PierTally

The width gets all the attention and the direction carries the information. A hairline horizontal crack matters more than a quarter-inch vertical one.

A quote that gives a pier count without stating the spacing or the load has skipped the only calculation in the job.

The choice is usually made for you by the building. A heavy two-storey house suits one method; a light porch or slab addition suits the other.

Homeowners expect the house to go back. Experienced contractors expect it to stop moving, and to recover whatever comes back without forcing it.

Piers stop the house sinking. They do nothing about the soil that lifts and drops it every season, and that soil is why the piers were needed.

Two quotes with the same price per pier can differ by half the job, because the pier is only part of what has to happen at each location.

Two inches across forty feet is nothing. Two inches across eight feet is a different house entirely, and the total is the same.

A house being lifted by swelling clay does not need piers. Installing them can pin the low side while the rest keeps rising.

Every free inspection in this industry is performed by someone who profits from finding work. That is not dishonest; it is simply not independent.

The depth is discovered rather than specified. A quote that states an exact depth for push piers is quoting an assumption.

A push pier proves itself by refusing to move. A helical proves itself by how hard it was to turn, and that number is recorded pier by pier.

The distinction is whether it comes back. Wood swells and shrinks every year; a foundation does not put things back the way it found them.

The elevation survey decides this, and it is the reason the survey comes before the quote rather than after.