What a homeowner can do about foundation movement, and where do-it-yourself stops working

What you can and cannot fix yourself

You can do a lot to slow or prevent foundation movement yourself: keep the soil around the slab evenly moist through dry spells, send gutter and downspout water well away from the house, make sure the ground slopes away from the foundation, and get leaks repaired quickly. What you cannot do yourself is lift a slab that has already settled or stabilize one that keeps moving. Once the house has dropped, managing water protects it from getting worse, but it takes piers to bring it back.

I measure foundations for FCS Foundation & Concrete, and a good share of my visits end with advice rather than an estimate, because the movement is small and the cause is water the homeowner can manage. This guide is that advice, written down, along with the signs that tell you the problem has moved past what a hose and a downspout extension can handle.

Why steady moisture matters more than how much water

The soil under much of the region is expansive clay. A USDA profile of Houston Black, the classic soil of the Blackland Prairie, describes it as covering about 1.5 million acres from north of Dallas south to San Antonio, and notes that its very high shrink-swell potential commonly limits building site development in metro areas. In plain terms, the ground under your house grows when it is wet and shrinks when it is dry.

The same profile notes something every homeowner here should know: water enters this soil rapidly when it is dry and cracked, and very slowly once it is moist. That is why a summer drought followed by a downpour is so hard on a slab. The edges dry and drop, then the first storms pour straight down the cracks. Your goal is not to soak the ground. It is to keep the soil around the house from swinging between those extremes, and to keep it even on every side.

A practical watering routine for dry spells

Our FAQ recommends soaker hoses during dry spells, and that is the tool I suggest. Lay the hose in the bed a short distance out from the slab, all the way around the house, rather than right against the concrete, so water soaks into the soil the foundation rests on instead of running down the face of the slab. Run it slowly so the water soaks in rather than running off.

The best gauge is the soil itself. When clay pulls away from the edge of the slab and leaves a gap, the soil around the foundation is drying out. When the gap closes and the soil stays in contact with the concrete, you are doing enough. Check it every week or two in summer, and more often in a long dry stretch.

If you live in Dallas, the rules are on your side. The city updated its Water Conservation Ordinance on May 13, 2026, and Dallas Water Utilities states that foundations may be watered any day, at any time, using a hand-held hose, a soaker hose, a drip irrigation device or a bucket. Automatic sprinklers and hose-end sprinklers are banned from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day of the year, so sprinklers are not the tool for this job anyway. Other cities have their own rules, so check yours.

• Use a soaker hose or drip line, not a sprinkler
• Water evenly on every side of the house, including the shady side
• Watch the gap between soil and slab and water when it opens
• Back off after heavy rain and in cool, wet months
• Never let one side stay soggy while another stays dry

Too much water is also a foundation problem

Overwatering is the mistake I see from homeowners who have just learned that dry soil is bad. Heavy irrigation on one side of a house can swell the clay there and push that part of the slab up, which is a form of heave. A bed that is watered daily along the front while the back of the house gets nothing creates exactly the uneven moisture you are trying to avoid.

Uncontrolled watering also matters for warranties. Our own lifetime warranty can be voided if the structure is not reasonably maintained, and it names improper or uncontrolled watering, gutters and drainage among the examples. If you have had repair work done, steady and even is the standard you are being held to. If a section of your floor is rising rather than sinking, read how to tell heave from settlement before you water anything.

Gutters, downspouts and grading you can handle

Water from the roof is the biggest single source of water at most foundations, and it arrives in concentrated streams at the corners of the house. Our FAQ lists directing gutters away from the home and fixing grading among the preventive steps that help, and these are jobs a handy homeowner can often do.

Start by watching the house in a heavy rain. Note where water overflows the gutters, where downspouts discharge and where water stands afterward. If gutters overflow at the corners or water pours down the wall, a gutter specialist's view of the problem is in this guide to overflowing gutters and water at the foundation.

• Clean gutters so they carry water to the downspouts rather than over the edge
• Add downspout extensions so water discharges away from the slab, not beside it
• Rebuild soil along the foundation so it slopes away from the house
• Keep mulch and bed edging from forming a dam that holds water against the slab
• Fix dripping hose bibs and irrigation heads that spray the foundation

Where a drainage project needs a contractor

Some water problems are bigger than a downspout extension. If the lot itself drains toward the house, if water stands in the yard for days, or if a neighbor's runoff crosses your property, the fix is usually a drain system. A French drain is a graveled trench with a perforated pipe that collects ground and surface water and carries it away, sometimes wrapped in filter fabric to keep the gravel from clogging. Surface drains and channel drains collect water at grade, for example across a patio or at the base of a slope.

These systems need to be laid out with the right fall and an outlet that actually leads somewhere, and that is where do-it-yourself drains usually fail. A trench that collects water and has nowhere to send it can make the problem worse by holding water right next to the slab. We design and install French, surface and channel drains along with grading, and in some cases drainage correction alone is the least expensive fix for movement caused by pooling water.

Signs you have moved past prevention

Watering and drainage are prevention. They slow movement and often stop seasonal cracks from getting worse, but they do not correct settlement that has already happened. These signs tell me a house needs to be measured, not just watered. If you see two or more of them, our foundation repair page recommends booking an inspection, and I agree.

A plumbing leak belongs in its own category. Watering cannot compete with a pipe that keeps one area of soil wet year-round, and a leak keeps doing damage every day it runs. If your water bill has climbed with no explanation or you hear water running with every fixture off, call a plumber first.

• Stair-step cracks in brick wider than a quarter inch
• Cracks that keep growing after you have fixed the drainage
• Floors that slope more than about 1 inch over 15 to 20 feet
• Doors and windows that stick or will not latch in every season
• Gaps opening between baseboards or crown molding and the walls
• A section of floor rising, or tile popping near the middle of the house

Do-it-yourself fixes that make things worse

A few well-meant projects cause trouble. Filling foundation cracks and repainting before anyone has measured erases the evidence an evaluator needs and does nothing for the soil. Piling soil or mulch high against the slab can hide the foundation edge and invite water and pests. Mudjacking or patching a slab from the inside does not support the edge that dropped. And lifting a house with jacks without an engineered plan risks cracking the slab or the framing.

The other common mistake is waiting too long because the watering seemed to help. Cracks that close in winter and reopen every summer are telling you the house is still moving. I cover that and a few other beliefs in foundation myths I correct every week.

When you want a second set of eyes

If you have done the watering and the drainage and still are not sure whether the house is moving, a measurement settles it. Our evaluation is free and carries no obligation. I take an elevation survey, walk the drainage with you and look at the interior signs. If what you need is better drainage and steady watering, I tell you that and put it in writing. If repair is warranted, you get an itemized estimate on the spot or within 24 hours.

If you are still at the stage of wondering whether a crack means anything at all, start with my guide to cracked brick and sticking doors. It walks through a simple inspection you can do in half an hour and gives you a baseline to compare against next season.

Questions people ask me