Foundation repair · Converse, Texas
Foundation Repair in Converse, TX
The most clay of any town we serve, under some of the area's newest homes.
Converse sits on more active clay than any other town we serve. In our sample of the USDA soil survey, 72% of Converse landed on clay rated very high for shrink and swell, and more than half of it on one soil, Houston Black. If your Converse house has a new crack or a door that's started to stick, the ground is the first place to look.
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- Free inspectionIt costs nothing
- No obligationStopping after the inspection is fine
- Town-by-town soil dataFrom the USDA soil survey
- Referral service, disclosedWe pass requests to local pros
- Call (830) 500-5898Or send the short form
That isn't a reason to panic. Clay moves with moisture, and movement can be measured and planned for. It does mean that foundation repair in Converse is mostly about clay, and that keeping the soil around your house evenly moist matters more in Converse than in most towns nearby.
Clay or Rock: The Ground Under Converse
We sampled the USDA soil survey at 25 points across Converse. Here's what turned up:
- Houston Black clay, 52%. It reads 12.0 for shrink and swell from the surface down, with 54% clay, and the survey finds no rock or calmer layer beneath it.
- Austin silty clay, 12%. It reads 5.1, in the moderate band. The survey says it formed from chalk, with bedrock about 29 inches down.
- Tinn, 8%, reading 11.0. The survey maps it as "Tinn and Frio soils", "frequently flooded": low clay ground along creeks.
- Branyon clay, 8%, reading 13.0, with that layer running from about a foot down to past 6 feet.
- Heiden clay, 4%, reading 12.2, and Lewisville silty clay, 4%, reading 7.5.
On the USDA's scale, anything over 9 is very high. Add up Houston Black, Tinn, Branyon and Heiden, and you get 72% of our points. Only Austin, at 12%, landed in the low or moderate range. For comparison, New Braunfels came in at 40%, and Canyon Lake at none.
The calmer ground in Converse is also different from New Braunfels'. Around New Braunfels, the rock-side soils formed from limestone. Austin, the calmer soil in Converse, formed from chalk.
What it means for your house: a slab on Houston Black rests on a thick bed of clay that swells in a wet spring and shrinks back through a dry summer. The Post-Tensioning Institute says a slab's long-term performance depends on good drainage and on the owner keeping the soil moisture steady. Our guide to New Braunfels soil shows how to look up your own lot.
What Converse Homes Are Built On
The US Census counts 10,107 homes in Converse, with a median build year of 2003. About 73.8% went up in 1990 or later: 16.5% in the 1990s, 24.4% in the 2000s, 23.0% in the 2010s and 9.9% since 2020. Another 24.9% date from 1960 to 1989, and 1.4% were built before 1960.
That 9.9% since 2020 is a bigger share of brand-new homes than New Braunfels' 7.3%. The Census records build years, not foundations. Still, homes this young are likely to be on concrete slabs, and many are probably post-tension, with steel cables pulled tight inside the concrete. That's a trend, not a fact about your house. Our post-tension slab guide explains how to tell, and why nobody should drill into one blind.
- 2003Median year Converse homes were built
- 1.4%Built before 1960
- 73.8%Built in 1990 or later
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2023.
Foundation Repair Services in Converse
- Slab foundation repair for slabs on Houston Black clay
- Foundation inspection to measure the floors before anyone prices a repair
- Foundation crack repair to tell a cosmetic crack from a moving one
- House leveling when the floors have gone out of level
- Pier and beam repair for older raised houses
Converse Foundation Repair Questions
Why does Converse have so many foundation problems?
We can't count problems, but we can show the ground. In our USDA sample, 72% of Converse sat on very high shrink-swell clay, the highest share of any town we serve. Houston Black alone covered 52% of our points.
Do I need a permit for foundation repair in Converse?
We couldn't find Converse's rules for foundation repair published online, so we won't guess. Ask the City of Converse's building department before any work starts. Nearby cities handle it in very different ways: Schertz requires an engineer's plan and a sealed letter, while Live Oak lists foundation repairs among the jobs that need a permit before work begins.
What are Converse's watering rules?
We couldn't find Converse's current watering rules on the city's site, so check with the city's utilities department before you set up a soaker hose. When you do water, the goal is even moisture all the way around the slab. Our foundation watering guide explains how.
My lot is low and near a creek. Does that matter?
It can. The survey maps Tinn and Frio soils, "frequently flooded", at 8% of our Converse points. If your lot sits low, look it up on FEMA's flood map and keep water moving away from the house.
Nearby Towns We Serve
We serve Converse and the towns around it, including Live Oak, Universal City, Schertz, Cibolo, Selma and New Braunfels.
Live Oak, next door, has a calmer streak. Eddy, a thin soil over chalk that reads just 1.5, covered 16% of our Live Oak points, while Converse's calmest common soil, Austin, reads 5.1. See all service areas.
Get a Free Foundation Inspection in Converse
Let us know what you've noticed, and we'll pass it to a foundation repair professional who works in Converse. They'll take a look and talk you through what they find. It costs nothing, and there's no obligation.
Tell us what you're seeing