Pier & Beam Foundation Repair & Leveling

Soft spots, sloping floors and doors that won't close - fixed from underneath, by people who lift houses for a living.

The Good News About Pier & Beam Houses

If your house sits up off the ground on piers with a crawlspace underneath, you've got something going for you: we can get under it. That makes most pier & beam problems very fixable - usually without tearing up the inside of your house.

A lot of older homes around Galveston, Houston and the Gulf Coast are built this way. They've had decades of humidity, salt air, clay that swells and shrinks, and the occasional flood. Wood gets tired. Piers sink or lean. Somebody "fixed" it years ago with a stack of shims.

We come from four generations of lifting and moving houses. Pier & beam work is right in our wheelhouse - and we'll tell you honestly whether you need a few piers reset or something bigger.

Joe Matyiko Jr.
Owner · Fourth-generation house mover · (409) 750-3448

Leveling a pier and beam house with hydraulic jacks and new supports

Warning Signs

Is Your Pier & Beam House Telling You Something?

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Bouncy or Soft Floors

Floors that give when you walk usually mean the floor joists, sills or beams underneath are weak, rotted or poorly supported.

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Sloping Floors

A marble that rolls across the room, or furniture that leans, means piers have settled or shifted.

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Doors & Windows That Stick

When the frame racks out of square, doors drag and windows bind.

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Gaps & Cracks

Gaps at the baseboards, cracks over doorways, or trim pulling away from the walls.

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Leaning or Crumbling Piers

Piers that lean, crack or sit on loose blocks, or a pile of shims doing all the work.

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Moisture & Rot

Standing water or damp soil in the crawlspace, soft wood, or termite damage on the sills.

Why It Happens

Gulf Coast Clay Works Like an Accordion

Our soil has a lot of clay in it. When it gets wet it swells; when it dries out it shrinks. Every season it pushes and pulls on whatever is sitting on it.

Clay also doesn't soak water up like sandy dirt does - rain runs off it and pools, so water sits around and under the house. Add salt air, humidity and the occasional flood, and wood piers, sills and beams take a beating.

That's why we don't just jack a house up and stuff more shims under it. If the cause is drainage, rot or a weak support, fixing the floor without fixing that is money you'll spend again in a few years.

What we check:

Drainage and grading around the house.
The soil and moisture in the crawlspace.
Every pier for settlement, lean and cracking.
Sills, beams and joists for rot, sag and termite damage.
How far out of level the floors are, measured - not guessed.

How We Fix It

Reset or add piers. Settled piers get reset on solid footing, and new piers go in where the spans are too long.
Replace rotted sills and beams. Bad wood comes out. Where it makes sense we replace it with new lumber or steel so it stays straight.
Level the whole house together. We use a unified hydraulic jacking system - every jack gets the same amount of oil at the same time - so the house rises evenly instead of being cranked up one corner at a time.
Permanent support. Once it is level, it gets proper permanent support - not a stack of loose shims that will settle again.
Raise it, if you want to. Already working under the house? Many owners use the chance to raise the house higher above flood levels.

Temporary shoring under a pier and beam house while beams and piers are replaced

Lifting vs. Leveling

Do I Need a Lift or Just a Level?

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Leveling

Brings the house back to level where it sits now. It fixes the parts that sagged or settled. This is the right call for most sloping-floor problems.

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Lifting / Elevation

Raises the whole house to a new height on a new or taller foundation - usually for flood protection or more room underneath.

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Both at Once

If the house needs leveling and you want it higher anyway, doing both together usually saves you from paying for the setup twice.

Pier & Beam Questions

It will usually close them up and stop them from getting worse. Some cosmetic touch-up may still be needed afterward.

For pier & beam leveling, almost never. We work from underneath and outside.

Usually not. Leveling is done slowly and evenly. We will let you know if anything fragile should come down.

In most cases, yes. We support the house, take out the bad wood from underneath and put the new support in.

Yes, our warranty transfers if you sell the house. We will spell out exactly what it covers in writing.

Now. Leveling early is usually far less expensive than waiting until the damage needs a full foundation replacement.

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Related Services & Guides

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Schedule a Free Pier & Beam Inspection

Tell us what you are noticing - bouncy floors, sticking doors, a leaning pier - and we will come take a look.

📞 (409) 750-3448