt with too. Otherwise the new wood goes the way of the old wood.
Slab and pier and beam foundations, in cross-section
Two simplified cross-sections. A slab foundation is poured straight onto the ground; the soil at its edge dries first and shrinks, while the soil under the middle stays damp longer, and repair piers go down through the clay to stable ground. A pier and beam house sits above the ground: wooden beams carry the floor, the beams rest on piers, and a crawl space sits underneath.
Slab foundation
- Concrete slab poured on the ground
- Edge soil dries first
- Soil under the middle stays damp longer
- Repair piers reach stable ground
Pier and beam foundation
- Floor
- Wooden beams carry the floor
- Beams rest on piers
- Crawl space
Signs of Pier and Beam Trouble
The signs are different from slab signs, which is why the two get separate pages.
- Floors that bounce or feel springy when you walk across them
- A noticeable dip or slope toward the middle of a room
- Gaps opening between the floor and the baseboard
- Doors and windows sticking in older parts of the house
- A musty smell coming from vents or floor registers
- Visible sagging along an outside wall
That musty smell is worth paying attention to. On a slab, you'd suspect plumbing. On pier and beam, it usually means moisture in the crawl space, and moisture is what rots the wood holding your floor up.
Why Garland's Clay Reaches Pier and Beam Too
Houston Black and Ferris clay sit under about half of Garland, and both rate "very high" for shrink and swell. That ground moves whether a slab or a pier sits on it.
The difference is how the movement shows up. A slab is one rigid piece, so it tilts and cracks as a unit. A pier and beam house has many separate supports, and they move on their own. One pier drops while its neighbor holds, and the floor between them goes out of level.
There's good news in that. Because the supports are separate and easy to reach, correcting them is often less invasive than pier work on a slab. The catch is the crawl space, where moisture trapped by the same clay can attack the wood.
Crawl Space Moisture Is the Real Enemy
Heavy clay drains slowly. Water that gets into a crawl space tends to stay, and standing water under a house eventually turns into rot.
The usual causes are:
- Downspouts emptying beside the house instead of away from it. At least three feet of clearance is a good rule.
- Ground that slopes toward the house rather than away from it
- Crawl space vents blocked or buried by flower beds and mulch
- A slow plumbing leak under the floor
Fixing the structure without fixing the water only buys time. Foundation drainage work often belongs in the same job.
What Pier and Beam Repair Costs in Garland
The cost depends on:
- How many piers need resetting or replacing
- How much wood has to come out
- How much room there is in the crawl space, since a tight crawl slows everything down
- Whether fixing the moisture is part of the job
- Whether the work needs a permit
Pier and beam work is often cheaper than similar slab work, because the supports are easy to reach and no concrete has to be broken. Widespread rot can change that quickly.
Questions About Pier and Beam Repair
Is pier and beam worse than a slab?
No, just different. Pier and beam is easier to inspect, easier to reach plumbing under, and often easier to adjust. It's more exposed to moisture and rot.
Do I need a permit for pier and beam work in Garland?
Garland requires a foundation repair permit once the work is worth $2,000 or more, with an engineer's letter and a stamped pier diagram. If you're not sure where your job lands, the Building Inspection office at 972-205-2300 can tell you.
Can I level the floor myself with shims?
Shimming looks simple, but it rarely is. Lifting one point without measuring the whole floor tends to move the problem somewhere else, and it can crack plaster and plumbing. It's best to get the floor heights measured first.
How do I know if the wood is rotted?
Someone has to go under and look. Rot is usually worst at the outer beams and around plumbing, and it's often invisible from inside the house.
Related Services
- Foundation inspection covers the crawl space check and the floor height readings.
- House leveling applies when the whole house needs bringing back to level rather than one section.
- Foundation drainage keeps water out of the crawl space so the repair lasts.
Get a Free Crawl Space Inspection in Garland
Tell us what you're noticing. Someone will go under the house, check the piers and beams, measure the floor, and put the findings in writing. It costs nothing, and there's no obligation.
We work across Garland, Mesquite, Richardson, Rowlett and nearby cities.
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