The short answer: most jobs wrap up in 1–3 days. But the real answer depends on the repair method, pier count, access, and what happens after the crew leaves — because the house keeps settling for weeks after the work is done.
| Repair method | Typical duration | Back to normal |
|---|---|---|
| Steel pier installation | 1–3 days | Same day (exterior) |
| Helical pier installation | 1–3 days | Same day (exterior) |
| Pier and beam repair | 2–5 days | Same day |
| Mudjacking | 1–2 days | 48–72 hrs (vehicles) |
| Polyurethane foam | 2–6 hours | 1 hour (vehicles) |
| French drain | 1–3 days | Same day |
The repair method is the single biggest factor in how long your job takes. Here is what to expect for each.
Per day rate: 3–4 piers. A home needing 20 piers should budget 5–7 days.
Steel piers are hydraulically driven to refusal depth — no cure time required after placement. Each location requires excavation, driving, and backfill. Exterior pier jobs let you stay home; expect noise and vibration throughout.
Can be loaded immediately — no cure time required.
Helical piers are screwed into the soil rather than driven, making them quieter and more precise. Installation pace is similar to push piers: 3–4 per day. Often used in tight-access areas or where soil conditions require a different approach.
Adding new piers to an existing pier and beam system: 3–7 days.
Work happens entirely in the crawl space. Shimming and adjustment jobs run 1–3 days. Replacing rotted beams or sistering joists adds time. Moisture barrier installation is usually an add-on day. Most homeowners can stay home — the noise is below you, not around you.
24–48 hrs before foot traffic · 48–72 hrs before vehicles.
A crew drills 2-inch holes through the settled slab, pumps a sand-cement slurry beneath it until the concrete lifts, then patches the holes. Most residential driveways, walkways, and pool decks are completed in a single day. The curing period — not the installation — is what adds time.
Walkable in 15 min · vehicle traffic in 1 hour.
The fastest foundation-adjacent repair method available. Dime-sized holes (5/8 in.) are drilled, expanding foam is injected, and the slab lifts within minutes. Most jobs wrap up the same morning they start. Cure time is minimal — this is the biggest practical advantage over mudjacking.
Large perimeter drain systems: 3–5 days.
A crew trenches, lays perforated pipe in gravel, backfills, and restores the surface. Straightforward yard drains in accessible areas finish in a day. Complex systems that wrap the full foundation perimeter, involve deep excavation, or connect to a sump pump run 3–5 days.
In roughly 90% of cases, yes. When piers are installed around the exterior perimeter of your home — the most common scenario — you can remain inside. Expect noise, vibration, and crew working around the outside of the house, but your daily life is largely undisrupted.
For mudjacking and polyurethane foam, crews work entirely on exterior concrete (driveways, walkways, patios). There is no reason to leave. For French drain installation, work is in the yard with no interior access needed at all.
Practical restrictions even when staying home:
Foundation repair does not end when the last pier is installed. Your home — which may have been shifting for years — needs time to redistribute its load across the new support points and find equilibrium. This is called the settling period, and it is real, normal, and something most contractors underexplain.
During the settling period, which typically runs 8–10 weeks and can extend to 17 weeks for severely damaged homes:
The estimate your contractor gives is based on ideal conditions. These factors commonly push timelines out:
The primary driver. At 3–4 piers per day, a 20-pier job takes 5–7 days rather than the 1–3 days a smaller job takes. Get an estimate that specifies the pier count, not just a total price.
Narrow side yards, locked gates, A/C units, utility lines, decks, or mature landscaping all slow down equipment movement between pier locations. Some jobs require temporarily removing fencing.
Waterlogged or highly expansive clay — common across North and Central Texas — slows pier driving and may require piers to be sunk deeper before reaching load-bearing soil.
Interior pier locations add roughly 1–1.5 days per 6 piers compared to equivalent exterior work, due to floor protection, jackhammering, debris removal, and patching.
Some Texas municipalities require a building permit and mid-job or post-job inspection. If your city's inspector has a 3-day scheduling backlog, that adds 3 days to your project.
Buried utility lines, old concrete footings, tree roots, or a rock ledge discovered mid-job require re-routing, additional equipment, or rescheduling a specialty crew.
A written assessment from a licensed specialist will tell you the repair method, pier count, estimated timeline, and total cost — specific to your home and soil conditions.
A specialist runs an elevation survey, identifies what is wrong and why, and gives you a written assessment with the recommended scope.
Ask specifically about pier count, crew size, access considerations, and permit requirements in your city. Get the timeline in writing.
Budget 8–10 weeks before scheduling any interior cosmetic work. Plan for noise and exterior access during the repair days.
We match Texas homeowners with licensed specialists who provide a written assessment — pier count, method, timeline, and cost — at no charge.
Get matched nowMost Texas foundation repair jobs take 1–3 days. A typical slab home needing 10–15 steel piers runs 3–4 days. Concrete lifting (mudjacking or polyurethane foam) is usually done in a single day or less. Pier and beam repairs take 2–5 days depending on scope.
Yes, in roughly 90% of cases. Exterior pier installation, mudjacking, and polyurethane foam lifting are all done outside the home — you can stay home, though expect noise and crew around the perimeter. The exception is interior pier installation, which requires jackhammering the slab floor. That work is loud and disruptive enough that most contractors recommend vacating during work hours.
Wait at least 8–10 weeks after pier installation before doing any cosmetic repairs. Your home needs time to settle into its new support positions. Patching drywall cracks or repainting before the house stabilizes means redoing that work. Most sources cite an 8–10 week window as standard, with severely damaged homes needing up to 17 weeks.
The industry standard is 3–4 piers per day per crew, accounting for excavation at each location, driving or screwing the pier to refusal depth, and setup. Under ideal conditions on exterior piers with easy access, a production crew may push to 6–9 piers in a day. Interior piers are slower — budget roughly 1 to 1.5 extra days per 6 interior piers due to floor protection, jackhammering, and cleanup.
Allow 24–48 hours before foot traffic and 48–72 hours before driving vehicles on a mudjacked surface. Some contractors recommend a full 3 days before parking a car on a mudjacked driveway to allow full cure and slab stabilization.
Significantly faster on both the job and the cure. Polyurethane foam jobs typically take a few hours. The foam cures in about 15 minutes, meaning you can walk on the surface almost immediately and drive on it within an hour. Mudjacking takes a full day and requires 24–72 hours before vehicle traffic.