Expansive clay around Gardena
Windfetch soil, 23% clay, lep=3.0, which is moderate shrink-swell; only 388 mm of rain a year, so a long dry spell shrinks the clay hard.
Windfetch soil, 23% clay, lep=3.0, which is moderate shrink-swell
only 388 mm of rain a year, so a long dry spell shrinks the clay hard
Soil sampled near Gardena runs 23 percent clay with a linear extensibility of 3.0, which is the standard measure of how much that ground changes volume with moisture.
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 Gardena was built in 1964, 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
Gardena averages 388 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
Antioch · Bellflower · Brentwood · Buena Park · Castro Valley · Chino Hills · Concord · Cupertino · Danville · Davis · Downey · El Monte