I'll make this as brief as I can...

I own a house on top of clay soil in southwest Houston. The original part of the house was built in 1955. Since, a family room addition (prior owner) and a garage apartment (us) has been added, for a total of ~3,200 SF.

My question is regarding the original slab-on-ground foundation. I know the prior owner had the foundation worked on, and I've spent close to $30K over 20 years having the piers added, the foundation leveled etc.

The house still moves--especially in the front part of the house, exposing ugly cracks in the sheet rock, gaps in windows, etc.

My question is--can the original foundation ever be repaired to the point it doesn't move, or is it a goner?

We really like our location and want to retire here. We have the opportunity (financially) to either raze and rebuild on our lot with a new, up-to-code foundation, or fix the original foundation once and for all, and renovate the house to our retirement specs.

TIA

Nearly all foundation problems can be remedied with the proper solution. Not always piers. Clay makes it more difficult but still should be able to be fixed

I work for a company that designs foundations. It sounds like you are basically living on 3 different foundations currently; some performing better than others. If it were me, I'd build new. You can pretty much guarantee the foundation headaches go away and your new house will perform better than the old one in just about every way imaginable.

My wife and I live in a house build in 1970 and we love it, but if we built this exact floor plan using today's building codes we would probably cut our energy bills in half, and all the fun things that come with a 50 year old house(aluminum windows, replacing old outlets, things that are out of level, 50 years worth of wear, etc) would be over with.

If you can swing it financially, I see no reason to keep working on the foundations. Built new, forget about the foundation issues, and enjoy everything that comes with a house that isn't 70 years old.

Thank you both for your responses.

mAgnoliAg: We've had piers installed throughout the front of our house about four years ago. One telling thing I remember was the foundation guy filling in the gap between the foundation and the clay with dirt after the foundation was leveled. He said he had to use twice as many yards or dirt than he anticipated. Part of me thinks we must be on a fault line (this was actually suggested to me by a former neighbor) or something and we will always have movement. After spending so much money on two separate occasions on the foundation and still have such movement, I am seriously wondering if it indeed can be fixed.

rilloaggie: rebuilding / starting over is certainly under consideration, but my main problem is that we have a fully updated house with new wood floors throughout. Not only that, the garage apartment is phenomenal and sits atop a separate foundation with six feet of replaced soil and 20 piers-it doesn't move. We have contemplated demo-ing everything but the garage apartment and rebuilding, but we're not sure this is doable or a viable option.

I wouldn't spend the money tearing down and rebuilding just because you can. There's gotta be a way unless like you said you are on an uncontrollably bad spot there. I would have multiple structural engineers out before I ever made a decision that big.

mAgnoliAg said:

---

I wouldn't spend the money tearing down and rebuilding just because you can. There's gotta be a way unless like you said you are on an uncontrollably bad spot there. I would have multiple structural engineers out before I ever made a decision that big.

---

^^^^^
This

Quote:

---

Part of me thinks we must be on a fault line (this was actually suggested to me by a former neighbor) or something and we will always have movement.

---

What part of SW Houston? Houston does have a very large number of active faults, but it really depends where you are. The Beaumont Formation (sticky black clay) will shrink and swell like crazy as it goes through wet/dry cycles. The Lissie formation (a bit farther north) is usually light gray.to cream colored and does not shrink and swell as much, but is highly dispersive and therefore prone to wild erosion.

we had a similar house in SW Houston. original house plus 2 additional add-on's at different times. the house probably would have stood forever (had harvey not killed it), but it was like living in a boat based on how wet or dry the dirt was. we are rebuilding now on the same lot and the engineering reports came back with comically high plasticity index calculations...which was obvious from living there. all that to say, i'm sure your structure would last a long time, but i'm not sure you'd ever completely mitigate the movement as moisture levels change. the soil in the general area is awful.

My brother was considering this option and I was curious, how does this work if you have a mortgage?

'This' meaning scraping your existing house, which you owe money on, and building a new one.

we did a one-time close construction loan/mortgage. they paid off the existing mortgage...we pay interest-only on the construction draws during building....once complete, it rolls over into a regular mortgage.

Kenneth_2003 said:

---

Quote:

---

Part of me thinks we must be on a fault line (this was actually suggested to me by a former neighbor) or something and we will always have movement.

---

What part of SW Houston? Houston does have a very large number of active faults, but it really depends where you are. The Beaumont Formation (sticky black clay) will shrink and swell like crazy as it goes through wet/dry cycles. The Lissie formation (a bit farther north) is usually light gray.to cream colored and does not shrink and swell as much, but is highly dispersive and therefore prone to wild erosion.

---

Braeswood Place - Ayreshire Addition (south of Bellaire, between Stella Link and Academy).

When we had our garage apartment built, we were required to take out six feet of existing soil and replace it with good soil. The existing soil was sticky black clay, based on your knowledge, I would peg us as being in the Beaumont Formation.

62strat said:

---

My brother was considering this option and I was curious, how does this work if you have a mortgage?

'This' meaning scraping your existing house, which you owe money on, and building a new one.

---

We are in the fortunate position of having a paid-off mortgage and will re-build or renovate with cash.

Yeah that area is firmly in the middle of the Beaumont formation. Highly plastic clay that shrinks and swells like crazy. No faults in that area that I'm aware of.

Quality foundations can be built on it. The key is proper engineering and anticipation of future changes. The future changes are less likely as you're taking one house off and putting another up. It's not like you're putting up a house where one wasn't before and there are big changes in the deep soil.

fairrobh said:

---

Kenneth_2003 said:

---

Quote:

---

Part of me thinks we must be on a fault line (this was actually suggested to me by a former neighbor) or something and we will always have movement.

---

What part of SW Houston? Houston does have a very large number of active faults, but it really depends where you are. The Beaumont Formation (sticky black clay) will shrink and swell like crazy as it goes through wet/dry cycles. The Lissie formation (a bit farther north) is usually light gray.to cream colored and does not shrink and swell as much, but is highly dispersive and therefore prone to wild erosion.

---

Braeswood Place - Ayreshire Addition (south of Bellaire, between Stella Link and Academy).

When we had our garage apartment built, we were required to take out six feet of existing soil and replace it with good soil. The existing soil was sticky black clay, based on your knowledge, I would peg us as being in the Beaumont Formation.

---

you are in the same stuff as us; we are in bellaire. for the re-build we had to remove 6' of fill for anything on a slab (garage). the rest of the structure is piers/grade beams. piers are 12'. no faults...just the worst clay imaginable.

So...here's my two cents as a forensic structural engineer:

Slab-on-grade foundations in Houston will always move. We are cursed with expansive clay soils, and its only a matter of when (not if) the slab will move. You can hire a foundation repair company to put in piers, stabilized soil, etc., but I don't have any confidence that it will prevent foundation movement 10-15 years from now. I've also been told that reinforcing one side of a slab will cause problems to arise on the other side. Basically you "anchored" in one side while the other side is still free to move up and down, and you'll have cracked drywall as a result.

Unless you have a severe settlement issue in one area, I would just forego the foundation repairs and embrace the movement. Personally, I would just budget a couple grand to have a painting crew come through your house every ~5 years or so to patch up the cracks and repaint the interiors. Far cheaper than spending 20-30k on foundation repair and hoping that it worked.

That being said, its just my opinion and I might be a bit jaded. I've inspected a lot of homes where they are on their 3rd/4th foundation repair, and they are continually plagued by problems. I'm sure there are others on here who have had success with foundation repairs, but to me it seems like luck of the draw.

You also might consider installing a sprinkler system and keeping the soils saturated year-round, but that can also get pricey when we are in a major drought. I remember battling this in 2011, water bills went through the roof and the slab still shifted.

Oh and I agree with rilloaggie that a new modern-designed foundation will definitely perform better than what was installed in the sixties. However, it will be very expensive and there's no guarantee that it won't have small issues that arise 5-10 years from now if we get a major drought, etc.

Foundation problems (along with heat, humidity, flooding, 610 traffic, etc.) is part of the deal we make when living in Houston.

I was waiting for the right time to suggest foundation Drip to you but I think that would help you out quite a bit as a cheap long term assist.

The engineer I work for also is the only distributor in the world and we are the main installer of a clay soil stabilization chemical. We mix it with water and inject it around and underneath the foundation. Just from reading your posts you sound like a perfect candidate. Only problem is we are in DFW so I'm not sure about the logistics of it.

Edit: it works too if any of you doubt it. We've had wild floor elevation surveys turn into less than 1.5" deviance throughout an entire foundation after injecting this.

Thank you Aggie family for all of the great responses!

mAgnoliAg, I am definitely interested in exploring this option. I suggest we take it to PM or email once/if I am ready to make a move in that direction. There are a few things that need to happen first--mainly the sale of another property.

HerschelwoodHardhead, thank you for weighing-in. You are not the first person that have suggested "embrace the move." Fact is, we have spent $$$ on necessary foundation repairs / leveling because the house was so unlevel to begin with. Unfortunately, we are also constantly repairing sheet rock and repainting the interior because settling and leveling both tend to cause interior damage.

One last tidbit to introduce that may sway y'all's opinion one way or the other...

We WERE affected by Harvey. Our street was basically the cut line of homes that flooded and those that didn't. So water got in between the foundation and original wood floors; no water in the house. In fact, we didn't know we were even affected until two weeks after the fact and our floors started to buckle. The end result is that we have all new wood floors throughout our house thanks to having the required flood insurance.

Since Harvey was what they say an 800-year event, and we were barely affected, part of me thinks we are good-we probably won't flood again in our lifetimes. However, you all know how statistics are. If we were to demo and rebuild, we would be required to have a first floor elevation of four feet from ground level. Not only would we have a great (and expensive) new foundation, but future flooding would be a non-worry as we get up in our retirement years.

Again, thanks for all the responses and advice.

mAgnoliAg said:

---

I was waiting for the right time to suggest foundation Drip to you but I think that would help you out quite a bit as a cheap long term assist.

The engineer I work for also is the only distributor in the world and we are the main installer of a clay soil stabilization chemical. We mix it with water and inject it around and underneath the foundation. Just from reading your posts you sound like a perfect candidate. Only problem is we are in DFW so I'm not sure about the logistics of it.

Edit: it works too if any of you doubt it. We've had wild floor elevation surveys turn into less than 1.5" deviance throughout an entire foundation after injecting this.

---

Do you have a link to your company or an email or something? I'd be curious to know more. I'm in McKinney and have been dealing with ongoing movement. It's not extremely severe, and I had basically just resigned myself to live with it and touch things up as needed.

info@stabilearth.com

This is to the guy that handles most of stabilearth not me.

Financially, you may be better off buying a less nice house and demolishing it. If you're set on remodeling or razing and rebuilding your current house, I would vote raze and rebuild. My wife and I bought a house on a lot we like in a neighborhood we like in 2012. We didn't like much about the house, so we started to remodel, after getting knee deep into the remodel, we razed the house and built new. Obviously, I wish we hadn't wasted time and money on the remodel portion. I know 2 other people who have the same story as me regarding starting a remodel then starting over completely. None of us regret our new construction.

I know one person who stuck with the significant remodel, but wishes they had just started over and built new.

I'm not a home builder or structural engineer, but the above is my experience in substantially remodeling vs building new.