Piers & Support Jacks in Knoxville, TN

Yes, that's a common pattern. When one pier drops, the girder bends over the pier next to it, so you can feel a high spot and a low spot a few feet apart. We trace the girder line underneath and check each support so you know which one actually moved.

It is. We'll go under the house, look at the spans and the condition of each pier, and give you a written price for the supports the girder needs. If the inspector was really pointing at a foundation wall or rotted framing, we'll say so, since that goes to a different trade.

We bring it up gradually and stop well short of forcing it level in one go. Older plaster and trim have lived with the sag for years, so the framing needs time to settle into each small change. That's why the jacks are adjustable and why we come back to re-check.

Usually it isn't. A block on bare soil can sink or tip, especially in ground that gets wet, and the jack goes down with it. We can reset that support on a proper footing so it actually holds the load.

Call us for the free estimate and we'll look underneath. Sagging between the walls with sound piers and girders points one way, and cracks in the outer foundation wall or a wall pulling away points another. If it's the foundation itself, we'll tell you to bring in a foundation repair company.

Very likely. Soil that stays wet loses its bearing, and a pier sitting on it slowly sinks. If we only add a jack and the mud stays, the new footing is fighting the same ground, so we'll look at where the water is coming from and price that too.

A jack can take load off a damaged girder, but it doesn't repair split or rotted wood. If the beam itself is failing, it needs a framing carpenter to sister or replace it, and we'll tell you that honestly. Once the wood is sound, we can set the supports under it.

Sometimes you'll feel the floor firm up right away, especially if a pier had dropped out of contact. The leveling itself happens in small steps, so the change is gradual. Doors that were sticking may start to swing better over time.

Tight shims can hold for a while, but wood shims in a damp crawl space tend to crush, rot or slip out. They also hide the reason the pier dropped in the first place. A steel jack on a footing gives you something adjustable and permanent to replace them.

Often they do. Bounce usually means a girder or joist run is spanning too far between supports, and adding a jack midway shortens the span. We'll look at the spacing and tell you whether supports will help or whether the joists themselves are undersized, which is carpentry work.