Push Piers: How They Lift a Settling Foundation and What They Cost
Updated · By the Roof to Footing editors
Push piers (also called resistance piers) are steel tubes driven deep into the ground beside a settling foundation until they reach bedrock or firm soil. A steel bracket attached to the footing connects the house to the piers, and hydraulic jacks can lift the foundation back toward level. They use the weight of the house itself as the counterforce for driving them, which is why they work best on heavier structures. Cost guides and contractors we checked in October 2026 put push piers at roughly $1,000 to $3,000 per pier installed, and most repairs need several.
How a push pier is installed
- Excavate a small pit at the footing where the pier will go.
- Prepare the footing and attach a heavy steel bracket under it.
- Drive the pier in short sections with a hydraulic ram that pushes against the bracket. The house's weight holds the bracket down while the pier goes into the ground.
- Reach load-bearing strata. The pier is driven until it hits bedrock or soil that resists the drive pressure. That pressure is recorded, which gives a field load test of each pier.
- Lift and lock. Once several piers are in, the foundation can be raised together, as far as the house can tolerate, and the piers are locked in place.
- Backfill the pits.
Interior piers can go through a slab floor where needed.
Push piers vs. helical piers
| Push piers | Helical piers | |
|---|---|---|
| How installed | Driven straight down with hydraulic pressure | Screwed in with torque, like a large screw |
| Counterforce | The weight of the structure | Doesn't need structure weight |
| Best for | Heavy homes with settlement, two-story houses | Light structures, porches, decks, new construction |
| Depth | Driven until firm strata is reached, often deep | Set by torque at a depth where soil is strong enough |
| Load proof | Drive pressure per pier | Installation torque per pier |
Lightweight one-story houses or porches may not have enough weight to drive push piers deep, which is when contractors use helical piers.
Signs you might need piers
- Sloping floors or doors that stick and won't latch
- Stair-step cracks in brick or block, or cracks wider at the top in poured walls
- Gaps between walls and ceilings, or between the chimney and the house
- Cracks that keep growing (see vertical foundation cracks for how to monitor them)
Get a structural engineer's evaluation first. A pier contractor will propose piers; an independent engineer will tell you whether piers are the right fix and how many.
Cost
| Item | Range (national, October 2026) |
|---|---|
| Steel push pier, installed | about $1,000 to $3,000 per pier |
| Number needed | Often 6 to 20 for a full side or house; fewer for a corner |
| Engineering report | a few hundred dollars |
| Permits, landscaping, interior repairs | Extra |
A corner repair with a handful of piers may cost several thousand dollars. A full-house job can exceed $20,000. Ask whether the warranty transfers to the next owner; a transferable lifetime warranty helps at resale. To pay for a large repair, see foundation repair financing.
What piers won't fix
Piers stop settlement. They don't fix a basement wall bowing inward from soil pressure, which needs braces or anchors (see horizontal foundation crack repair), and they don't fix drainage. If water is softening the soil, fix the grading and downspouts too.