A city on world-class expansive clay, where a soggy yard and a moving slab are two symptoms of the same Blackland soil. We treat both.
Tell us what your yard is doing and we’ll come take a look — no charge.
Waco is where we’re based, and it’s Blackland Prairie through and through — a city built on some of the most expansive clay in the world, where a soggy yard and a moving foundation are two symptoms of the same soil.
Under most of the city is Houston Black clay and its relatives, running 40 to 60 percent clay and classified by the USDA as a Vertisol with very high shrink-swell potential. When it rains, that clay swells shut and water stands on top for days; when it dries, it cracks 1/2 to 4 inches wide and the ground under your slab moves. That’s why so many Waco homes deal with a wet backyard and sticking doors in the same year — both come from the clay. Drainage that carries water off the lot and keeps the moisture around the foundation steadier addresses both at once.
In the established neighborhoods near the center of town, decades of settling and additions have scrambled the original grade, so water finds low spots the builder never intended — and the mature homes have foundations that have already ridden many wet-dry cycles. In the newer subdivisions spreading south and west, lots were cut and graded on the same clay, often nearly flat, so backyards hold water. Both come down to the same fix: carry the water off, because the clay won’t take it, and protect the slab while you’re at it.
Whatever the yard is doing, we bring the full range to Waco:
Waco has a large stock of older rental and student housing around Baylor and the near-downtown neighborhoods, and those lots bring their own drainage picture: decades-old grades, additions and parking pads poured over the years, and landlords who’d rather solve a chronic wet-yard or foundation complaint once than field it every season. On the same expansive clay, the fixes are the familiar ones — restore fall, catch the water, give it an outlet — but the priority is often durability and low maintenance, so a tenant never has to think about it. We’re glad to look at a single problem property or a handful at once.
Waco sits where the Bosque meets the Brazos, and averages about 36.40 inches of rain a year — enough, on clay that barely absorbs it, to pond yards and saturate foundations in a single storm. We build for that reality, not a gentle average.
From the older neighborhoods near downtown and Baylor to the newer builds out toward the loop, we cover all of Waco and McLennan County. Call (254) 272-5068 for a free on-site look.
Free on-site drainage assessments across Waco and McLennan County. We’ll tell you what’s actually happening in your Blackland clay and what it takes to fix it.