Most of Beaumont's older neighborhoods — the North End, the West End, and the pre-1970s homes around Calder — sit on pier-and-beam foundations. That design is a good match for Southeast Texas, where a high water table and heavy Beaumont clay make a slab risky. But pier-and-beam has one quiet weakness: the wooden shims and blocks that carry the house on top of each pier compress, rot, and shift over time — and when they do, the floor above starts to move.
Shim adjustment (re-leveling) is the fix, and it is a very different job from installing new piers. Instead of driving new supports deep into the ground, our crew works in the crawlspace, lifts each low point with hydraulic jacks, and replaces or resets the shims and pads on the existing piers until the structure is level again. For a home that is settling because its shims have failed — not because its piers have — it is the right repair, and it costs a fraction of a full underpinning job.
Signs your Beaumont home needs re-shimming
- Floors that slope, dip, or feel "bouncy" in one part of the house
- Interior doors and windows that stick, or that have visibly gone out of square
- New gaps opening between the baseboard and the floor, or at the top of door trim
- A hump or dip running down a hallway
- Cabinets or countertops that have pulled slightly away from the wall
In our climate these problems tend to move with the seasons — worse in the dry stretch of late summer when the clay shrinks, easing after a wet winter. That seasonal swing is normal for SETX; a floor that keeps getting worse and never recovers is the one that needs attention.
How we do it
- Crawlspace inspection. We map every pier, note which shims are crushed, rotted, or missing, and take elevation readings across the whole floor so we know exactly how far out of level the house is.
- Lift and support. Using hydraulic jacks at the low points, we raise the structure slowly — a little at a time to avoid cracking finishes — until it returns to level.
- Re-shim. Crushed or wood-rotted shims are replaced with new, treated hardwood shims or composite pads that stand up to Gulf-coast humidity. We reset the load evenly across each pier cap.
- Re-check and document. We take a second set of elevation readings, walk the house with you, and note any piers that are failing outright and should be watched.
Why homeowners choose re-shimming first
Re-shimming is the maintenance tier of foundation work. If your piers are still sound and the movement is coming from the shims, there is no reason to pay for new piers. We will tell you honestly which situation you are in — if the piers themselves are the problem, re-shimming alone won't hold, and we'll show you why in the crawlspace rather than just selling you the bigger job.
What affects the cost
The number of piers that need attention, how far the home is out of level, crawlspace clearance and access, and whether any beams or sills have soft-rot that must be addressed while we're under there. Most straightforward re-levelings are a one-day job.
Frequently asked questions
Is re-shimming permanent?
It restores level and holds for years, but pier-and-beam homes in SETX naturally move with the soil, so periodic re-leveling every several years is normal — much like any maintenance.
Will it crack my sheetrock?
We lift slowly and in small increments specifically to avoid this. Minor hairline cracks can appear when a house returns to level; we can point out where to expect them.
Do I need a permit?
Straightforward re-leveling of an existing foundation generally does not, but we confirm current City of Beaumont requirements before we start. If your floors have started to slope or your doors have stopped closing right, get it looked at before the shims fail further and the piers start taking uneven load. We'll come out, go under the house, and give you a straight answer.
What to expect on the day
Most single-story re-levelings are done in a day. We protect the finished spaces, work from the crawlspace, and keep you in the loop as we lift — if you want to watch a door start closing right again as we go, that is the satisfying part. We leave the crawlspace cleaner than we found it and give you a simple written record of what we adjusted and which piers to keep an eye on.
Do you also work on homes with a slab, not pier-and-beam? Shim adjustment is specific to pier-and-beam. Slab foundations move differently and are re-leveled with piering or slab-jacking instead — if you are not sure which you have, we will tell you on the visit and recommend the right approach rather than the one that happens to be our specialty.
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