The Land
It's rough, it's rugged, and it's beautiful. And as we all know, beauty has its price.
Lake Bridgeport Views is your best source for finding lakefront property in Texas, lakefront real estate, lakefront homes, waterfront property for sale, and even lakefront house plans.
Dangerous Foundations
Lake Bridgeport has some of the most beautiful land in North Texas. Numerous heavily wooded Sandstone and Limestone hills surround much of the lake and are interspersed with grassy clearings. The wooded hills of this region can provide a beautiful home site but not without serious risk. In every slope there are forces, which tend to promote downslope movement (slope creep), and opposing forces, which tend to resist movement.
To make matters much worse, much of the land at Lake Bridgeport has a thin layer of very porous clay soil that is notoriously poor. This highly plastic clay is the kind of soil that will shrink and crack in summer when we have no rain. When it rains, the clay swells and the cracks close back up but not without lasting and/or ongoing damage. Even worse, building a home on a hill with poor expansive soil that is interspersed with layers of limestone can be a recipe for economic disaster. Most experts will tell you to avoid building a new home on swelling clay soils. Prospective homebuyers should look for houses that are at least five or six years old. Usually in the first five or six years after a house has been constructed it will have gone through some wet and dry conditions, making it possible to recognize problems from shrinking and swelling soils, and from ground movement. Before purchasing any existing home have it inspected! Texas requires that all home inspectors be licensed.
It's and educated guess that at least half of the homes on the Northwestern side of Lake Bridgeport have already developed some foundation problems. If you are considering buillding a home on a hilltop or hillside at Lake Bridgeport, a Geotechnical engineering investigation may be very, very expensive, but it may save you a fortune in foundation repairs! You will need to explore ground and soil stabilization techniques as well.
If you are thinking about building a new home, here are some helpful hints in evaluation your hillside home site. If you find evidence of any of these characteristics get thee to a Geotechnical engineer!
- Ground cracks on hillside.
- Dish-shaped areas within otherwise relatively uniform slope usually steep at the top and then flattening out.
- Small hills, mounds, rounded knolls, irregular spaces, elongated ridges, and ground cracks on hillside.
- Any evidence of wetness or water seeps either actual or as indicated by type and color of vegetation.
- Tilted trees; trees that lean down slope with trunks curving upward, trees leaning at an appreciable angle or trees leaning in different directions
- Evidence of erosion; down cutting of stream, vertical banks on outside of meanders, and trees being undercut.
- Seepage through the hillsides and creek banks.
- If there are existing buildings on the parcel, check for cracks in foundation walls or brickwork. Turf pulled away from foundation or pole.
- Any stucco or drywall cracks that are parallel with a hillside slope can be an indication of possible slab cracking and slope movement. These types of cracks can be the most serious, because they are symptoms of slope movement
- Open cracks in basement, garage or concrete paving.
- Bulging or tilting retaining walls.
You can obtain Soil Survey Book of Wise County and U.S.G.S. maps for this region at the library. The Soil Survey book will include maps and information on the type of surface soil; and technical and descriptive information about the stability of the various types of soil.
Geology Links and Texas Geological Maps
http://www.nhnct.org/geology/geo2.html#earthlink
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