Foundation Repair Cost in Garland: How a Quote Adds Up

If you've just been handed a quote, the first thing you probably want to know is whether the number is fair. A national average can't tell you that. What sets the price of a repair here is the plan behind it: how many piers, what kind, how deep, inside or outside the house, and what the quote leaves out.

This guide gives you the local price picture from sources that publish real numbers. Then it shows how the pier count gets set, what a complete quote should include, and how to compare quotes and pay safely under Texas rules.

Few sources publish local prices, and fewer say where their numbers come from. These three do.

Angi, the home services marketplace, surveys its own customers about what they paid. Its Dallas page, updated in October 2025, puts the normal range at $3,338 to $7,118, with an average of $5,223. The low end is $800 and the high end $11,500. That range mixes small jobs with big ones, from crack sealing to piers, so treat it as a sanity check rather than a price for your house.

Two repair companies in the Dallas-Fort Worth area publish their own figures. A national repair franchise's local office lists steel pressed pilings at $1,500 to $3,000 per pier and helical piers at $2,000 to $4,000. A Dallas company prices piers at $1,000 to $3,500 each, depending on method and depth, and says steel costs more than concrete. It puts a typical DFW repair at $3,300 to $8,500.

So the honest local picture is a typical job of about $5,200, with the pier count deciding where yours lands. A big job on a large house can go well past that.

Once a job needs piers, the quote is mostly a count multiplied by a price per pier. So it helps to know how the count gets set.

The Foundation Performance Association, a Houston group of engineers and repair contractors, publishes guidelines for the pressed concrete piles commonly used in Texas repairs. They set a maximum spacing between piers along the outside walls:

• 8 feet apart on a one-story house
• 7 feet on most two-story houses with brick on the first floor
• 6 feet on two-story brick houses

They also call for a pier at every outside corner, and one near the middle of any room that measures 12 feet or more across. An engineer's plan can differ, but those rules explain a lot of quotes.

Here's what that means in practice. Picture a 40-foot wall that needs support. On a one-story house, piers 8 feet apart means five gaps and six piers. On a two-story brick house, 6 feet apart means seven gaps and eight piers. Same wall, two more piers, and a bigger bill.

Three other things move the price:

• Inside or outside. Interior piers cost more, because the crew has to tunnel under the slab or break through the floor and patch it.
• Depth. Pressed piles go down until they stop moving, so each one ends at a different depth. Drilled piers go to a depth the engineer sets.
• Type. Steel costs more than concrete, and helical piers sit at the top of the published ranges.

The same Houston group published a paper on why foundation repairs sometimes fail. It's a useful guide to what you're buying, because each method has its own weak spots.

• Pressed concrete piles are short concrete sections pushed into the ground using the house's own weight. Shallow ones can keep settling, and a long drought can loosen their grip. They need to be shimmed right after they're driven.
• Steel pipe piles are pushed in the same way, until they hit enough resistance or reach rock.
• Drilled piers are holes filled with steel and concrete, sometimes with a wider bell at the bottom, meant to rest below the soil that moves.
• Helical piers are steel shafts screwed into the ground until they reach a set turning force.
• Mudjacking and foam injection lift a slab by pumping material under it. They cost less, but the paper calls them shallow systems that move with the soil, and the material can leak into cracked pipes.

The paper makes one point every homeowner should hear. The repair piers most commonly used aren't tied to the slab, so they hold a house up but can't stop swelling clay from pushing it up. And for most methods to work, the soil around the house has to be kept at steady moisture with water drained away. That's why fixing the drainage often belongs in the same budget.

The Houston group's pile guidelines say a contract should state the number of piers, which are inside and which are outside, any concrete breakouts, the price, the payment terms and the warranty terms. A complete quote should also tell you about these:

• The engineer. Whether the evaluation and plan are included or billed separately. Our guide to the repair process explains what that plan should contain.
• The permit. Garland needs one for most pier jobs, and the process guide has the details. The quote should say who applies and who pays the fee.
• A plumbing test. The guidelines call for a pressure test of the drain and water lines under the slab after the work, with a written report.
• A final floor survey, so you can see where the house ended up.
• Pier depth records, which the guidelines say the contractor should provide on request.
• Restoration. Replanting beds and patching concrete, and who does it.
• The cause. If a leak or poor drainage moved the house, whether fixing it is in the quote or a separate job.

A quote that answers all of these is easy to compare. One that answers none of them is really just a number.

Read the warranty as closely as the price. The Houston group's guidelines say that a contractor's warranty typically doesn't cover cosmetic damage, like drywall, brick or plants. They add that upward movement from swelling soil isn't usually covered unless the warranty says so.

So it's worth asking about four things:

1. How long it lasts, written into the contract
2. Whether it covers the house rising as well as sinking
3. If it transfers to the next owner, and for what fee
4. Any upkeep it requires from you, like drainage or watering

A warranty that transfers can matter when you sell, as long as you keep the paperwork that proves it.

The Texas Attorney General's office suggests getting written bids from more than one contractor, with detail about exactly what will be done. It also says most legitimate bids fall into a fairly close range, and warns that a very low bid may leave out work you'd expect.

When two quotes for the same house are far apart, the answer is usually in the plan, not the price per pier. Lay them side by side and check:

• The same number of piers, in the same places
• The same type of pier, and how deep each one goes
• How many piers are inside the house
• Whether the engineer, permit, plumbing test and final survey are included
• What the warranty covers, and whether it transfers

Only once those match is it fair to compare the totals.

A handful of Texas rules are on your side, and it helps to know them before you sign.

• Get it in writing. The Attorney General's office advises a written contract that says what will be done and when, with no blank spaces left to fill in later.
• Watch for a lien. A contract for work on your homestead can give the contractor a lien on your home. When it does, your signature must be witnessed by a notary who isn't the salesperson.
• Ask about the construction account. For homestead work over $5,000, the contractor is required by law to deposit your payments in a construction account. You can ask for written proof.
• Hold back 10%. The Texas Property Code requires the owner to keep back 10% of the contract price until 30 days after the work is finished. That protects you if a supplier or worker goes unpaid and files a claim against the house.
• Don't pay in full early. Pay in stages as the work is done, and keep the final payment until the job is finished and you've checked it.

Usually not, when the soil moved the house, because most Texas policies exclude earth movement. There are real exceptions, like a sudden plumbing break or a slab endorsement. Our guide to whether foundation repair is covered by insurance walks through each case.