Newbie here with a slab "standards" question

[Emmanuel J. Scanlan]

Robert,

I was curious if this incident has had any effects on your homeowners insurance? Has it caused the insurance rates to rise? Has your insurance company dropped or now refused any specific coverages? We hear so much of the physical home issues but not the additional issues that may arise.

Originally Posted by dbucknavich

If the problem is the soil, you should look through every document you signed and make sure you did not sign a soils test waiver. If you signed one and the soil is not strong enough to support the house, that could be a problem. The builder may be relying on a soil test from a reasonably close lot, or he/she may have had you sign one just to not have to do one.

But like I said, that is if the problem is the soil. Do you happen to know which type of soil is dominant in your area?

Dylan,

I am in the same general area as Robert. We have a lot of very expansive soil areas here. Some areas do have large amounts of sandy loam based soil but most are heavy in clay. Developers here are not required to run soil tests on every lot in a development. Unfortunately they are only required to take representative samples for the development.

[jlybolt]

I have had 4 houses in the last week with signs of structural movement or settlement and that I refered for further evaluation. The grading appears to be the cause of movement in these homes. Clay soils are not being very friendly. Two of the homes were not even two years old.

[Emmanuel J. Scanlan]

James,

I fully expect to see more cases of foundation issues here in Texas. We are going into our third year of significant drought. By last year it was becoming difficult to keep sufficient amounts of moisture around foundations to prevent significant dehydration of the soils. The watering restrictions scared a lot of people into not using their sprinkler systems in at least the zones around the foundations.

In addition some towns even placed penalties for exceeding set amounts of water utilization each month. It seems the calculated utilization amounts took into account very minimal foundation watering (based on normal seasonal rainfall amounts) and almost no water for watering any type of plant life. I've lost 6 trees in the last year in exchange for foundation maintenance efforts.

If we do not come out of this drought soon there are going to be even more sacrifices needed. I don't look forward to the day if we have to decide on protecting our foundations or taking care of hygiene matters!!
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