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Foundation repair cost in 2026: what foundation permits were filed at in 12 cities

A foundation repair costs about $11,529, going by US permit records: the median of the usual filed value of a foundation permit in 11 US cities and counties, across 5,111 permits that carry a value. By city, it usually runs from about $6,260 to $17,848 in the permit record: that is the usual filed value of a foundation permit in Palo Alto and in San Francisco, with Denton ($7,000 across 517 permits), Cary ($12,083) and Colorado Springs ($13,875) in between. Marin County sits well above at $35,000 because its type also covers retaining walls. These are the contractors' own figures filed for the whole job.

By Contractor Records · data through October 17, 2026

Foundation repair cost by city

City Permit type Usual filed value Middle half of firms' usual job Permits Usual days, issue to final City page
Palo Alto, CA Foundation & Seismic $6,260 $4,500–$21,606 148 130 Cost page
Denton, TX Foundation Repair $7,000 $6,250–$8,500 517 59 Cost page
San Diego, CA Foundation & Seismic Retrofit $10,000 $9,000–$33,561 344 105 Cost page
Arlington County, VA Foundation & Waterproofing $10,600 $5,215–$13,900 202 106 Cost page
St. Louis, MO Foundation & Waterproofing $11,279 $10,125–$16,200 304 296 Cost page
Wheaton, IL Foundation & Waterproofing $11,529 $7,080–$14,430 152 83 Cost page
Cary, NC Foundation & Crawl Space $12,083 $8,250–$13,123 621 66 Cost page
Denver, CO Foundation & Structural Repair $12,220 $9,870–$26,100 951 93 Cost page
Greensboro, NC Foundation & Crawl Space $13,136 $11,809–$13,966 682 85 Cost page
Colorado Springs, CO Foundation & Structural Repair $13,875 $8,674–$27,000 1,176 98 Cost page
San Francisco, CA Foundation & Seismic $17,848 $10,000–$36,000 781 191 Cost page
Marin County, CA (unincorporated) Foundation & Retaining Wall $35,000 $19,750–$75,000 248 431 Cost page

Each city files a different mix under foundation work: crawl space sealing in Cary and Greensboro, waterproofing in St. Louis, Arlington and Wheaton, seismic retrofits in San Diego, Palo Alto and San Francisco. Denver's row is its foundation and structural repair type. Sugar Land and Wilmington, North Carolina file foundation permits without a value and are left out.

What drives the price

  • The kind of repair. A pier job under a slab, a crawl space encapsulation and a cripple-wall retrofit are all "foundation" on a permit. The narrow Texas band shows a standard product: in Denton, 21 firms' usual jobs sit mostly between $6,250 and $8,500. San Francisco's band runs from $10,000 to $36,000, because its type mixes seismic retrofits with foundation repair.
  • The engineer. Denton requires a "foundation repair letter and plan signed and sealed by Texas registered engineer" with the application, and the final engineered seal report uploaded "prior to final inspection" (City of Denton, read 23 October 2026). Ask whether the engineer's fee is in the quote.
  • Grants. In California, Earthquake Brace + Bolt "provides up to $3,000 toward a code-compliant seismic retrofit to a qualifying house", for "wood-framed, pre-1980 homes with a raised foundation"; the program puts the typical retrofit at $3,000 to $7,000 (CRMP, read 23 October 2026).
  • Few firms. Foundation work is concentrated: the five busiest firms held 94.0% of Greensboro's foundation permits and 85.6% of Colorado Springs'. With so few firms, get a quote from more than one of them before agreeing to a pier count.

Filed value is not the final price

The filed value is the contractor's figure on the application, usually written from the inspection before work starts. Pier counts change once crews dig, and the change is rarely refiled. Ask the contract to state a price per added pier, and hold the base quote against your city's middle-half range.

Permit rules in brief

Structural foundation repair needs a permit in every department whose rules we read. Denton: "All foundation repairs require a permit." Austin exempts "a foundation repair that does not exceed 128 square feet" (City of Austin, read 23 October 2026). The full list is in do I need a permit for foundation repair.

How long the permit stays open

Denton (59 days) and Cary (66) close foundation permits in about two months. St. Louis (296) and Marin County (431) take most of a year or longer, and only 60.1% of St. Louis's foundation permits a year or more old reached a final. Keep the final inspection and any engineer's report with the house papers.

Check a foundation quote in five minutes

  1. Find your city in the table and open its cost page.
  2. Put the quote next to the middle-half range.
  3. Ask for the pier count, the per-pier price for extras, and whether the engineer's letter is included.
  4. On your city's compare page, read the firm's foundation permits and finished share. Our foundation repair contractor guide covers licenses.

See every Denton foundation firm by finished share →

What these numbers cannot tell you

Permits record no pier count, wall length or repair method, so there is no per-pier or per-square-foot figure here. Repairs under a city's exemption, and any done without a permit, are not in the record. Several cities file foundation work inside general repair types, and those are not in this table.

How we know this

Foundation permits are those each city files under a foundation, crawl space, waterproofing or seismic work type (and Denver's foundation and structural repair type) over its three-year window ending September 2026 (a few cities end earlier; each city page names its window). The usual filed value is the median of permits that carry one; the middle-half range uses firms with three or more such permits; days is the median from issue to final, blank where a city records no final date. Permit and grant rules are quoted from the pages under Sources, read 23 October 2026.

Numbers come from City of Denton Building Safety permits on homes (the city's yearly permit reports); Town of Cary building permit applications (issued permits only); City of Greensboro building and trade permits; Pikes Peak Regional Building Department permits inside Colorado Springs city limits; San Francisco DBI building permits on one- and two-family homes, with the contractor from the city's permit contacts file; City of St. Louis building permits; City and County of Denver residential construction and demolition permits; Arlington County, VA building and trade permits, data through October 17, 2026. Nobody paid to be on this page and nobody can.

Questions

  • What is the average foundation repair cost?

    Going by permits, the usual foundation job was filed at $7,000 in Denton, $10,600 in Arlington County, $12,083 in Cary, $13,875 in Colorado Springs and $17,848 in San Francisco. That is the middle filed value, so a few very large underpinning jobs do not pull it up.

  • How much does foundation repair cost per square foot?

    Permits do not record the area repaired, so there is no honest per-square-foot figure. Ask each contractor how the job is priced (per pier, per foot of wall or as a whole) and for a total. Austin's rules show why area matters for the permit, not the price: a repair that does not exceed 128 square feet is exempt there.

  • Is there a foundation repair cost estimator for my city?

    Your city's foundation cost page, linked in the table, is the nearest thing: it shows the 10th to 90th percentile of filed values and, where home values are available, the usual job by home value. Denton's is built on 517 permits.

  • How much does a seismic retrofit cost in California?

    The California Residential Mitigation Program puts the typical Earthquake Brace + Bolt retrofit at $3,000 to $7,000, for wood-framed, pre-1980 homes with a raised foundation. Its grant pays up to $3,000, and income-eligible owners can apply for up to $7,000 more. Palo Alto's usual foundation and seismic permit was filed at $6,260.

  • Does foundation repair need a permit?

    Usually yes. Denton says all foundation repairs require a permit and wants a repair plan sealed by a Texas registered engineer with the application. Austin exempts a foundation repair that does not exceed 128 square feet. Our foundation permit guide covers 10 departments.

Build your own list

Every firm with that kind of permit on record. Pick what you value. The list moves.

Denton foundation repairCary foundation & crawl spaceGreensboro foundation & crawl spaceColorado Springs foundation & structural repairSan Francisco foundation & seismicSt. Louis foundation & waterproofingDenver foundation & structural repairArlington, VA foundation & waterproofing

Related guides

For one city

All guides →

Sources
  1. Foundation Repair — City of Denton, TX (accessed 2026-10-23)
  2. Work Exempt from Building Permits — City of Austin Development Services (accessed 2026-10-23)
  3. Earthquake Brace + Bolt (EBB) retrofit — California Residential Mitigation Program (accessed 2026-10-23)