My New Foundation, Part 4

“Know which experts to talk to and how to interpret what they say.”

Your chosen builder will most likely be an expert at building his/her houses and he/she will call on other experts to provide the information and documentation needed to get the job done.

But this does not necessarily mean it will be the same information you need to make sure the foundation is constructed to your satisfaction. Case in point: most builders are required to take soil samples of where they plan to build and to have a report on the condition and traits of that soil for engineers to refer to. So if you ask your builder for a soils report he/she will probably be able to produce one. The concern is whether that report tells you about the lot your home will sit on.

After all, if a builder is going to be building on a 12.5 acre spot, they probably only took soil samples from three or four spots over the whole area. This satisfies the requirements so he/she can start building, but you need to know what is below the surface where your foundation will go.

It is best to hire your own soils expert to study your lot for you and to tell you what the results mean for your house. These experts are known as Geotech Engineers, which means they study the characteristics of dirt. They use a lot of terms normal folk don’t understand, but one term that is important for you to grasp is “shrink/swell potential.” This refers to the range of up and down movement the soil will go through as it changes from dry (shrink) to wet (swell) and is often reported in inches. For example, a common shrink/swell potential in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is 3”-4”. This means the soil can move up and down 3”to 4” as it cycles through the wet and dry times in a twelve month period; your new foundation will ride on this soil and will need to be engineered to do so without failure.

This brings us to the next expert you should hire to help you, an independent structural engineer. At the very least, you need one who can review the plans and reports made by the builder's engineer and break them down for you. Your engineer can also read your soils report and make sure the foundation is designed properly for your chosen lot. All of the experts, from the builder to the engineers involved will work hard to do a good job for you and to assure you that everything is going to turn out fine.

But after so many years in the business of repairing foundations which didn’t live up to the expert’s promises, I have become “a wee bit skeptical.” Some may call it down right paranoid, but I am convinced they are all part of a government conspiracy against foundation repair people. I just don’t have enough evidence to prove it yet, but I digress.

As you work toward getting your foundation from design to reality, your builder, their engineer and the subcontractor who pours the foundation, will probably try to convince you that there is no need for you to take many of the steps I have outlined. You will hear statements such as the following: “I have never built a house where the foundation failed”, “We pour the strongest foundations in the Metroplex,” “We always pour a thicker and stronger foundation than called for,” “All your neighbors will probably need foundation work but I would be shocked if you ever do.” I have heard these quotes from too many heartbroken home owners over the years to allow them to change my views. If your builder or his/her experts protests too strongly, you can put them to the test by asking if they will put their assurances in writing, spell out what they will do if their promises fail and sign it in front of the notary? Nuff sed!

My final article will cover the topic “Know the difference between what you need and what you want.”

Get more information by visiting www.AceFoundation.com.