Texas dirt blues

This weekend was perfectly lovely. Sunny and breezy. We enjoyed the General Conference sessions, and in between sessions on Saturday, we took our very first house-hunting expedition with our realtor.

We got an education. (A really good thing!)

Earlier in the week, she sent us a list of links to information about several houses on the market that were more or less in our price range. We being thrifty and able-bodied decided that we were interested in homes on the lower end of the price spectrum. The ones that needed a little work. A little prettying-up. Some updates.

But when you start down that road, you have to beware of the BIG ONE: Foundation Problems.

What had looked like a perfectly sweet and cute house online

upon arrival, looked more like this:

and every North Texan knows, that's a house you don't want to put your money on.

We've all seen the cracks, we've all seen the foundation repair commercials, we all know someone that lost a fortune on a badly laid or badly maintained foundation. Because as anyone of us that has ever had the back-breaking misfortune of having to dig very deep around here can tell you, the dirt is all clay. This very dense clay is bad for gardening and it's bad for foundations.

Think back to any experience you may have had with pottery. While molding your clay you need to keep it quite wet. While it is saturated, it is thick, heavy, sticks together very well and can be manipulated like silly putty. And then you bake it at a high temperature and it dries out. It becomes thinner, lighter and brittle.

This is what we are building our homes on.

When we have heavy rain and flooding the clay expands and soaks it in. When we have hot, dry weather and draughts the clay shrinks and dries up. This is called "expansive soil". This is also why most homes in Texas do not have basements.

Instead of basements, when a house is to be built, the builders dig trenches in sort of a grid pattern where the house will be. Then cover it all in a moisture-resistant plastic sheet. The trenches get a layer of sand and then whatever plumbing or electrical lines are laid in go in. Then some rebar for reinforcement. Then they pour on the concrete to make a nice solid slab.

Et voila! You can start building your house!

Now, let's say the people building your home took some shortcuts. That's a problem. What if it was quite rainy or very dry when your foundation was laid? Could be a problem. What if one of those underground pipes leaks? Definately a problem. What if you don't maintain a median moisture level around your home, causing the foundation to shift and THEN one of the pipes leaks? OMG. Big problems.

The sad thing is, you won't know you have a problem until your foundation starts cracking apart, leaving the tell-tale gaps around doors, cracks in between bricks and in your driveway, or the occasional popped up tile in your flooring.

And your insurance won't cover that.