Engineered fill around Bellevue
the surface is mapped as Udorthents, fill or disturbed ground, at 29% clay; the ground crosses freezing and back on about 87 days a year.
the surface is mapped as Udorthents, fill or disturbed ground, at 29% clay
the ground crosses freezing and back on about 87 days a year
Bellevue records about 87 days a year where the temperature crosses freezing between night and day, and each of those cycles works existing cracks a little wider.
Why this matters for a footing
A footing is designed for a soil that stays roughly the same size. When the ground beneath one part of the house changes volume and the ground beneath another part does not, the house is asked to bridge the difference, and concrete is not good at that.
The median home in Bellevue was built in 1982, which sets what the footing is likely to be and how deep it sits.
What you can do without spending much
- Get roof water away from the wall - extensions on downspouts are the cheapest intervention there is
- Keep the soil moisture around the perimeter even rather than swinging wet to bone dry
- Watch tree roots close to the footing, which draw moisture out of one side only
- Mark and date crack ends, then photograph them each season
Bellevue averages 691 mm of rain a year, and it is the swing between the wet and dry parts of that total, not the total itself, that moves a footing.
Prices in nearby cities
Lincoln · Council Bluffs · Sioux City · West Des Moines · Des Moines · Ankeny · Ames · Topeka · Lawrence · Kansas City · Shawnee · Independence