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Structural repair services

Structural repair services stabilize or restore the parts of a house that carry load: foundations, footings, basement and retaining walls, beams, joists and load-bearing walls. The common jobs are crack sealing, slab jacking, piering or underpinning, bowing-wall reinforcement, and house leveling. Costs range from about $200 for crack sealing to $20,000-$30,000 for lifting a house, per Fixr's 2026 data.

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In short

What structural services actually cover

Most of what gets sold as "foundation repair" is one of five things. Crack sealing or epoxy injection closes a crack so water stops coming in; it does not stop movement. Slab jacking or mudjacking pumps material under a sunken slab to raise it back. Piering or underpinning drives steel or concrete piers down to stable soil or bedrock and transfers the house's weight onto them. Bowing-wall repair uses carbon fiber straps, steel I-beams or wall anchors to hold a wall that soil pressure is pushing inward. House leveling lifts and re-shims the whole structure.

Fixr's 2026 figures put crack sealing at $200-$1,000, mudjacking at $500-$1,900, carbon fiber strips at $4,000-$12,000, tiebacks at $5,000-$15,000, underpinning at $10,000-$40,000 and house lifting at $20,000-$30,000. That spread is the whole problem: the same symptom can lead to a $600 fix or a $30,000 one, and the person diagnosing it is usually the person selling it.

This site will not tell you what your cracks mean. Nobody can diagnose a structure from a photo or a description. A specific crack pattern, door that sticks, or sloped floor can have several very different causes, and only a licensed structural engineer who walks the property, takes elevations and looks at soil and drainage can say which one you have.

The sensible order is: document what you see, get an independent structural engineer's opinion in writing, then take that report to contractors for bids. Doing it the other way round means every bid answers a different question.

How to choose

Picking the right structural job

The judgement calls that decide the bill, before anyone quotes you.

  1. Get the diagnosis and the repair from different people

    A repair company's free inspection is a sales call. An independent structural engineer costs $350-$800 on average per Today's Homeowner's 2026 data, and they have no product to sell you.

  2. Match the service to the cause, not the symptom

    Sealing a crack caused by ongoing settlement just hides it. If the ground is still moving, the crack comes back.

  3. Ask what the repair is designed to do

    Stabilize (stop further movement) and lift (return to original position) are different jobs at very different prices. Many piering jobs only promise stabilization.

  4. Drainage work is often part of the fix

    Water in the soil drives a lot of foundation movement. This Old House notes horizontal cracks come from soil pressure on the wall. If nobody mentions grading, gutters or drains, ask why.

  5. Be skeptical of same-day pricing

    Structural work is not an impulse purchase. Any discount that expires when the salesperson leaves is a sales tactic, not a price.

Two people working through home paperwork at a kitchen table
Illustration, for reference.
Before you call anyone

The wrong service call is the expensive one

Most people booking structural work are buying a diagnosis, not a job - and the trade you pick decides what diagnosis you get. Book the wrong specialist and you pay a call-out fee to be told it is somebody else's problem.

  • Describe the symptom What you can observe, and when it started. Not what you think it is.
  • Ask what the visit includes Whether the diagnostic fee is credited against the work is a question with a real answer.
  • Get the scope in writing A number with no line items cannot be compared to a second number.
FAQ

Structural Repair services - common questions

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An engineer first, if the problem looks like movement rather than a leaking hairline crack. The engineer tells you what is wrong and what the repair needs to achieve. Contractors then bid to that scope. Today's Homeowner puts a typical residential structural engineer visit at $350-$800, with foundation inspections at $400-$1,500.
It is worth something as a second opinion, but it is not independent. The company doing it earns money only if you buy a repair. Use free inspections for bids, not for diagnosis.
Small crack sealing, yes. Piering, underpinning and leveling are multi-day jobs involving excavation. Anyone promising to solve significant settlement in an afternoon is describing a cosmetic fix.
Not by itself. Structural work stabilizes the house; the cosmetic repairs to drywall, trim, tile and doors are usually a separate line item or a separate trade. Ask whether cosmetic restoration is included before you sign.
Sources

Where these figures come from

Sources last checked

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Who wrote and checked this

Written by

The HomeMatchup Content Team

Editorial
Reviewed by

Michael Thompson

Senior Home Improvement Reviewer · 20 years

Senior technical reviewer.

Team-written. Second-person reviewed. Sources dated. Report a correction.

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