How Much Does Foundation Repair Cost? (2023)

On average, foundation repair costs around $5,000 but can range from $2,160 to $7,790.* Protecting your home is worth the high price. Your foundation supports your home’s weight, keeping it level and structurally sound. Foundation issues can cause devastating structural problems throughout a house, so you need to take them seriously and repair them as soon as you spot them. In this article, we’ll identify common foundation types, how to repair them, and the factors that affect repair costs.

*Unless otherwise noted, cost data in this article was sourced from HomeAdvisor and Fixr.

 

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Signs Your Foundation Needs Repair

The most urgent sign of foundation damage is one or more large cracks in the foundation itself, particularly horizontal cracks. Smaller vertical cracks may only need simple patching, but horizontal cracks are a sign of exterior forces, such as hydrostatic pressure or shifting soil acting on the foundation.

Within the home itself, bowing walls, uneven floors, and doors and windows that no longer close are signs of an uneven foundation. Pooled water in a basement or crawl space may indicate a foundation leak. Gaps or changes in soil around the house may signify drainage issues that can damage a foundation.

 

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Major Foundation Repair Cost Factors

The amount you’ll pay for foundation repair depends on the foundation’s problem and the best way to repair it.

Foundation Problems

Some foundation problems are less severe than others and will require less invasive repairs. No matter the type of foundation you have, minor cracks will cost less to fix than serious issues, such as sinking or crumbling. Here are common problems you might encounter:

• Cracks and leaks: Addressing small cracks and leaks often only requires minor repairs with hydraulic cement or epoxy injection. However, horizontal or large cracks require more extensive repairs and widespread moisture problems may necessitate basement waterproofing.
• Eroding soil: If the ground around your foundation is eroding or, alternatively, becoming overly compacted in some areas, your yard may need regrading. You may also require a new drainage system to maintain better soil conditions in the future.
• Crumbling foundation: Many problems, including old age, can cause a foundation to crumble. In some cases, this can be simple to fix, but if the crumbling is widespread, you may require foundation replacement, which is quite costly.
• Bowing foundation or basement walls: Poor drainage can cause the soil around a home to become oversaturated with groundwater, which will begin to exert hydrostatic pressure against foundation walls. If the pressure gets too high, the walls will begin to bow inward and require reinforcement to stop them from breaking.
• Shifting or settling foundation: All foundations shift and settle a little bit over time, but too much movement can make the foundation uneven and eventually unstable. This typically calls for major repairs, such as jacking the house up and repouring the foundation, which requires many materials and much labor.
• Sinking foundation: A sinking foundation also requires extensive repairs to address poor soil, insufficient drainage, damage to the house, and an unstable foundation. This type of foundation repair is usually the most expensive.

Repair Cost by Problem Type

Here’s how the costs to repair various foundation issues stack up:

Problem	Cost Range
Cracks	$350–$4,000
Erosion	$500–$10,000
Crumbling	$500–$20,000
Bowing	$700–$15,000
Shifting	$700–$25,000
Sinking	$1,000–$25,000

Repair Method

Depending on the problem and your home and yard’s condition, a foundation repair company will recommend an appropriate repair method. Below are some of the most common ones.

Reinforcement

If your problem is bowing walls or minor foundation shifting of less than about 2 inches, it may require reinforcing foundation walls against further movement or damage. Carbon fiber strips installed on interior walls with epoxy and metal brackets are an inexpensive and easy-to-install solution for minor to moderate bowing. They’re unobtrusive, and you can paint over them. However, depending on the cause of the bowing walls, you may need to pair reinforcing strips with an external drainage system to prevent further damage.

Underpinning

Underpinning a foundation is also called piering because it involves installing piers into the ground around the foundation for extra support. Pricing depends on the number and type of piers you need, and piers can range from $700 to $2,100 each. Most homes and soil types will require helical piers, which are hollow in the center and easy to drill into the ground with minimal disruption to the landscaping. Hydraulic piers, on the other hand, are solid, and you’ll need to push them into the ground with a hydraulic pump. They’re more expensive and disruptive to install, but they’re more often required for large commercial buildings than homes.

Stabilization

Foundation stabilization is similar to reinforcement but addresses moderate to severe foundation problems and uses steel support beams instead of carbon fiber. Both the materials and labor required to install steel pilings are more expensive, but they are a permanent solution to shifting foundations with bowing walls.

Waterproofing

Waterproofing alone won’t fix the root cause of severe foundation problems, but it’s important in areas with lots of rain or high water tables. The concrete slab, basement, or crawl space is encapsulated with interior or exterior vapor barriers to keep moisture out and protect the foundation’s integrity. In a basement or crawl space, you may also need to install a sump pump or tile drain system to collect and remove water. The total cost of this process will depend on the extent of the problem and the amount of waterproofing material you need to solve it.

Leveling

For severe foundation settlement or shifting, your only choice may be to lift the foundation and level it off. Of course, the house itself will need a source of support while this happens, so the leveling process is complex and expensive. Once your contractors have secured the house on joists, they’ll need to drill a hole through the foundation and pump mud or polyurethane foam underneath to float and level it. This process is called slab jacking or mud jacking, and the foundation itself must be in good condition if you want to level it off.

Replacement

Total foundation replacement is the most extreme solution, and it’s also the most expensive. Your contractors will need to lift your home, demolish and remove the old foundation, and pour a new one in its place. This is usually only necessary in the case of extreme foundation damage or crumbling, and you may be able to avoid it if you catch and repair moderate problems early on.

Cost by Type of Repair

Here’s what you can expect to pay for different repairs:

Repair Method	Cost Range
Reinforcement	$700–$5,000
Underpinning	$700–$25,000
Stabilization	$1,000–$25,000
Waterproofing	$2,000–$7,000
Leveling	$3,000–$25,000
Replacement	$20,000–$100,000

Labor Costs

Only around 40% of the total price of foundation repair goes toward materials; the other 60% accounts for labor. A foundation repair contractor typically charges between $150 and $200 per hour because it’s a specialty job that often requires heavy equipment. Alternatively, contractors may quote you a price per square foot of foundation. The cost of labor fluctuates based on geographic location and time of year.

 

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Additional Factors Affecting Foundation Repair Cost

Depending on the specifics of your foundation repair project, the following may also factor into the cost.

Extent of Damage

Once you’ve repaired your foundation, you may also need to address the damage within your home itself. You may need to realign window and door frames, fix water damage, and repair framing or drywall if the foundation problems were severe.

Foundation Type

For the most part, the problem you’re encountering is more relevant to repair costs than your foundation type. However, different foundation types are more prone to certain problems, and it’s better to address them with specific repair methods.

Concrete Slab Foundation

The simplest type of foundation is a slab of 4 to 8 inches of poured concrete sitting atop the soil, also called a slab-on-grade foundation. Because concrete expands and contracts with temperature changes and may crack when the ground freezes and thaws, you’re more likely to find these foundations in warm climates. They’re also useful in locations with high water tables since there’s no basement or crawl space for water to leak into or pests to infest. However, concrete often directly encases the home’s pipes, which can make them more difficult and expensive to access and repair.

Concrete slabs don’t require reinforcement, stabilization, or complicated waterproofing, and they’re easier and less expensive to level by slabjacking. However, drainage problems can be more difficult to fix since a contractor usually needs to cut into the slab to access or install pipes or pumps.

Cinder Block and Brick Foundation

You can also use hollow cinder blocks, otherwise known as concrete masonry units, to create a concrete foundation. They cost a little less to install than poured concrete since you can install the blocks in place and mortar them together. Individual bricks also respond better to compression and temperature expansion, and with steel bars installed in the joints, they form a solid foundation.

However, because the mortar degrades before the concrete, block and brick foundations are more prone to leaks and require extensive exterior waterproofing. They tend to form stair-step cracks along masonry joints, and they’re more difficult to jack up as a unit because of the individual bricks. They also don’t provide much insulation to the home above.

Crawl Space Foundation

Homes with crawl space foundations are typically elevated a few feet off the ground on poured concrete footings called stem walls. The resulting hollow space is not big enough to serve as living space, but you can use it for storage or to house pipes, wiring, water heaters, and other utilities. These features are much easier to access if they’re in a crawl space rather than cemented into a slab, and lifting the home above the ground reduces the chance of pest infestation and flooding.

These hollow crawl spaces aren’t connected to a home’s HVAC system, though, which means they must undergo ventilation and encapsulation to keep moisture out. You’ll also need to reinforce the walls so they don’t bow or crack.

Pier and Beam Foundation

A pier and beam foundation creates a specific type of aboveground, open-air crawl space. These foundations are most common in coastal areas prone to flooding, as the ground underneath may shift or erode over time. To create them, foundation contractors drive pillars into concrete footings buried deep in the ground to support the house’s weight. This is an expensive process, but since the area beneath the house is accessible, drainage problems are easier to fix. The crawl space is also naturally ventilated, rendering moisture problems less likely than in an enclosed crawl space.

Pier and beam foundations are rare but can suffer from similar problems to more common foundation types. The piers can weaken or crumble over time, or the concrete footings can erode or crack. If your contractors don’t properly install the pillars, they may sink or shift.

Basement Foundation

Basements are the largest and most expensive foundation type to build, but they give a home extra storage or living space. The basement may be entirely below grade—buried in the ground—or, if located along a slope, at least one wall may be open to daylight. Basements are most common in colder areas where the home’s foundation needs to be located below the frost line. Basements, like crawl spaces, can face problems with ventilation and insulation, but finishing the basement solves some of these problems.

Basement walls are prone to bowing and cracking, particularly if water seeps into the concrete and affects the rebar. Basements can also collect water, so they may require interior drainage systems.

Permits

Repairing a foundation is a complex project that involves structural changes to a home, so you’ll need a permit to complete the work. Luckily, the cost is low compared to the project’s other expenses—about $75 to $250—but it’s an important part of meeting residential building codes.

Foundation Inspections

If you suspect your home has foundation damage, you should hire an independent structural engineer to complete an inspection. This typically costs $300 to $600, and the engineer will prepare an unbiased report on the foundation’s condition. They won’t try to upsell you on any complex repairs you don’t need. Local realtors, home designers, and builders can often recommend a structural engineer, and there are online directories that list the licensed engineers in your area.

Soil Report

In addition to a foundation inspection, you may want to hire someone to inspect and test your yard’s soil. A geothermal engineer can provide information on current soil conditions, which may have changed since your home was built. The type of soil can make a big difference to a foundation; for example, expansive clay soil can wreak havoc on basements since it swells or shrinks depending on the water content, putting stress on the walls. Different soil tests come with different prices, but a full geotechnical report usually costs $1,000 to $5,000.

Landscaping

In some cases, tree roots can interfere with the integrity of a home’s foundation. To prevent further damage, you may need to hire landscapers to alter or remove root systems. Depending on the tree’s size, you can expect to pay anywhere from $200 to $2,000 for removal. Additionally, you may need to move trees, shrubs, or flower beds that are close to your home to allow contractors access to your foundation.

 

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How to Reduce Foundation Repair Costs

While homeowners can repair minor foundation cracks themselves, you should hire professionals to address most foundation problems. Even if you can’t DIY it, though, you can still save on the cost of repairs with the following tips:

• Take care of problems as soon as they arise. Foundation damage won’t improve over time; waiting could mean more expensive repairs later.
• If budget is a concern, ask the contractors about temporary solutions that will protect your foundation until you can save up for more permanent repairs. That said, opting for permanent solutions right away will likely save you money in the long run and give you more peace of mind.
• Prioritize the most urgent repairs and save smaller or cosmetic repairs for later.
• Ask contractors about a warranty on both materials and workmanship.
• Keep up with maintenance to ensure your foundation’s longevity. This includes removing humidity and moisture from basements and crawl spaces and ensuring that all gutters and downspouts are clean and functioning correctly to direct water away from the home.
• Waterproof basements and crawl spaces as recommended by foundation contractors to prevent future problems.
• Some companies may offer free foundation inspections. However, remember that you’re most likely to get an unbiased opinion from an independent engineer.
• Compare quotes from at least three local contractors to get a better idea of the going rate in your area. Think critically about any estimates that are much higher or lower than average.

 

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Our Recommendation

Although foundation repair can be an expensive undertaking, it’s a necessary one to maintain your home’s value, especially in the case of serious damage. You must disclose any foundation repairs if you sell your home, but this can give you an advantage since buyers will know that the foundation is in good shape. We recommend calling foundation contractors as soon as you notice a problem to prevent the damage from worsening.

 

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