Leveling done wrong: over-shimmed piers and a home that is worse than before

If your home feels worse after it was leveled, with doors sticking in new places, a rise in the floor, or a stack of shims you can see from the access door, the piers were probably set to the wrong heights. We fix it by surveying the whole frame, lowering the piers that were driven too high, rebuilding any that were shimmed over a damaged base, and bringing the home back to one level plane. The fix is usually priced like a relevel, which typically runs $450 to $800 for a singlewide and $750 to $1,400 for a doublewide, plus any pier rebuilds. You get a written quote after we have been under the home.

Check this first

When did it start? The week after the leveling job, or months later?
Which doors? A door that stuck on the hinge side before and now sticks on the latch side can mean the frame was pushed past level.
Is the floor humped? Set a marble or a ball down in a hallway. If it rolls away from the middle in both directions, part of the home is sitting high.
Look at the piers you can see. A tall stack of shims, shims that are not tight, or wood shims stacked on top of more wood shims are all worth a photo.
Look at the skirting. If it is bowing or pulling off in the same area that was lifted, the edge of the home moved more than it should have.

What usually went wrong

What we find	Why it happens	The fix
Piers in one area set too high	Lifted from one jack point without reading the whole frame	Survey every pier, take the high ones down, reshim the low ones
Shims stacked tall and loose	Shims used to make up height that should have been blocks	Rebuild the pier with the right blocks and a tight cap
Shims set on a cracked block or tipped pad	The pier was not checked before it was raised	Rebuild from the pad up
Marriage line not brought into line	Outer piers leveled, marriage line piers left alone	Level the outer piers and the marriage line together
Straps left slack or overtight	Frame height changed and straps were not reset	Re-tension every strap after the frame is level

Why it shows up fast here

Most of North Fort Myers sits on poorly drained flatwood sands such as Pineda, Oldsmar and Wabasso, where the water table is often 10 to 40 inches down for much of the year. A pier that was shimmed up tight over a pad on soft wet sand can look fine on the day and then drop back as the pad settles, while the over-lifted piers around it stay high. That leaves the home both humped and sagging at once. Florida Rule 15C-1 asks for the ground to be graded so water does not collect under the home, and when a job ignored the water, the same spots go first.

How we put it right

We read the height at every pier along each beam and map high and low spots.
We take the high piers down a little at a time so the walls are not racked.
Piers that sit on cracked blocks, sunk pads or tall shim stacks get rebuilt. Florida’s rule calls for at least a 4 by 16 by 16 inch solid concrete pad.
We re-survey, then reset the straps. See tie-downs and anchors.

When to call

Call us if doors or windows started sticking right after a leveling job, if you can see loose or very tall shim stacks, or if the floor has a ridge you did not have before. The longer a frame sits humped, the more the walls and the marriage line are pushed. Our relevel and pier and pad repair pages explain each job, and the full ranges are on our pricing page.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does over-shimmed mean?

It means the piers in one area were driven up too far, so that part of the frame now sits higher than the rest. The home is not level, it is humped. Doors that used to swing one way start sticking the other way, and the floor feels like it rises toward the middle or toward one end.

Can a bad relevel be fixed, or does it all have to be redone?

Most of the time the fix is a careful relevel: we survey every pier, take the high ones back down, rebuild any piers that were shimmed on top of a cracked block or a tipped pad, and bring the whole frame back into one plane. Our typical relevel range is $450 to $800 for a singlewide and $750 to $1,400 for a doublewide, with pier rebuilds at $150 to $400 each. You get a written quote after we see it.

How do I know if it was the leveling job or the ground settling again?

Timing and pattern. Problems that show up the week after the work, or that are worse in the exact spots that were lifted, point at the job. Problems that creep in over months, often near where water collects under the home, point at settling. We look at both when we are under the home.

Do the straps need attention after a bad relevel?

Usually. A strap is tensioned with the frame at one height. If the frame was raised or dropped and the straps were not reset, they can be too loose or pulling hard on one side. We check every strap as part of the fix.