Sign 08
Water pooling next to the house
Clay under a house does not have to be dry. It has to be about equally damp all the way round. A puddle that sits against one wall for days after rain breaks that balance, and the slab feels it.
What it looks like
Where the water comes from
- A downspout that ends at the wall and digs a hole in the bed below it.
- Soil or mulch that slopes back toward the house, often after years of topping up flower beds.
- The swale between two houses blocked by a fence footing, a shed or a raised bed.
- The air conditioner's condensate line dripping on the same spot all summer.
- Sprinkler heads that soak the wall and the first foot of soil every cycle.
- A new patio or pool deck that sends runoff toward the slab.
Why it matters here
Wet on one side, dry on the other
Frisco's dark clays swell as they take up water. Soil that stays soaked along one wall pushes up there while the far side of the house, dry under its eaves, does not.
Running water also carries soil away. Where a downspout has cut a channel, you can sometimes see under the edge of the slab.
Simple fixes
What engineers recommend first
Texas engineers' residential foundation guidelines treat drainage as a repair in its own right, sometimes tried before any structural work.
Gutters, with downspouts extended well past the slab and past any planting beds beside it.
Ground that falls away from the house for at least the first five feet, at about a 5 percent grade (six inches in ten feet) where the lot allows.
Where grading cannot do it, a solid drain pipe from surface inlets to somewhere lower on the lot.
Other trades
When this is not a foundation call
Regrading a yard or laying drain pipe is work for a landscape or drainage contractor.
Waterproofing is a different trade again, mostly concerned with basements, which Frisco houses rarely have.
Water that appears with no rain, or a bill that has jumped, suggests a leaking pipe. That is a plumber.
When to call
Pooling plus other signs
Call about the foundation when the standing water comes with cracks in the brick, doors that have gone out of square or a floor that slopes toward the wet side.
A foundation company can look at the drainage and the slab together and tell you whether correcting the water may be enough, or whether the slab already needs support.
Foundation repair in Frisco and nearby
Describe the problem, book the inspection
This number is for foundation repair on houses. Say where the cracks are, which doors stick and how long it has been going on. If part of the house shifted all at once, there is a gas smell, or brickwork seems about to come down, clear the house and dial 911 or the gas utility before anything else.
Ready to have someone look at it?
Phone and say what you have noticed. The foundation repair company on the other end is independent of this site and takes on houses in your part of Collin or Denton County. Ask it for a time to come and inspect.
Call (972) 430-3959Your call may be recorded. Read how referrals are paid for and what happens to call details.