Is this guide for your house?
These guides are about raised houses supported on piers, which are common in older New Orleans neighborhoods. Houses on a concrete slab and other foundation types fail in different ways and need a separate evaluation, often by a structural engineer. For the house types and the ground they stand on, see the New Orleans raised-home guide.
One path carries everything
Weight moves from the walls through the floor and its framing, into beams and sills, onto piers, and into the soil. Almost every repair named on this site works on one layer of that path. Select a layer to see what it does.
1. Home and wallsThe load starts here: walls, roof, and everything inside the house.
Simplified, not to scale, and not a diagnosis. Lattice skirting is cut away to show the piers.
Which guide matches what you see
| If you notice or want to understand | Read |
|---|---|
| A floor that dips, tilts or bounces | Sagging and sloping floors |
| Doors or windows that stick | Sticking doors |
| Cracks, gaps, a house that seems to be moving | House settling |
| Leaning, crumbling or gapped piers | Pier repair and replacement |
| How piers and beams work together, and common repairs | Pier and beam foundation repair |
| Rot or damage to beams and sills | Beam and sill repair |
| Floor framing that sags or bounces | Floor joist repair |
| Soft, damp or crumbling wood | Structural wood rot |
| Mud tubes, swarmers, hollow wood | Termite damage |
| What the words leveling and shoring mean | House leveling and house shoring |
| What it may cost | House leveling cost and pier and beam repair cost |
| Whether you need a permit | Structural repair permits |
Who handles which part
- Foundation or leveling contractor: supports, piers, and the structure’s level.
- Structural engineer: complex or significant conditions, and sealed plans where the City requires them.
- Licensed pest control operator: termite inspection and treatment, licensed in Louisiana through the Department of Agriculture and Forestry.
- Plumber or drainage contractor: the leak or the water that is feeding the damage.
- Framing carpenter: floor framing repairs in some cases.
- Home inspector:a general visual check. A structural engineer evaluates conditions and can issue sealed plans, and a repair contractor’s estimate is scoped to the work that contractor would do. They answer different questions, so it can help to compare more than one kind of look. See documentation worth asking for.
No single person covers all of these, which is why a complete picture often needs more than one visit. Check contractors in the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors’ public search.
A sensible order of operations
- Describe and record what you see, with a dated log and photos.
- Have the structure and the moisture and termite situation looked at in person.
- Understand the causes before choosing a repair. The National Park Service advises avoiding remedial treatment without careful diagnosis.
- Confirm permits, engineering and historic-district approvals before work starts.
- Compare written scopes line by line, not just totals.
For New Orleans-specific background, see the New Orleans raised-home guide and shotgun house foundations. To understand how this site works, read how it works.
Sources (6)
- National Park Service, Preservation Brief 39: Controlling Unwanted Moisture in Historic BuildingsRead October 7, 2026
- City of New Orleans: Renovation (Structural) / Elevation PermitRead October 7, 2026
- City of New Orleans: Guide to Building PermitsRead October 7, 2026
- Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry: Structural Pest Control licensingRead October 7, 2026
- Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors: contractor searchRead October 7, 2026
- City of New Orleans, Hazard Mitigation Plan: SubsidenceRead October 7, 2026
Next step
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Describe it in your own words. Matching it to a guide or a trade is not your job.
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