Foundation installation in Wichita Falls TX - a base built for the clay it sits on

We price each foundation from your plans and a look at the lot, because the engineer's design, the size of the slab and the ground work under it set most of the cost. A post-tensioned slab, deeper beams and fill that has to come out raise the price, while a simple footprint on a clean, level lot keeps it lower. I'd rather you spend on the base than the finish, since the base is buried on day one and it's what holds everything up.

Yes, the recommended practice from Texas civil engineers calls for a soil study by a geotechnical engineer before the foundation is designed. Because the study comes first, plan its time and cost at the very start of the project.

On lots with expansive clay, fill or other hard ground, the same engineers' practice calls for a licensed engineer to design the foundation, so plan for that design as part of the project. The practice also says non-engineered fill isn't to support a foundation, so ask how your soil study treats any fill on the lot.

A post-tensioned slab or a pier and beam design usually suits ground that shrinks and swells, and your engineer picks between them from the soil report. One trade group calls post-tensioned slabs a cost-efficient, high-performance choice on that soil, because the squeezed concrete resists the strain of moving ground better than a slab that isn't prestressed. One engineering firm describes pier and beam as a raised floor on beams held up by drilled piers that reach below the soil that moves, with a crawl space left for utilities.

A new slab can still show hairline cracks, but serious cracking usually comes from a base that was raked level instead of dug out and packed, or a design that ignored the soil. That's why we build to the engineer's plans and put our effort into the ground under the concrete.

Keep water draining away from the house and the soil beside it at an even moisture level all year. The Texas engineers' practice calls for the ground next to the foundation to slope away from it, steeper in the first ten feet. Extension guidance written for Galveston County adds that during long dry spells you water evenly and often all the way around the foundation.