West Texas Drought and Your Foundation: What to Watch This Summer

Every dry summer, the same pattern plays out across Abilene and the Big Country. The Sagerton and Tarrant clay under the region’s homes loses moisture, shrinks, and pulls away from the edges of foundations. Doors that worked fine in spring start to stick. A hairline crack appears at a door corner. By September, a stair-step crack shows up in the brick near a corner of the house. This is drought-driven foundation movement, and it is the single most common foundation problem in this part of Texas.

Why it happens here

Abilene’s clay has a plasticity index around 18 or higher, which means it changes volume significantly with moisture. In a wet season it swells; through a hot, rain-free stretch it contracts, and the top few feet, the “active zone”, dry out first. That is exactly the soil supporting the perimeter grade beam of a slab home or the outer piers of a pier-and-beam home. When it shrinks, the edge of the foundation has less to bear on, and it settles.

The West Texas climate makes this worse than in wetter parts of the state. Abilene averages only around 24 inches of rain a year, often delivered in a few heavy storms with long dry gaps between. Those gaps are when foundations move.

What to watch for, in order of appearance

1. Interior doors sticking, especially several on the same side of the house, that do not free up.
2. Hairline cracks appearing at the corners of doors and windows.
3. Gaps opening at the top of door and window trim.
4. Stair-step cracks in exterior brick, near a corner, widening toward the top.
5. A floor that slopes toward one wall, or a visible dip.

One sign alone in a hot month can be humidity. Several signs pointing to the same corner or side of the house is drought settlement.

What actually helps before fall

The cheap measures matter most, and they work best if you start before the soil is bone dry:

• Run a soaker hose 12 to 18 inches out from the foundation, on a timer, short cycles in the early morning, several times a week in peak heat. The goal is steady moisture, not a soaking. See our guide on whether foundation watering works.
• Check your downspouts. Roof water should discharge 5 to 10 feet from the house, not at the corner.
• Look at the grade. Soil should slope away from the foundation for the first several feet.
• Photograph and date any cracks so you have a baseline.

When to get it surveyed

If cracks are wide, offset, or clearly growing, or a foundation edge looks lower than the rest, get a free manometer survey before the movement compounds through another dry summer. If the signs are mild and seasonal, the survey gives you a baseline and a drainage plan, and often that plus watering is enough.

Call (325) 399-3448 to schedule an inspection anywhere in Abilene and Taylor County.