Texas drought may be impacting your home's foundation
AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas heat is leaving nothing untouched.
"Last week we had over 125 calls for first-time inspections between Salado and San Marcos," said Jeff Griffith, owner and general manager of CenTex Foundation Repair. "That’s about a 25 to 30 percent increase of what we’ve been seeing in the past."
As the soil struggles, so can the foundation of a home. "With us being in a drought, especially this early in the year, we’re seeing homes move a lot more quickly than we have in the past," said Griffith.
Griffith showed FOX 7 what signs homeowners should look out for on Tuesday as his team was working on repairing a foundation in Pflugerville: cracks in the exterior, cracks in the interior walls and a front or back door that sticks.
"As far as maintaining your moisture content around your home’s foundation…what you want to do is water enough to keep that soil tucked up against the slab", said Griffith. "You want to keep the moisture as consistent as possible."
That means watering during the summer and making sure that water doesn’t pool up around the foundation of the home during a wet season. Griffith recommended installing gutters and downspouts to help with that.
Dr. Jake Mowrer didn’t need his background to notice the issue when he moved from Georgia to Texas.
"One of the first things I see heading from Beaumont to Houston – all these billboards for foundation repair," said Dr. Mowrer, associate professor for the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.
Dr. Mowrer said it’s because of the soil that is unique to this area.
"In Texas, we are blessed with vertisols." Essentially, vertisols are made up of microscope layers that allow water to get in between.
"When they get wet, they swell, and when they get dry, they shrink," he said. "We can really see that the mechanism that makes that happen is microscopic, and it has to do with water slipping in between those layers."
It can cause problems for Texas homeowners, especially during a dry summer.
Videos have been posted on TikTok showing people in Texas watering their foundation, but Griffith suggested other methods.
"Everybody asks about watering your foundation and I always tell them it’s trial and error," said Griffith. "What I’ve told people is keep and maintain a healthy lawn and landscaping, try and water enough within the City of Austin or whatever municipality you have within their restrictions the best you can, to keep your grass green and keep your soil tucked up against the home’s foundation."