You’ve got some foundation issues with your crawl space home, and it needs repair. How hard can this be to fix on your own? Seems like pretty simple stuff, and you’re a smart person. But seriously, can someone realistically do foundation repair or house leveling on their own crawl space home? Can you DIY this job??
I can appreciate your resourceful and determined spirit on this. I have had the same inclinations on my own crawl space home in the past and get where you’re comin’ from.
At Anchor Foundation Repair, we don’t fix things that don’t need fixin’, and we don’t try to sell you stuff you don’t need. After 40+ years in business, that’s what’s best for our Brazos Valley community and for exceptional homeowners like you. We’re here to help guide you through the foundation repair process, but you’re the one in charge.
If that means you want to try handling house leveling yourself, we’re not gonna stop you, and we’ll even give you some advice here.
In this article, we talk about whether a homeowner with some know-how can tackle their own crawl space foundation repairs. We cover what you can expect as far as materials and equipment needs, expected cost savings, and project timelines. To be fair, we’ll also review what could go wrong and why paying a pro might be beneficial.
Can You DIY Your Crawl Space Foundation Repairs?
Do I (a foundation repair contractor) think you (a regular homeowner) can handle some crawl space repairs? The answer might surprise you because I say YES. If you’re a handy person who knows their way around some standard power tools and construction principles, then yes, you could probably take a stab at your own crawl space or pier and beam foundation repairs.
If you have the courage, willingness, and time (especially the time), then I think DIY house leveling is doable.
It’s *a lot more doable* if you have decent clearance in your crawl space, and it’s easy for you to get under there with adequate space to do the work.
What Tools Are Needed for Crawl Space Repairs?
So what kind of tools do you need for a house leveling project? It’s mostly standard items that typical homeowners have on hand (though you might not have enough if multiples are needed). There are a few specialty tools needed for DIY crawl space repairs that you likely have to purchase. You likely don’t have everything on hand in the quantities needed.
- Small shovels for dirt excavation,
- Smaller levels for installing pier bases,
- Bigger levels for the raising and leveling process,
- Various saws and drills for use underneath and outside the home, and
- Most importantly, 12 to 20 or so 12-ton hydraulic bottle jacks for supporting and lifting the home during the repair process (cost $50 to $60 apiece).
When it comes to tools and DIY projects, you should take into account how many *new* tools you need to buy for the project. Often, folks will calculate their DIY cost savings based ONLY on the labor cost savings and fail to include the cost of any new tools purchased just for this job.
Keep in mind that you then also have to store those tools after project completion. Do you have room for more stuff? Will you also need to buy a shelving unit for your garage to store any new items? Just things to think about as you consider taking on a DIY project like this . . .
Materials to Buy for Crawl Space Foundation Work
Most of the materials you need for crawl space foundation repairs are readily available at your typical big box hardware store or lumber yard. You will need materials like:
- Pressure-treated pine sill beams from 8 to 16 feet long,
- Floor joist boards from 8 to 12 feet in length,
- A variety of concrete bases, blocks, and pads (for piers),
- And a bunch of shims.
We use cedar shingles for all our crawl space shim work, but we have to get those from a real lumberyard. They are not your typical stock items at the local BCS big box stores that we are aware of, anyway (or they might only be available by special order).
I would like to add that it’s important to use the right materials and not just *random junk* (like in the main image at the top of this article) to support your home. It’s funny what we find under homes that have been repaired DIY style, and no shocker that the makeshift materials and subpar repairs failed.
How Much Money Can I Save Doing My Own Foundation Repair?
Crawl space foundation repair is labor intensive. Labor costs are the largest component of any professional crawl space repair project. Since manpower accounts for around 60-70% of the total house leveling bill, your savings are significant if you choose the DIY route.
The average cost for a house leveling project completed by a foundation repair company (and doesn’t involve subfloor replacement), you’re probably looking at a total cost of around $9,000 to $13,000. If we back out the 60-70% labor costs, then your out-of-pocket amount for materials would be around $3,500 to $4,000.
You might have to add to your expenses if you spend money on needed equipment that you don’t have on hand (a professional already has what is needed, so that doesn’t play into your savings).
Therefore, doing your crawl space foundation repairs on your own could save you somewhere between $5,000 and $9,000 in labor costs. Remember, you will bite into those savings somewhat if you purchase any equipment. I will be the first to admit that it is a pretty big saving if you can manage to do it yourself.
How Long Would DIY House Leveling Take?
As established in the previous section, you will save some money by taking the DIY route, but you will most certainly not save any time. It could take you twice as long to get this done if you have never done it before. Even if it doesn’t take two times as long, I promise you it will take you significantly longer to tackle a project like this on your own compared to a professional crew.
Let’s again compare a contractor-completed project to what you can accomplish on your own.
A typical crawl space project for us takes 4 days to complete. Using a 5-man crew of highly trained and experienced individuals, that amounts to 160 to 200 man hours for the job. Remember, we need to double your time due to inexperience, so that could be up to 320 to 400 hours for you.
How many evenings and weekends would you need to reach anywhere between 160 to 400 hours of work on your own?
To be realistic, you’re going to need help from others. How many competent buddies do you have ready to spend the next XX weekends crawling around under your home with you? Not only should your friends be mentally capable, but physical fitness is a factor as well. Lifting beams, dragging them through a crawlspace on your stomach, and crawling in low-clearance spaces is quite physically demanding.
Ideally, you would need people serving in these roles:
- Someone inside who is smart and is not afraid to be inside a home as it’s moving,
- Someone who knows how to use a tape measure and circular saw without supervision,
- Several people under the home that are okay with dirt and potential pests/gross things,
- And then don’t forget yourself, working and serving in a leadership role, making sure everyone else knows what they’re supposed to be doing.
Whaddaya think? Can you still do it? How many friends do you have to help, and are they going to help for free? Plan to add either the cost of paying them or the cost of beer, pizza, and countless other takeout meals to your bill as well.
Steps In the Crawl Space Repair Process
Ok, you’ve got your soon-to-be ex-friends lined up . . . now here’s how the process works. This is distilled down from the 4 steps we go through for a typical crawl space repair project:
Crawl Space Leveling Process: The Easy Peasy, Simple & Fun Guide
No party hats are needed—just solid foundation work! Here’s how it should all go down:
- Prep & Purchase – Acquire gear, check out the house, take measurements for needed lumber, go buy a bunch of stuff, and protect your space. Don’t forget to get all your friends to arrive on the same day/time.
- Repair & Replace – Swap out all damaged or rotted wood, supporting the home properly during the switch, fix/add piers in the correct locations, and prep for lifting.
- Raise & Level – Starting at the lowest point of the home, slowly jack the house up, and shim it in place to get doors, floors, and walls back into their original positions.
- Clean-Up – Haul away debris, tidy up, and put everything back where it goes.
Your house might not be perfectly level, but that is not what you should be going for anyway. The goal is to close up cracks, get doors working properly, and bring any misalignments caused by settlement and material failure back to proper elevation. It may or may not be as solid, stable, or functioning as well as if Anchor did it for you. But by golly, you did it yourself!
What Could Go Wrong During the DIY Crawl Space Repair?
I’m honestly trying to root for you on this project, but to be fair, let’s cover a few things that could go wrong if you don’t *quite* know what you’re doing. You could unintentionally:
- Lift the house too much and create new problems,
- Put support in the wrong spots, setting yourself up for future issues,
- Not give enough support where it’s really needed,
- Leave some of your foundation issues unaddressed,
- Need to re-shim more often because the repair doesn’t last, and
- End up with the same problem again and need a pro to fix it right.
Then you’re out *a lot of time* and money, which can be frustrating when you thought you were saving and wind up having to call someone else in any way and pay again for materials.
The basic-looking appearance of a crawl space foundation seems rudimentary, and folks are misled by its apparent simplicity. Crawl space homes are actually complex interwoven structures with many connection (and potential failure) points. If one small part of the foundation is *off* it has a cascading impact on the rest of the home.
On a positive note, even if you do some stuff poorly or wrong, it’s virtually impossible to break your house entirely unless you do something extra unintelligent or inadvisable. Lucky for you, the interwoven nature of crawl space foundations also makes them resilient to stressors.
What A Pro Knows About Crawl Space Repairs That You Don’t
In the last section, we were talking about how crawl space foundations seem super simple (it’s blocks and sticks, right?), and by the same token, so do crawl space repairs. But here’s what professionals know about house leveling that you don’t:
- It’s Very Hard, Unpleasant Work – Lying on your belly in a cramped space with no elbow room, trying to lift some heavy piece of timber into place. Digging in hard, dry, expansive clay soil. Army crawling through dirt, bugs, and other gross stuff under homes. Add in massively humid Texas weather and . . . I could go on . . .
- You Find More *Surprise* Issues During the Process – You start out thinking that it’s just putting in some new wood and a few CMUs, and then you *discover* any number of other problems: termites, mold, drainage issues, plumbing leaks, or major subfloor damage. You might also discover that you hate doing this work and have an allergy to sweat. You can quickly find yourself in over your head and stuck in the middle of the job.
- Experience is a Massive Time-Saver – Awkwardly stumbling through a process with friends who *might not* have your same work ethic, care, and dedication can make things drag on and become frustrating. A well-honed team that enjoys the work and each other’s company can knock these projects out fast. Troubleshooting unexpected issues is easy because they’ve encountered them before.
- Your Time Is Invaluable to the People That Need You – Sometimes, paying people to do massive projects is worth it because your time is more valuable elsewhere. Not to get all sappy here, but if you’ve got a family that needs your presence and help on evenings and weekends, then that’s where your time will be well spent.
Deciding If DIY Crawl Space Repairs Are For You
Now that you’ve read this DIY crawl space repair manifesto, do you need help deciding if you’re still up for it? Here are a few guidelines that can help:
If you’ve got *a lot* of free time, got no one or nowhere else to be, have a good team of *somewhat insane* but willing friends, AND feel confident about massive down and dirty work, then go for it and save yourself some money. Let’s also add that if you’re confident that your subfloor isn’t the problem (because subfloor repairs are much more extensive and I would not recommend DIY for that level of work).
If anything in this article gave you serious pause, take that as a sign that you should call a foundation repair contractor instead.
Ready to do your Brazos Valley crawl space foundation repair right the first time? To get your quoting process started, call 979.690.2020 during business hours, or use our online contact form 24/7 to avoid the phone tag hassle.
