Foundation Question: Are Push Piers Worth It or Are There Other Options?

[Carolyn McBride]

Hi BP Community,

I'm new to real estate and home construction, and I recently bought a house (has a crawl space on flat land) which has about 4 inches of settlement on one corner of the house. The house is liveable and the settlement is more of a cosmetic issue rather than a safety one (for now at least). Windows, doors, etc are all working fine but there is one long crack one the floor and a parallel smaller crack on the ceiling... The humidity in the crawl space is not too bad, readings have been average to a little above average in the wood and air.

I want to replace the flooring to LVP or LVT but need to have level floors in order to do this. I've had a few contractors offer quotes for installing push piers and lifting the house... all for over $40k, which to me seems like a huge cost for leveling, which won't really even be noticeable (although I understand it will mitigate any future settlement and further damage). I'm also aware of self-leveling compound, but I believe that may be just a bandaid solution to the cosmetic issue but will not address the risk of future settlement.

I wanted to reach out to this community to see if anyone has any thoughts about whether push piers and house lifting would be a worthy investment or if it's just a total scam/rip off? For the more experienced rehabbers that have dealth with settlement, what are your thoughts on this and do you know of any alternatives?