What piers do
When part of a foundation settles, the soil under that footing has stopped carrying the load. Piers fix that by going around the problem. They are steel or concrete supports installed under or beside the footing and driven down to soil or rock that can carry the house. Once the piers are set, the contractor can often lift the settled section back toward level, then lock the brackets in place so the house rests on the piers instead of the weak soil.
Steel push piers
Push piers, also called resistance piers, are sections of steel pipe driven straight down with a hydraulic ram, using the weight of the house as the reaction. The crew adds sections until the pier hits load-bearing material and will not go further at the target pressure. They are the most common pier for heavy loads like a two-story house or a brick home.
Around Murfreesboro, that load-bearing layer is often limestone, and it is often shallow. Soil maps across Rutherford County show rock anywhere from under a foot to several feet down. A push pier that hits solid rock at four feet can be a perfectly good pier. The concern is rock that is not solid, such as a loose ledge, a weathered layer or a void. A careful contractor will explain how they confirm what each pier is bearing on.
Helical piers
Helical piers look like giant screws: a steel shaft with one or more helix plates near the tip. They are turned into the ground with a hydraulic motor, and the torque it takes to turn them tells the installer how much load they can carry. Helicals do not rely on the weight of the house to install, so they work well for lighter structures like porches, decks, additions and one-story homes, and for new footings.
In stony ground, helical piers can be harder to advance, and they may stop at rock before reaching their design torque. That does not rule them out. It means the crew needs a plan for shallow refusal, which might be a different pier, an anchor to rock, or a deeper footing.
Other pier types you may hear about
- Pressed concrete pilings: stacked concrete cylinders pushed into the soil. Cheaper in some markets, but generally less deep than steel.
- Drilled concrete piers: holes drilled to a set depth and filled with concrete and rebar. Common on new construction.
- Interior piers: the same systems installed through the slab inside the house, used when the middle of the house is settling too, away from the outside walls.
What piers cost
National cost guides put piering or underpinning at $1,000 to $3,000 per pier, according to Angi, 2026 and HomeAdvisor. Angi's pier and beam guide breaks it down further: roughly $1,000 each for segmented piers, $2,000 for steel and $3,000 for helical. Piers are usually spaced every six to eight feet along the settled wall, so a job with eight to ten piers can easily pass $10,000. Add the cost of an engineer's letter or soil report if the job needs one, plus any drainage work.
Very shallow rock can lower the cost per pier, since less steel goes in the ground. It can also add cost if the crew has to anchor to rock or change methods partway through. Ask how the price changes if conditions differ from what they expect.
Questions to ask before you sign
- How many piers, where exactly, and why that spacing?
- What type of pier and bracket, and from which manufacturer?
- What depth do you expect, and what happens if you hit rock early or not at all?
- Will I get an installation log with the depth and pressure or torque for every pier?
- Are you lifting the house, or only stabilizing it? What happens to cracks inside if you lift?
- What does the warranty cover, for how long, and does it transfer to a buyer?
- Who pulls the permit, and is an engineer's letter included?
Licensing
Rutherford County is one of nine Tennessee counties that adopted the state home improvement law. Here, a contractor doing a residential job worth $3,000 to $24,999 needs a home improvement license and a $10,000 surety bond, according to the Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors. Jobs of $25,000 or more need a full state contractor license anywhere in Tennessee. You can look up any license at verify.tn.gov.
We match homeowners with licensed, independent contractors who install piers in Murfreesboro and nearby towns. The estimate is free, and you decide whether to go ahead.