Types of foundation work
- Slab-on-grade with grade beams. The slab and its thickened beams are poured together. Common for additions, garages and shops.
- Spread footings. Continuous footings under walls, or pads under posts and columns, such as patio covers and carports.
- Stem walls. A short concrete wall on a footing that raises the floor above grade.
- Pier and beam. Concrete piers carry wood or steel beams and a framed floor. Searched in the Lubbock market about as often as slab foundations.
Frost depth and caliche
The City of Lubbock's climatic and geographic design criteria list a frost line of 14 inches, along with a 15 psf ground snow load and seismic design category A. Footings have to bear below frost depth so freezing soil cannot heave them.
Below that, Lubbock County soils often carry caliche, a calcium-carbonate layer that soil studies describe ranging from a few inches to about 10 feet thick. In the Amarillo series it typically starts 30 to 60 inches down. Caliche is firm to bear on but slow to trench, and water does not drain through it well. Clay-rich soils near playas move more with moisture. A foundation contractor should know what the site holds before pricing the dig.
Permits and inspections
Inside the City of Lubbock, a foundation for a habitable addition or a new building is part of a building permit with plan review, and general contractors working in the city must be registered with the Department of Building Safety. Outside city limits, unincorporated Lubbock County has no building permit or inspection program, so on rural land nobody but you and the contractor checks the work. That is a reason to get engineered drawings for any large shop or house foundation.
Foundation pour versus foundation repair
New foundations and footings are concrete-contractor work. Lifting or stabilizing an existing house foundation is a different trade: foundation repair specialists using piers and engineering reports. If your house has sticking doors, stair-step cracks in brick or sloping floors, contact a foundation repair company or a structural engineer. Our contractors handle new footings and slabs, slab leveling for flatwork, and repairs to driveways, walks and patios.
What to ask
- Are there drawings, and who designed the footing or beam sizes?
- How deep will footings bear, and what happens if you hit caliche or fill?
- What steel goes in, and will it be on chairs so it stays in the middle of the concrete?
- Is there a vapor barrier under the slab?
- Who schedules any city inspection before the pour?
Back to the main guide: concrete contractors in Lubbock, TX.