Shreveport gets a lot of rain, often in heavy bursts, with dry, hot stretches in between. Clay soil reacts to both. Saturated clay swells and pushes up on whatever sits on it. When it dries, it shrinks and cracks, and the house settles into the gap. A foundation that sees soaked soil on one side and dry soil on the other gets pulled in two directions. The weather is out of your hands. Where the water from your roof and yard ends up mostly isn’t.
Common fixes, simplest first
- Gutters and downspouts: Clean the gutters, fix the sagging runs, and extend downspouts so they empty several feet from the foundation rather than at the corner. Underground downspout lines can carry it farther.
- Regrading: Build up soil along the foundation so the ground slopes away from the house. Flower beds edged with borders often trap water against the slab, so they sometimes get reworked.
- Surface drains: Catch basins in low spots of the yard, piped to the street or a lower area.
- French drains: Perforated pipe in a gravel trench to collect water moving through the soil, common along the uphill side of a house.
- Crawl space drainage: For raised homes, a perimeter drain or sump to keep water from pooling underneath.
Where trees fit in
Big trees close to the house compete for the same soil moisture. In a dry summer, roots can pull enough water out of the clay to shrink it under a corner of the slab. Some companies suggest root barriers between a large tree and the foundation. Whether one makes sense depends on the tree, its distance from the house and the soil, so it’s worth asking the company to explain their reasoning.
Our article on why clay soil moves in northwest Louisiana goes further into the wet and dry cycle. If the house has already moved, see slab foundation repair or pier and beam repair.