If you’ve been told your home needs foundation piers, you’ve probably heard two terms thrown around: helical piers and push piers (sometimes called steel piers or resistance piers). Both are proven foundation repair methods — but they solve different problems, work in different soil conditions, and are installed in completely different ways.
Choosing the wrong one doesn’t just waste money. It can leave your foundation under-supported, which means you’re back to square one in a few years. Here’s how to tell which method your home actually needs.
How Push Piers Work
Push piers — also called steel piers — are driven straight down through your existing foundation using the weight of the structure itself as resistance. Hydraulic equipment pushes galvanized steel tubes through the soil until they reach load-bearing bedrock or a stable stratum that can permanently support the home.
This makes push piers the go-to solution for settling foundations — homes that are sinking because the soil beneath them can no longer hold the weight. They’re especially effective when bedrock or dense clay is within reach, which is common across much of Northeast Oklahoma.
Best suited for:
- Homes actively settling or sinking
- Structures heavy enough to provide adequate resistance during installation
- Sites where competent load-bearing soil is within a reachable depth
- Slab-on-grade and basement foundations
How Helical Piers Work
Helical piers look like giant screws. Instead of being pushed, they’re mechanically rotated into the ground — the helical plates on the shaft pull the pier down and anchor it into stable soil. Because installation doesn’t depend on the building’s weight, helical piers can be used on lighter structures, new construction, and even projects where no structure exists yet.
They’re also the better choice in certain soil conditions. Oklahoma’s expansive clay is notorious for seasonal heaving, and helical piers can be torqued to a precise capacity that matches the structure’s load requirements — giving engineers exact control over how much support each pier provides.
Best suited for:
- Lighter structures (porches, additions, manufactured homes, decks)
- New construction / pre-construction pier installation
- Pier-and-beam and crawl space foundations
- Sites with variable or unpredictable soil layers
- Projects requiring immediate load capacity (no cure time)
Side-by-Side Comparison
The Oklahoma Soil Factor
This isn’t a textbook decision — it’s a soil decision. Oklahoma sits on some of the most reactive clay soil in the country. That clay swells when it rains and shrinks during drought, creating a cycle that pushes and pulls at your foundation year after year.
In many Tulsa-area homes, the top 8–12 feet of soil is unstable clay. Push piers bypass this entirely by driving through to bedrock. Helical piers anchor into a stable stratum within or below the clay using their helical plates to grip the soil laterally. Both methods work — but the right one depends on your home’s weight, the depth to stable soil, and whether the foundation is currently settling or heaving.
That’s why a proper inspection matters more than the pier type. The wrong pier in the wrong soil fails. The right pier in the right soil lasts a lifetime.
Can You Use Both on the Same Home?
Yes — and it’s more common than you’d think. A home with a settling front slab and a heaving crawl space in the back may need push piers on one end and helical piers on the other. Homes with additions built on different foundation types often require a hybrid approach.
At Level Home, we design pier layouts based on what the structure and soil tell us — not based on what’s easiest to install. If your home needs 14 push piers and 6 helical piers to get it right, that’s what we recommend. For a deeper look at each method, read our complete guide to helical piers or our steel pier page.
What About Cost?
Helical piers typically cost more per pier than push piers — the hardware is more complex and installation requires torque-monitored equipment. But cost per pier doesn’t tell the whole story. Helical piers sometimes require fewer units to achieve the same load capacity, and they don’t require the structure’s weight for installation — meaning less disruption to landscaping, driveways, and interior spaces.
Push piers are generally more cost-effective for straightforward settlement issues on heavier structures. For a full cost breakdown by repair type and home style, see our Tulsa foundation repair cost guide.
How to Know Which One Your Home Needs
You don’t pick a pier type from a blog post — you pick it from an inspection. Here’s what a qualified foundation contractor evaluates:
- Soil conditions — depth to stable soil, clay content, moisture levels
- Foundation type — slab, pier-and-beam, basement, crawl space
- Structure weight — determines if push piers have enough resistance to install
- Movement pattern — is the home settling, heaving, or doing both?
- Access — interior vs. exterior installation, clearance, landscaping
If your foundation is showing signs of movement — cracks, sticking doors, uneven floors — the first step isn’t choosing a pier. It’s getting an honest evaluation from someone who installs both types and won’t push one over the other for profit.
Level Home Foundation Repair offers free foundation inspections across Tulsa and Northeast Oklahoma. We install both helical and push piers, and we’ll tell you which one your home actually needs — or if you don’t need piers at all. No pressure. Just the truth about your foundation.
