Pier & Beam Foundation Repair

Pier-and-beam homes (common in older Pasadena neighborhoods from the 1940s–1970s) sit on a crawl space with concrete or wooden piers supporting the floor beams. Over time, the piers settle, the beams sag, moisture rots the wood, and the floors slope. Pier-and-beam repair means identifying the failing piers, replacing them with new concrete or steel piers, shimming the beams back to level, and addressing any wood-rot or moisture issues in the crawl space. Where access permits, this is one of the least invasive foundation repairs. The work typically involves a crew of two or three accessing the crawl space, identifying each pier by number and condition, removing the failed ones, and installing replacements. Beams are shimmed with steel or composite shims to bring them back to the correct elevation. Where moisture has rotted a beam, the affected section is either reinforced with a sister beam (a new board bolted alongside the rotted one) or replaced entirely. A vapor barrier (typically 6-mil or 10-mil polyethylene sheeting laid over the crawl space floor) is often recommended to control ground moisture that contributes to wood rot and to make the crawl space more accessible for future inspections. The most common reason pier-and-beam repair fails prematurely is unaddressed moisture — fixing the piers without addressing the water that rotted them is a recipe for the same problem in five years.