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The number a homeowner wants is a price per pier. That number is not a takeoff. An 8-pier brochure house with exterior access is not the same job as a 6-pier interior house with an engineering stamp and four carbon-fiber straps. The pier count is smaller on the interior house. The hours are not.
Open the free bid calculatorHelical piers screw to a torque number. Hydraulic push piers drive to refusal. Bowed-wall work is carbon-fiber straps or steel I-beams and does not invent a pier count. Waterproofing prices French drain and a sump. A retaining wall prices height and geogrid. Foundation repair prices settlement and a wall that is moving. Quoting all three from a published per-pier number is how the first cramped interior bracket eats the field margin.
Each interior bracket is typically a crawl or basement setup, a different bracket, and hours that never appear in the pier count. Extra shaft past the footage already in the pier price is billed by the foot. An engineering stamp and a plumbing reroute under the slab are adders that get forgotten on a brochure special. On the sample rates a 6-pier interior helical house at 14 ft with four carbon-fiber straps, an engineering stamp, and a plumbing reroute prices about $14,803 ($2,467 per pier, 50.9 crew-hours). The same shop’s 8-pier exterior helical job at 12 ft prices about $9,489 ($1,186 per pier, 29.9 hours, walk-away $6,832). Matching the brochure job’s per-pier number on the interior house is how that job becomes a loss.
Push piers drive faster and usually cost less per pier than helical, until the lot has no equipment path. On the sample rates a 10-pier push job at 16 ft with poor lot access prices about $11,856 ($1,186 per pier, 34.1 crew-hours) — more hours than the 8-pier helical brochure job, not because there are more sticks in the ground but because the machine cannot get to them. A bowed-wall-only job of eight carbon-fiber straps with an engineering stamp and no piers prices about $7,186 (27.9 hours). Treating either as a blended “add 20%” is how the special that looked fine turns into a loss after the first stuck drive.
A $42/h tech loaded at 34% payroll burden is $56.28. Margin is a share of the price you send, not a markup on cost. The walk-away price is total cost — below that the job makes nothing before you take a dollar home. Replace every rate with your invoices before you send either number.
This is not a structural-engineering specification, a settlement warranty, a soil-performance guarantee, a permit, or a recommended market price. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type. Soil, pier depth, bracket type, and whether the wall needs straps are yours to confirm.
Charge from pier count, installed depth past the footage already in the pier price, interior versus exterior access, engineering stamp, carbon-fiber straps, loaded labor, overhead, and a margin that is a share of price. A default 8-pier exterior helical job at 12 ft prices around $9,489 on the sample rates in this calculator — about $1,186 per pier.
Homeowners count piers. Interior brackets, extra shaft, an engineering stamp, and carbon-fiber straps on a bowed wall do not scale with that count. Matching a cheaper per-pier quote written for an exterior brochure house is how an interior-access job becomes a week-long loss.
No. On the sample rates a 6-pier interior helical house with 14 ft of depth, an engineering stamp, four carbon-fiber straps, and a plumbing reroute prices around $14,803 ($2,467 per pier), while a longer 8-pier exterior brochure job at 12 ft prices around $9,489 ($1,186 per pier).