Texas Homeowner Issues

[CatsDieNow]

My house has been developing some lovely cracks in the walls in the last couple months.  I am told this is due to the bunch of clay that my slab foundation is sitting on.

Anyone down here in DFW have experience with foundation repair?  Specifically, how much this is going to cost me...I'm new to this area and this isn't the type of problem we had with homes in the midwest.

[cfabe]

New house?

[Azrael256]

Uh, you're not going to like this....

Expansive soils like we have in North Texas have made for one heck of a foundation repair business.  The repair may run you $1000.  It may run you $15,000.  It depends on just what is wrong with it.  Minor cracking caused by a little soil drying and settling right at the corner of the house might cost you $2,000 to fix.  A big crack running down the middle of the house might run $30,000.

Get yourself an engineer, and do some reading.  If your house is pier and beam, you might be able to get away with a realignment of the footings, which will be cheap, as repairs go.  If it's a poured slab, and the cracking is serious, be prepared to shell out some serious cash.

[CatsDieNow]

No, the house was built in 1968.   Diggging through the paper work I found a guarentee and warrenty for some foundation repair several years ago - which may help.

I suspect the previous owner painted over a few cracks...

How does one minimize this shifting?  Extra watering?

[MaterDei]

NO, less watering.  You need to make sure that all rain water drains away from your foundation.  Clay acts like a giant sponge that your house is sitting on and the weight of the house is nothing.  As the soil soaks up water in the wetter seasons it expands and the house rises.  As the soil dries out it lowers.  Keeping water away from your foundation is the best solution.  Especially look for where water might be pooling next to your foundation.

Also, cracks don't necessarily indicate that you have a foundation problem.  Even well drained soil will move, it can't be avoided.  With the movement you will get cracks.  Call a respectable foundation repair company (ask long term residents who) and have them come out and test.  It won't cost anything.  If they say you have a problem get the specifics of where and then get a second opinion.  If they agree then your out of luck.

[Azrael256]

It may well be that you're finding cracks that were formed before the earlier repair.  I have a good hefty one running through my dining room (it's a real pain 'cause it's a tile floor) that was formed before the repair.  When I prepared the adjacent wall for painting, I found an enormous crack in the drywall that corresponded to the crack in the floor.  Unfortunately, the drywall crumbled when it was torn apart by the shifting, so I had to do a rather large repair job.

Call that foundation repair company.  Most of the warranties are transferable.  They may look at it and tell you that it's nothing, but it never hurts to have them check.

[roo_ster]

Happiness is a pier & beam foundation in DFW.

[CatsDieNow]

I never understood why anyone would want a slab foundation anyway.  I bought the house with the intention of selling it within 5 years.  

Just to be clear, I don't know if the foundation itself is cracked, but there have been at least a dozen new crack in my drywall in the last month or two.  One of them is rather large and through a window header all the way to the corner of the room.

Okay, I will give the foundation people a call Friday.  Thanks for the advise.

[Azrael256]

I never understood why anyone would want a slab foundation anyway.

I cannot fathom the reasoning either.  It seems like the dumbest possible solution to the problem of expansive soils.  If I happened to be building on exposed, solid bedrock, it would be fine.  Otherwise, pier and beam seems to be the only logical solution.  There's probably a cost angle somewhere.

[Brad Johnson]

Expansive soils + slab = problems.

In an area with expansive soils, homes with slab construction need to have the site specially prepared. Stabilization and soil drainage must be addressed pre-pour or the slab will not stand up to the shifting. Soil amendments, special compaction, supplimental piers, and deep footings are all possibilities. Aside from that, expect to experience a lifetime of repairs for seperating sheetrock joints, stairstep cracks in bricking, and tile floors that occasional heave or buckle.

We are fortunate here in Lubbock. Our soil is naturally very sandy and drains well and our water table is relatively deep. Also, our rain tends to come in gully-washer increments that drain away quickly leaving little soak time. Slab-built homes here do not usually experience problems.

Brad

[MaterDei]

I never understood why anyone would want a slab foundation anyway.

One word.  $

[Smoke]

Slabs vs. Pier & Beam

Slabs generally are cheaper and if done right, stronger.

A slab should be poured on piers that are sunk down to rock.
I have a slab house.  It sits on top of 48 piers, they were dug anywhere from 3 ft to 18 ft (I'm on a slope)
Also fill was brought in that is less expansive than the soil it is built on.  So the slab is elevated a bit from the surrounding native soil due to the fill.

As to watering, consistancy is the key.  IF it rains then dries out that is when shifting occurs.  Or vice versa.
SInce you cannot keep the surrounding soil bone dry, keeping it as close to the same saturation point is the trick.

Smoke

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

All Pro Foundation Repair out of Ft. Worth did a job for my kid's girlfried earlier this year.   Tony was very professional, had the best price, and did a great job on her house in Frisco that had sagged 4 inches right across the front half of her 2 story house.  I was there watching for the entire procedure, wich took about 3 1/2 hours with his crew.  They installed 14 piers and sank them between 5 and 14 feet.  

It was about $4000.  The crew was clean, prepared, efficient, and didn't screw anything up, more importantly.   He's on the Net and in the book. I can reccomend him.  He runs his own ads on most of the radio stations locally (he's the UNT graduate engineer)  and unlike most of the other foundation repair companies in DFW, he owns his own company and equipment and doesn't run a bunch of different-named companies running out of a common lot.

Regards,
Rabbit.