Push piers use the weight of your house to drive steel pipe down to load-bearing strata, so they suit heavy foundations. Helical piers screw into the ground and create their own capacity through torque, so they suit lighter loads like porches, decks, and new construction. An engineer picks the right one.
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Both systems carry a foundation's load down to competent soil or rock, but they get there differently and that determines which one fits. Push piers are hydraulically pushed into the ground using the structure's own weight as the reaction force, advancing section by section until they hit refusal on dense till, limestone, or shale. Because they rely on building weight, they work best under heavy loads: full two-story brick or block foundation walls. They can also attempt a lift, using the same hydraulics to jack the structure back toward its original elevation. Helical piers are steel shafts with welded helical plates that a torque motor screws into the ground; capacity is verified by the installation torque rather than by building weight, so they generate their own resistance. That makes them the right tool for lighter elements (porches, stoops, decks, chimneys, one-story additions) and the only option for new construction, where there is no existing structure to push against and the piers go in before the footing is built. In Greater Cincinnati's variable hillside soils, helicals give the installer a continuous torque reading that confirms capacity at every foot, which is reassuring where depth to competent strata is unpredictable. Per-pier pricing is similar for both, roughly $1,200 to $2,500. The decision should come from a licensed engineer's evaluation of the load, the soil, and the failure, not from which system a contractor happens to sell.