looking at buying a house with a brick exterior and pier/beam foundation. Walking around the house I find lots of humps in the floor and there's a couple issues with doors not closing because of shifting. The house was built in 1968 and it's in sandy east Texas soil.

Lots of questions jump to my mind. Is this fixable, uber costly, will it happen again? Is this a deal breaker to you?

No answers to your questions but I live in a pier and beam home and have lots of those issues. Curious to hear the responses from those who know more.

Don't they need to be leveled every so often? Are the spots on the floor soft spots or do you thinks is from shifting?

I've heard it runs around $3K here in East Texas..... more or less depending on the size of the house.... and how much clearance they have underneathe.

Shelton98 summed it up pretty well. It just depends... how big is the place, how many piers and are they where they should be, and how much room is in the crawlspace? How well it was originally built down there also dictates what needs to be done to a degree.

I might be able to let you know in a week or three becuase we're looking at having a 100 year old house we own levelled.

P&B require periodic maintenance or adjustment. They move just like slab foundations. The repair is cheaper generally because the access is easier and the work is less intensive. They can just shim the supports at the piers.

Usually, it is somewhat accepted for P&B to have more "personality" in the levelness of the floor and stuff. But if doors don't work and or you see big cracks or feel big slopes on the floor, it is time to have it checked. Not a particularly big or unusual deal.

The house is around 2600 sq ft.

Not sure how many beams there are though

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Lots of questions jump to my mind. Is this fixable, uber costly, will it happen again? Is this a deal breaker to you?

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Request the home owner to have a civil engineer come, or if you're really serious about the house pay for it yourself. Should cost ~$200-300 and you'll get a written report out of it. you can use it for negotiation and peace of mind.

Not the exact answer you're looking for but we bought a pier and beam built in '58 last year. The sill plate (the board on top of the concrete perimeter that joists are connected to) was rotted out in 70% of the house. They had to go around and lift portions of the house and replace that and then repair some of the joists that were connected and had problems. This cost the seller $6500 and took a crew 2 or 3 days. There were some softs spots because of that and this fixed those problems. Apparently until some year, sill plates may not have been made with treated lumber and if there's moisture in your crawl space this can become a problem.

Why did we have moisture? The previous owner got scared when she saw a rat and sealed up all the crawl space vents. Good move lady...

Quick update: there is a large sycamore tree near the house that is causing some trouble with its roots pushing on the brick beams. Owner is going to remove the tree and then have the house leveled (at least that is the hope from my realtor).

Should I ask more questions regarding the tree and any other potential damage?

why would you want to remove a large tree?

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why would you want to remove a large tree?

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causing some trouble with its roots pushing on the brick beams.

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reading comprehension.

When I say that the tree is near the house, I means it's literally a couple feet from the brick walls and the tree is probably 3-4 feet in diameter. It's practically towering over the house with huge branches hanging over it. I'd be nervous if a strong wind came that those branches would go straight through my roof.