Signs
Pier and beam foundation repair
If your house is older, has a wood floor and a crawl space you can see into through skirting or vents, it is a pier and beam house. Its floor is a wooden structure standing on short supports, and it is repaired from underneath.
How the floor is held up
Piers of concrete, masonry or cedar posts stand on the ground or on small footings. Heavy beams span from pier to pier. Joists cross the beams and carry the subfloor. Around the outside, a perimeter beam or a row of piers carries the walls. Thin shims of wood or steel sit between pier and beam to take up the last fraction of height.
Every one of those parts can be reached, adjusted or replaced, which is the great advantage of this kind of foundation. The weakness is that it is wood near damp ground.
Signs under a wood floor
- The floor bounces or rattles the furniture when someone walks across the room.
- A dip you can see along a hallway, or a hump over a beam with low areas either side.
- Soft boards near a tub, toilet, kitchen sink or water heater.
- Gaps opening between the baseboard and the floor.
- Skirting or lattice around the house leaning, buckling or pulling away.
- A musty smell indoors after wet weather.
What usually turns out to be the cause
- Shims that have shifted
- Wood shims compress, rot or fall out as the ground moves through wet and dry seasons. The beam is then resting on fewer piers than intended.
- Piers that tilt or sink
- A pier on a small pad in clay soil leans as the clay swells and shrinks. Old cedar posts decay at ground level.
- Rot from leaks
- A slow drip from a drain or supply line keeps the wood beneath wet for years. Sills, joists and subfloor around bathrooms go first.
- Damp, still air
- Blocked vents, soil piled against the skirting or water running under the house keep the crawl space humid, and humid wood decays.
- Too few supports
- Some older floors were built with long spans and light timbers. They were never stiff, and decades of load have bent them.
- Insects
- Termites and other wood-destroying insects need a pest control company. A foundation company can point out the damage but does not treat it.
What an inspection under the house covers
Someone has to go in. They check each pier for plumb and firm bearing, look for missing or crushed shims, probe beams, sills and joists with a pick for soft wood, look for plumbing drips and standing water, and note how much clearance there is to work in. Upstairs they take floor elevations as they would on a slab.
Clearance matters for the price. A crawl space too low to move in may mean lifting floorboards or digging access.
What repair may involve
The lightest job is re-shimming: jacking each beam gently and resetting shims so the floor bears evenly again. Beyond that, a company may add piers to shorten spans, replace leaning or decayed ones, sister new lumber alongside weak joists, or replace lengths of beam and sill.
Good proposals deal with the moisture as well as the wood, since new timber in a wet crawl space will fail in its turn. That can mean correcting drainage so water does not run under the house and reopening blocked vents.
Questions about pier and beam houses
Is re-shimming a lasting repair?
It lasts as long as the ground and the wood stay as they are. On soil that moves with the seasons, some houses need the shims adjusted again after a few years. Ask what the company's warranty says about adjustments.
Can a pier and beam house be leveled without replacing wood?
If the timber is sound, yes: the supports are adjusted and the wood stays. Rotten or cracked members have to be replaced first, because jacking against them only breaks them further.
When you are ready
Pages can narrow it down. A level and a floor plan settle it.
Whichever side of the escarpment your house stands on, the answer comes from numbers taken on the spot. The firm that makes the visit then sets down on paper what it measured and what a repair would run to.
Sudden shifting, the smell of gas, or a wall that seems about to come down is a different matter: clear the house first, then dial 911 or your gas provider.
Have your New Braunfels house measured
Ring the number and describe the crack, door or floor that worries you. Whoever answers works for a foundation repair firm near New Braunfels, a separate and independent business, and can book a day to inspect.
Call (830) 879-9995Your call may be recorded. The referral disclosure explains who is paid.