# Leveling costs



## newowner

I am looking at a home to restore.

The foundation is not a concrete slab but on blocks (1920's house)

The foundation is become unstable and needs to be leveled. House is about 900 sq feet.

Around how much will this cost?


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## 2pyrs

You are asking something that would be a wild guess at best with out seeing it. Prices very per area and ground and frame and height and depth and well you get the picture. Time to call in a guy with the calculator and know how. 

                                                            2pyrs


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## newowner

It's 900 square feet, pretty much a box frame house, 1920's home, thin layer of Texas soil then solid rock. Home is approx 2' off the ground.

What is the min. and max. in general for leveling a house.

Could you get any house leveled for say $500?


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## 2pyrs

Newowner asked:
Could you get any house leveled for say $500?

$500.00 Not in this life time.
How many degrees is it out?
If you are talking a fraction leave it but if you cant open doors or windows you are looking at a lot more work.




 Once more with out on site check all I can give you is a low and high guess.
If you only need to have one corner raised you could be looking $1000. to $3000.. If the whole house has to be moved and new footer and walls need to be done it could run $5000 to $8000 Just down the street from me they are digging out two sides of a home (22x25)to replace the footer and walls and the cost owner says is about $6,500. He has a basement. Living by the lake here in Ohio I have seen many homes here that were sitting on blocks (piers) raised and new foundation put back in and it ran from $3,000 up to $12,000 depending on the size of the home and location, soil, frame. I have not seen anyone replace all the piers, they go with a full foundation. Even with a rock base you well still need to replace the pier/piers and that means supports and digging and cement.
You might find some fix it guy to do it for $500 but I would be real careful he might get one side up and then you could have a chain reaction on the others that is why I suggest and engineer take a look at it.

(Cause and affect) determine the repair and cost.
                                                              2pyrs


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## BillsCatz

$500?  Add another zero to that and you're off to a good start!  Understand that leveling a house is a major undertaking.  I'd suggest you get a good structural engineer to take a look then take it from there.


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## mmcracken

I'm having to level my 1895 home - $500 will cover just the cost of the concrete. Not to mention if the inspector "gigs" you that will get costly and noe you are on his "#@%*" list for trying to do this on the slide. Do this by the numbers and you can't go wrong.


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## pewilliams

We have a rental property in New Orleans that was flooded big time by Katrina.  One end of the house needed leveling before the storm.  I am too cheap to pay someone to do anything I can figuure out how to do myself, so I bought four 20 ton hydraulic jacks from Harbor Freight ($34 bucks apiece out the door) and my brother and I jacked it up, shimmed it where needed with treated 1x6, 2x6, 4x6 and 6x6.  It level withing 1/8th of an inch all around the perimeter.  We used 12x12 logs that are about 20 inches tall to elevelate the jacks high enough to get them under the house and placed steel plates between the jacks and support structure (to keep the jack shafts from sinking into the 6x6 wood on which the house sits.  You just raise it a couple of inches at a time.  It's no big deal.  Our house is 1000 Sq Ft. and one of those jacks would lift the entire corner of the house so easily that it was hard to believe.  This is too easy to do if you can get another guy to help you and you've got one day to plan and size things up, and two days to work your way around the house.  We raised ours almost an 12 inches on one corner.


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## TxBuilder

Did you run into any problems with the alignment of windows and doors after doing the leveling yourself?


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## rivas1957

pewilliams said:


> We have a rental property in New Orleans that was flooded big time by Katrina. One end of the house needed leveling before the storm. I am too cheap to pay someone to do anything I can figuure out how to do myself, so I bought four 20 ton hydraulic jacks from Harbor Freight ($34 bucks apiece out the door) and my brother and I jacked it up, shimmed it where needed with treated 1x6, 2x6, 4x6 and 6x6. It level withing 1/8th of an inch all around the perimeter. We used 12x12 logs that are about 20 inches tall to elevelate the jacks high enough to get them under the house and placed steel plates between the jacks and support structure (to keep the jack shafts from sinking into the 6x6 wood on which the house sits. You just raise it a couple of inches at a time. It's no big deal. Our house is 1000 Sq Ft. and one of those jacks would lift the entire corner of the house so easily that it was hard to believe. This is too easy to do if you can get another guy to help you and you've got one day to plan and size things up, and two days to work your way around the house. We raised ours almost an 12 inches on one corner.


i totally agree with this person, if you can do it yourself you will save some money and your not out the labor to pay someone. Glad this was posted.


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## rivas1957

My home needs leveling but doing it myself I am not sure how much money it will take to do this. It is a boxed frame home and around the bottom of the home is rock but it is boing out away from the house. but as PEWilliams said you need someone to help. Also it is true you need to jack a little at a time up cause what could happen is you jack it up to fast you could possibly crack the wall from what I hear. I wish I knew how much to save back to do this project it needs it badly.


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## joecaption

Lets see, no pictures, no ideas on why it's unstable, no way to tell how to fix it by just guessing.
It could be insect infestation, fungus ECT. we have no idea.
If the foundation was done wrong or the footing are failing then the whole house needs to be lifted and a new foundation needs to be built, and as stated $500.00 whould not even cover the materials.
If it's just some sagging that's a whole differant ball game.
Time to call in some pros and have them tell you what's wrong.
If the foundation is bad the whole house will suffer.


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