Helical piers vs. push piers: how they work and which one fits

What foundation piers do, and what they don’t

Piers move the support for part of a foundation from weak or shifting soil near the surface to firmer soil or rock below. A steel bracket is attached to the footing, and the pier goes down from the bracket until it reaches soil that can carry the load.

Piers stabilize a house. They don’t solve whatever caused the movement. If water from a downspout softened the soil under that corner, you still need to send the water somewhere else. And piers only support the part of the house they’re under. You can still get cracks in areas without piers, and that doesn’t mean the piers failed.

1. Steel bracket attached to the footing
2. Push pier: driven down in sections with a hydraulic ram, using the house’s weight to push against
3. Helical pier: helix plates screwed in by a machine
4. Firmer soil the pier has to reach
5. What gets recorded for each pier: hydraulic pressure and depth (A); torque and depth (B)

SoilFirmer soilConcreteSteel pier and bracket

Push piers: how they work

A push pier is a steel tube driven down in sections with a hydraulic ram. The ram pushes against the bracket, and the weight of the house keeps the bracket from lifting while the tube goes down. That’s why push piers are also called resistance piers.

Push piers work on homes heavy enough to push against, with footings and walls strong enough to take that force. Our structural contributor, Daniel Mercer, rules them out when the structure is too light, the footing is in poor shape, there isn’t enough weight to push against, or something underground is in the way.

Helical piers: how they work

A helical pier is a steel shaft with one or more helix plates near the tip, like a large screw. A machine turns it into the ground, and the installer records the torque, the turning force, as it goes in. Torque is used to estimate how much the pier can carry, through a correlation factor the manufacturer has to provide.

Because helical piers don’t need the weight of the house to go in, they can also be used under lighter structures, porches or additions. Daniel won’t use them where there are obstructions in the soil, rock at an awkward angle, torque readings without an approved correlation, a corrosion problem, or the wrong geometry or length for the load. No single product can handle every load.

Helical piers vs. push piers: which one fits

For both types, Daniel says the choice should come from the design: the load on that part of the house, what the soil can support and how the footing will connect to the bracket. If nobody knows what the soil can carry, a geotechnical engineer should look at it before anyone picks a pier.

Other options: underpinning, slab lifting and new supports

There are other ways to repair a settling house. Underpinning with concrete makes a footing wider or deeper, dug and poured in short sections. Mudjacking and foam lifting raise a slab that has sunk, like a basement or garage floor, but they don’t support the footings that carry the house. And if the floors over a crawl space are sagging, you may need new posts and footings, not piers. Our guide to foundation settling compares these methods.

Helical piers cost and push piers cost

Published national prices for 2026: helical piers often cost $2,000 to $4,000 per pier installed (HomeGuide, February 2026), and push piers about $2,000 per pier (Angi, July 2026). Hard jobs cost more. Those prices usually include the pier, the bracket and normal labor. Permits, an engineer’s design, soil testing, drainage work and putting the landscaping or finishes back may not be included.

For other repairs and what they cost, see foundation repair cost.

Reading a pier quote and the installation records

If two quotes have different numbers of piers, they may not be comparable. One contractor may be stabilizing more of the house, assuming different loads or spacing the piers differently. The price alone doesn’t tell you much. Daniel asks every company three questions:

1. What area are you stabilizing, and what loads justify this number of piers and this spacing?
2. What’s the acceptance criterion for each pier that I can check, and what happens if a pier doesn’t reach it?
3. What’s included: digging, installation, any lift, putting things back, engineering, permits and the warranty?

After the job, ask for the installation records. Daniel expects to see:

• An as-installed plan showing where each pier is and its number.
• The depth of each pier, and the number and length of extensions.
• For push piers: the hydraulic pressures, the cylinder used, how pressure was converted to force, and the design loads.
• For helical piers: torque at intervals and the final torque, the helix sizes and the correlation factor used to get the design capacity.
• Inspections, problems found, obstructions, any load tests the project required, and the engineer’s sign-off.

You should be able to compare what each pier was designed for with what was recorded, and find each pier on the plan. A pressure reading in psi on its own doesn’t tell you what a pier can carry. You also need the size of the cylinder and the losses in the system.

For helical piers, ask for the manufacturer’s documentation and, if there is one, the current ICC-ES evaluation report (ESR) for the system: what configurations it covers, its load limits, the steel and the corrosion protection. ICC-ES acceptance criteria AC358 sets how helical systems are evaluated. It doesn’t approve a specific installation on your house. For push piers, ask for a recognized technical evaluation where one exists, and the specs for the tube, couplings, brackets and corrosion protection.

When piers don’t seem to work

New cracks after a pier job don’t automatically mean a pier failed. You can get new cracks in an area without piers. Pier repairs do fail, though: piers too short or too weak for the load, a mistake converting torque or pressure into capacity, not enough reaction during installation, brackets not properly attached, corrosion, soil nobody evaluated, sideways movement, erosion, or water still reaching other footings. Without the installation records and later measurements, Daniel says, it’s too early to blame a new crack on a pier.