Foundation piers for a settling house in Toronto: push, helical or underpinning

Have a structural engineer decide, after assessing the house and its soil. Hubbell's design manual says "All foundation systems should be designed under the direct supervision of a Registered Professional Engineer". Toronto Basement Underpinning, which sells this work, says localized footing repair addresses settlement confined to one section of the foundation, and that full perimeter underpinning is "required when existing footings are too shallow to safely bear the structure", or when settlement runs across the whole foundation. Foundation Fix, a Southern Ontario company that lists piering among its services, says underpinning is "often used for foundations that have settled significantly" and lists helical piers as best for settling foundations and unstable soil. Techno Metal Post, which installs helical piles, says its engineers "analyze your structure and soil conditions to determine the suitable pile type".

So the first step is that assessment, before any pier or underpinning quote. Toronto Basement Underpinning publishes $500 to $1,500 for a structural engineer assessment and says the fee buys "a confirmed diagnosis, a specified repair method". Foundation Fix says an assessment and report "typically range from $800 to $2,500".

Settlement is a footing going down as the soil under it compresses. Hubbell, which makes Atlas Resistance piers, says they are used to "restore and/or stabilize homes and commercial structures that settle". Foundation Fix files piers under "more severe structural issues where the foundation needs to be stabilized or raised", not under crack repair, and lists uneven or sloping floors and doors or windows that stick among the signs that call for a foundation repair specialist or a structural engineer.

Foundation Movements, a 1972 National Research Council of Canada (NRC) digest that the NRC now keeps as a historical reference, says the danger is uneven sinking, which engineers call differential settlement. In its words, "Within reason, there is less concern for the total settlement of a building than for differential settlement", because uneven settlement "may cause cracks or even structural failure". Its causes include soil that compresses more in one spot than another, footings of different sizes and footings set at different depths.

It also says two common assumptions are both wrong: that a foundation will not move, and that a crack proves it did and that nothing else caused it. "Neither assumption is correct", it says. The guide to normal foundation cracks covers how to tell a shrinkage crack from one that is growing. A wall bowing inward is a sideways push, not settlement, and the guide to horizontal cracks and bowing walls covers the straps and anchors used there.

A pier carries the weight of part of the house past soft soil to a firm layer below. Hubbell, which makes both CHANCE helical piles and Atlas Resistance piers, says in its design manual that a helical pile "transfers a structure's dead and live loads to competent soil strata deep below grade". Dead loads are the house's own weight, and live loads are its contents and occupants.

A steel bracket joins the pier to the house. Techno Metal Post says on its Canadian site that its piles are screwed in "until they reach dense and compact soil". Its brackets are then "bolted to the bottom of the structure and welded to the piles", so the pier, not the soft soil, now holds that section of footing.

A pier job can aim to stop the sinking or to raise the house back up. Techno Metal Post says it can "straighten or gradually lift foundations, depending on the nature of the problem", and Hubbell's push pier system lifts in a second stage, described below.

A push pier is steel pipe pressed down in sections with the house's weight as the counterweight, and it bears on a firm layer at its tip. A helical pier is screwed in, and its capacity is read from the turning force. Hubbell's manual says its Atlas pier, also called a resistance pier, uses "the weight of the structure as its reaction system to drive or push the pipe pier sections into the soil". The sections are driven "until the required load is achieved or structure lift occurs", so the house's weight limits how hard a push pier can be pushed. Its strength comes "primarily from end bearing on a hard/dense soil stratum", meaning the tip sits on a firm layer.

Hubbell's Atlas page describes the job in two stages: "First, the pier pipe is driven to a firm bearing stratum; then the lift equipment is combined with a manifold system to lift the structure". Each pier is "tested to a force greater than required to lift the structure", which acts as a load test before the lift. The manual says the equipment fits in "an area that measures approximately three feet square", from inside or outside the footing.

A helical pier is a steel shaft with one or more screw-shaped plates, turned into the soil by powered equipment. Hubbell's manual says installers read its strength from the turning force, or torque: "Dense soil requires more torque (more energy) to install compared to a soft soil". Techno Metal Post says its equipment "continuously measures the driving torque" during installation. Sellers use both words, pier and pile, so a quote may say either.

Neither maker's material gives a homeowner a rule they can apply without a soil test. Hubbell's manual has a product selection chart keyed to soil-test results, and says it "is intended for use on a preliminary basis". Hubbell's manual says the advantages of its resistance piers are similar to those of its helical piles, that the resistance piers "are used primarily for remedial repair applications involving an existing structure", and that "Each project has unique factors that determine the most acceptable foundation system". Which one suits a given house is decided in the engineer's assessment.

A pier job leaves the old footing in place and hangs it on steel shafts taken down to firm soil. Underpinning, in the City of Toronto's definition, is "constructing new footings beneath the existing footings". The City adds that "One may also underpin to reinforce an existing foundation". Toronto Basement Underpinning describes a localized footing repair as "excavating beneath the settled footing section, extending the footing to a stable bearing depth, and pouring new concrete", and says it is sometimes called partial or localized underpinning.

The word underpinning is used for both, though. Hubbell's manual says its Atlas pier provides "foundation underpinning support", and Foundation Fix calls helical piers "a less invasive alternative to traditional underpinning in many cases", which is a seller's claim, not a neutral finding. So a quote that says underpinning may mean poured concrete or steel piers.

Underpinning to lower a basement for more ceiling height is a different job, covered in the guide to underpinning and bench footing.

Plan on an engineer and confirm the permit with Toronto Building: Ontario's code sends deep foundations to its structural design rules, the City requires an engineer's testing and reports on every underpinning job, and the City's guide does not mention piers. The 2024 Building Code, O. Reg. 163/24, which replaced the 2012 code on 1 January 2025, says in Article 9.4.4.1.(3) of its rules for houses and small buildings that "The design procedures described in Section 4.2. shall be used where, (a) deep foundations are used". Section 4.2, in Part 4 (Structural Design), says a deep foundation supports a building "by transferring loads by end-bearing to a competent stratum at considerable depth below the structure" or by friction in the soil. Hubbell describes its push pier as end-bearing, the first of those, and its manual says "In its simplest form, the helical pile/anchor is a deep foundation element".

The City of Toronto's underpinning permit guide says: "In all circumstances of underpinning, whether the underpinning was required to be designed by a Professional Engineer or not, you will be required (at the minimum) to provide testing and reports by a Professional Engineer during the first and last stages of the construction in order to pass inspections". It also asks for professional design and field review, meaning the designer checks the work on site, in three cases, one of them where "the soil is clay or silt". Ask the engineer which applies to your lot. The guide does not mention piers or piles, so ask Toronto Building which permit stream a pier job falls under before work starts. The guide to foundation repair permits covers what the City lists as permit work and its 2026 fees.

The maker's manual points the same way. It says "Design should involve professional geotechnical and engineering input" and "Independent engineering analysis and consulting state and local building codes and authorities should be conducted prior to any installation". That wording points to US state codes. In Toronto the equivalents are the 2024 Ontario code and Toronto Building.

Foundation Fix publishes a typical range of $2,000 to $5,000 per helical pier for Southern Ontario, with "most projects requiring multiple piers", and says "A full project could be anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000+"; its page lists peo.on.ca and HomeGuide, a US cost site, as its "Sources for cost quotes". It gives no Toronto figure and no push pier figure, and it is the only per-pier figure on the price pages checked for this guide. The foundation repair cost page carries the published prices for localized footing repair, underpinning a settled footing and engineer assessments, and the underpinning cost page carries full underpinning.

Five companies in WaterproofingIndex mention piers on their own websites, and Perma Pier is not one of them. An Internet Archive copy of permapier.com's about page, saved on 13 December 2025, is titled "Perma Pier Foundation Repair | Texas Foundation Specialists", lists only Texas cities under Locations and signs off as "Perma Pier Foundation Repair of Texas". The site itself did not load when this guide was checked on 15 October 2026. No record in the index carries the name.

The index stores only a short excerpt of each company's website, so 5 is a floor, not a full count. Of its 384 companies, 347 have stored website text (an excerpt, headings, a title or a description). Searching that text for pier, piers, piering or helical finds 5 records, and searching it for underpinning finds 111.

The five are Basement Systems Toronto in Pickering, Basement Technologies at a Hamilton address, GAMCON Helical Piles & Waterproofing in Etobicoke, Concrete Master in Mimico and Acesbasements in Burlington. Three of them, Basement Systems Toronto, Basement Technologies and Acesbasements, are among the 83 companies on the foundation repair page. The index holds no data on which pier system any company installs, how deep it drives, or what it guarantees.

Ask first whether an engineer has assessed the house and drawn the pier layout, and who pays for that report. Then ask whether the price is for push piers, helical piers or concrete poured under the footing, whose pier system it is, and to see the maker's installation document for that system. Ask how many piers the price includes, where they go, and what depth or installation force it assumes. Ask who applies for the permit and books the inspections. Finally, ask who stands behind the steel and who stands behind the installation, and get both answers in writing: Hubbell's manual says Hubbell "does NOT warrant the work of its dealers/installing contractors".