You’ve heard of house leveling, you’ve heard of foundation repair for pier and beam or other crawl space homes. Do these terms mean different things or are they different ways to say the same thing? It’s easy to get confused with construction terminology for us *normal* folks who don’t know nothin’ about this house stuff, amirite?
For 35+ years Anchor Foundation Repair has done house leveling and foundation repair for both slab foundation homes and crawl space foundation homes. We can give you some insight into these terms and offer our take on how to understand them.
This article will explore the meaning and our interpretation of the terms “house leveling” vs. “pier and beam foundation repair.” So you can at least feel a little more informed on if there’s a difference between them.
Is There a Difference Between House Leveling and Pier and Beam Repair?
Do you need your house leveled or do you need foundation repair for your pier and beam home? Well, they are *kinda sorta maybe like about the same* thing. House leveling and pier and beam foundation repairs are two ways to describe the same activity with different causes.
Side Note: Sometimes people need house leveling for their mobile home. But here we are talking about leveling a crawl space type home: like a pier and beam or a block and base foundation.
What Is House Leveling?
House leveling is a common term that literally means what it says, the act of leveling your unlevel home. Most often, homes become unlevel due to foundation settlement from expansive clay soils. Leveling a pier and beam house means stabilizing it and bringing sunken areas of the home back to their original elevation.
The house leveling process involves raising portions of the home with jacks to make it as level as possible and for everything to work right. House leveling will also include replacing degraded sill beams, repairing broken or decayed piers, adding more piers, and/or shimming up gaps in the foundation structure.
Pier and beam homes need these repairs due to settlement and it makes more sense to use the term house leveling for some people.
But if this sounds a lot like pier and beam foundation repair, you’re right . . .
What Is Pier and Beam Foundation Repair?
Sometimes crawl space homes need piers or sill beams added due to insufficiency, like you just need more of them added to carry the load of the home. Crawlspace homes might need wood or piers repaired or replaced due to degradation or damage of those materials. Then, the term pier and beam foundation repair makes more sense to use in some people’s minds.
Basically, something under your home needs to be added, repaired, or replaced. It could be decayed sill beams, broken or not enough piers, rotted floor joists, termite-damaged subfloor, moldy wood due to leaks, or shims that have shimmied out of position. It can make more sense to call this process pier and beam foundation repair.
If this sounds a lot like house leveling, you’re right . . .
So Do I Need House Leveling or Pier and Beam Repairs?
House leveling and pier and beam foundation repair mean just about the same thing in the end, even if the root cause is different. People use these terms interchangeably and neither is right or wrong or better or worse to use. It mostly ends up being what they hear other people say.
Ultimately, you’re trying to restore functionality and stability to the home and bring it back to its original elevation in both house leveling AND pier and beam foundation repair. This is true no matter what is wrong with the house in the first place or which term you like or use better. So use whichever one you like, and you won’t be wrong.
Now you know that there is not much difference in what needs to be done to your home whether you call it house leveling or pier and beam foundation repair. There might be a little bit of difference in what caused it, but it honestly doesn’t matter much to a homeowner because the repair process will be similar.
You will go to the same kind of contractor to fix your pier and beam problems: a foundation repair contractor who works on crawl space homes.
How Do I Know If I Need My Pier and Beam Foundation Fixed?
Don’t worry about what to call the repair process, instead focus on the signs or symptoms you might see in your home that point to the need for pier and beam foundation repairs (or house leveling).
Anchor Foundation Repair has been leveling and repairing all types of foundations in Bryan, College Station, and other Brazos Valley communities like Brenham and Madisonville since 1985. We want you to understand foundation repair terms as well as the telltale signs that you might have a foundation issue.
Check out this article on the “Top 3 Problem Signs for Your Pier and Beam Foundation” next to know what to look for in your crawl space home.