House Leveling in Baton Rouge

Foundation Repair Baton Rouge is a foundation repair company with 20 years of industry experience, serving Baton Rouge and the Capital Region, and house leveling is the most common job we do on raised homes. When a pier and beam house settles, the floors slope toward the low piers, doors swing on their own or stick, and you notice gaps under baseboards. Leveling lifts each line of piers back toward a measured target and replaces the crushed or rotted shims that let the house drop.

House leveling typically costs $1,500–$10,000. A straight re-shim on sound piers is often $1,200–$4,000; the price climbs when caps need replacing or extra piers need adding under long spans.

What we do on the first visit

We start with numbers. A laser level gives us a floor reading in every room, which we turn into a map of high and low spots. Then we go under the house and check every pier for plumb, every cap for cracks and every shim stack for crushing, rot or movement. That tells us whether this is a leveling job or whether failed piers, beams or sills need pier and beam repair first.

The written plan shows the target lift at each pier line and anything that needs replacing, with prices. If the house is within a reasonable tolerance — old homes are rarely dead level and don’t need to be — we say so.

Why Baton Rouge houses go out of level

Most leveling calls come down to shims and soil. Older homes were often shimmed with wood, which compresses and rots in a damp crawl space. Shallow pier footings sink when the soil around them stays wet from poor drainage, and shift again as clay dries in late summer. Brick piers tilt with age. Each small movement shows up upstairs as a slope, a sticking door or a crack over a doorway.

How we level without wrecking the plaster

Old plaster and trim don’t tolerate sudden movement. We lift in stages with hydraulic jacks, watching the readings, and set a target that makes the house sound and usable rather than forcing it perfectly flat. Old shims come out; steel shims go in on solid concrete caps. Where the span between piers is too long and the beam sags between them, we add piers. Then we re-measure every point and give you both sets of readings.

Insurance and paperwork

Settling and wear are excluded under standard Louisiana homeowners policies, so leveling is almost always paid directly. It’s usually a one-day job and you can stay home. Residential work over $7,500 must be done by an LSLBC-registered contractor. For a full price breakdown, see how much house leveling costs.