How piers go under a concrete slab, what each kind costs, how a job should run from the engineer's visit to the final letter, and why a repaired slab is rarely level.
Checked September 21, 2026 · 20 sources · 8 min read
In Texas, slab foundation repair usually means piers. This page explains the four common kinds of pier, what each costs, how a job should run, and what a finished repair should and should not look like. Every repair price here is an industry estimate, not a Tyler quote.
What happens when a slab is repaired?
A company puts piers, also called piles, under the part of the slab that has dropped. It then uses them as jacking points to lift the concrete back toward where it was, and grout may be pumped in to fill gaps left underneath. How many piers go in, where they go and how deep should come from an engineer’s plan.
Most jobs cover one corner, one side or the whole perimeter. Piers under the inside of the house cost more than piers along the outside edge, so ask where each one goes.
Pressed, drilled, steel or helical: what is the difference?
Four kinds of pier come up again and again in the cost guides we checked. They differ in material and in how they go into the ground, and the price of one pier runs from about $300 to $4,000 depending on the kind. The count matters just as much, so compare whole bids, not single-pier prices.
Common underpinning methods under a slab. Depths vary by site; an engineer or the company's own testing sets them.
Pressed concrete piles are short concrete cylinders stacked one on another and pressed into the ground. Texas contractors price them lowest per pile. National cost guides do not price this method at all.
Drilled concrete piers are holes drilled into the ground and filled with concrete. A bell-bottom pier widens at the base.
Steel push piers are steel pipes pushed down until they reach firm soil. Texas contractors quote less for them than national guides do.
Helical piers are steel shafts with screw plates. They carry the highest per-pier price of the four in the published ranges.
Industry estimates compiled from the sources named in each row, checked September 21, 2026. These are not Tyler prices. No Tyler foundation company publishes its prices, and no government or university dataset of foundation repair costs exists for Tyler or East Texas.
How many piers, and what does the whole job cost?
Published Texas figures run 4 to 10 piers for one corner or wall and 12 to 25 or more for a full side or the whole perimeter, at roughly one pier every 7 feet. A typical pier job totals $5,000 to $25,000 (industry estimate). No Tyler company publishes its prices.
Published averages for pier jobs sit inside that range. One Dallas-area contractor reports about $5,300, a Central Texas contractor about $11,000 for pressed piles, and Olshan $11,950 nationally for 2026. Be wary of a national “average foundation repair” figure. It mixes in every kind of repair, including small crack fixes, so it is not a pier-job average.
Bids can split on the count. One Dallas-area buyer posted two bids for the same house: 37 piers for $21,000 and 13 piers for $5,900. Ask each company to show where every pier goes, and have an engineer’s plan to hold them against. Our cost guide and our comparison of pier methods go deeper.
How a slab job should run, step by step
A well-run slab repair has nine parts: an evaluation, measurements, a written pier plan, a permit where the city requires one, a plumbing test, the lift, filling in, a second plumbing test and a final letter. When you compare bids, ask which of these steps each price includes and who does each one.
An engineer’s evaluation. The ASCE Texas Section guidelines say evaluation and repair design “shall be performed by a professional engineer licensed in the State of Texas.” They are guidelines, not law.
An elevation survey. The engineer measures floor heights across the house to find tilt and deflection. Our foundation inspection page explains the limits engineers use.
A pier plan. A drawing that shows how many piers go where. It is the easiest way to compare two bids.
A permit, where the city requires one. See the box below.
A plumbing test before the lift. A static (hydrostatic) test shows whether the drain lines under the slab already leak. Warranties and repair plans often call for one. Our slab leak repair page covers the test and its cost.
The lift. Jacks set on the new piers raise the low areas.
Filling in. In Texas, grout pumped under a slab (mudjacking) is mainly used to fill gaps after a pier lift. The holes dug for the piers are filled back in.
A second plumbing test. It shows whether the lines leak after the lift.
A final letter. The engineer’s letter after the repair records what was done. One Texas source prices it at $200 to $500. Keep it with the permit, contract and warranty.
Will the floor be level when the job is done?
Probably not perfectly, and no one should promise it. The ASCE Texas Section guidelines say: “It is unlikely that elevation adjustments will result in a level foundation.” They say lifting may be applicable “when floor slopes are excessive.” The realistic target is floor slopes back within the limits engineers use.
The Foundation Performance Association, a Houston professional group, recommends tilt of 1% or less and deflection of no more than L/360. On a 40-foot house, 1% is 4.8 inches from one end to the other. Ask the engineer what numbers the repair should reach, and get the elevation readings from before and after in writing.
What East Texas soil has to do with it
Some of it shrinks and swells. Most of Smith County’s uplands are sandy or loamy soils over clay-enriched subsoils, not Blackland Prairie clays like Houston Black. But the 1993 county soil survey still names shrink-swell as a building-site limit for several soils, including Cuthbert, the county’s most common single soil, and Bowie.
The survey defines shrink-swell as “the shrinking of soil when dry and the swelling when wet” and warns that it “can damage roads, dams, building foundations, and other structures.” In Smith County, the risk varies lot by lot with the subsoil.
The neighboring counties differ. About 63% of Van Zandt County is in soil units whose limits include shrink-swell, mostly rated “high.” Henderson County is split, with sandy soils in the east and shrink-swell soils across about 32% of the county, mostly west-central. Cherokee County’s only published soil survey dates from 1959, so treat its picture as provisional.
Weather moves the moisture. In 2011, Tyler got 25.00 inches of rain, and exceptional drought covered all of Smith County on 11 weekly maps in a row. Our soils guide goes county by county.
Before you hire anyone
Check the company yourself
Texas does not license foundation repair companies. Bills to create a license passed the Senate in 2011 and died in the House, and a second attempt in 2013 also failed (SB 1399, HB 613). So the checks that matter are yours to make. Each takes a few minutes.
Ask who the engineer is. The Texas engineering board says working out why a foundation moved, or recommending how to repair it, is the practice of engineering (Advisory Opinion 43). Get the engineer's name and look up the license on the state roster.
Check the plumber's license. If the job includes a plumbing test or a leak repair, the plumbing has to be done under a licensed plumber. Look the license up with the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners.
Read the warranty before you sign. Get it in writing, see whether it transfers when you sell, and find the clauses that void it. Watering and plumbing conditions are the ones homeowners most often learn about too late.
Ask who pulls the permit. Most cities here charge a permit fee for repairs, and Canton names foundation repair in its fee schedule. Unincorporated county land has no building permit at all. Our permit guide lists each office.
Keep the paperwork. If a job goes wrong, Texas law makes you give the company written notice at least 60 days before you sue under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act (Bus. & Com. Code §17.505). Estimates, contracts, photos and emails are your record.
We pass it to one independent foundation repair company that works in your area. Not a list, and not an auction.
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They call to set up a visit
Most Tyler-area foundation companies advertise a free inspection or estimate. Ask on that first call, so there are no surprises.
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You get a written estimate
It should name the repair method, how many piers and where, who designs the repair, the permit, the warranty and the price. Compare it with our published price ranges.
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You decide
There is no obligation. If you want a second opinion, an independent structural engineer's evaluation usually costs $300 to $800.
Slab repair questions
My home is starting to shift, this is my first home and am trying to figure out how much this is going to cost me?
For a slab pier job, published industry estimates run $5,000 to $25,000, from one corner to the whole perimeter. Where you land depends mostly on how many piers you need and what kind. No Tyler company publishes its prices, so get an engineer’s evaluation or at least a written pier plan, then compare bids against it. Our cost guide lists every range with its source.
When you say price per pier, what do you mean the pier here?
A pier is one support placed under the slab. Pressed piles, drilled piers, steel piers and helical piers are all priced this way, usually as an installed price. The job total is roughly the per-pier price times the number of piers, plus separate items such as the engineer, the permit, the lift and plumbing tests. One Texas engineer’s estimating template lists those items as separate lines, and you can ask for the same.
Just how do you put 80-piers under a slab house?
Eighty would be far above the published counts. Texas contractor figures run 4 to 10 piers for one corner or wall and 12 to 25 or more for a full side or the whole perimeter, at roughly one pier every 7 feet. A count well above that should come with an engineer’s plan that shows where each pier goes and why. If it does not, get a second opinion before you sign.
How long will the repair take?
We found no reliable published figure for how long the work itself takes, so ask each company for a written schedule. The permit adds time of its own. In Tyler, the city says prescreening takes up to two business days once the documents are complete, then about five business days of review for a home. Tyler building permits are valid for six months from the date they are issued.
Sources
Each source was opened and checked on the date shown. If a link has moved, tell us and we will fix it.
Get a written estimate from a local foundation company
Tell us what you are seeing and where the house is. Your request goes to one independent foundation repair company that works in your part of East Texas. Ask them the questions on this page before anyone lifts a shovel.
