Home Builders have several options, including:
- Post-tension slab. The builder can reinforce the concrete with metal cables that are pulled tight, which compresses the concrete and keeps it from cracking.
- Post-and-pier footing. In rare cases, a builder might anchor the house by drilling a series of long shafts or “piers” deep beneath the problem soil to find more stable soil. Those piers would add support under the house in case the soil should expand or shrink.
- Over-excavation of the soil. Some builders bulldoze a hefty top layer of poor soil out of the ground where the home will stand and replace it with sturdier dirt that they import from other locations.
- Cutoff wall. A more common practice is to dig a trench around the house and line it with materials like plastic and concrete to keep water from getting under the home. Expansive soils don’t expand unless they get wet.
- Extra drainage. The most common prevention is to grade the land away from the house so water runs away from it rather than toward it; to install gutters on the roof and to landscape the home so that the homeowner won’t have to water plants near the foundation.
