Was wondering if anyone else has had foundation issues with the ongoing severe drought conditions over the last year.
Living about 10 miles east of Lawrence, the soil here is mostly clay. According to those who know more about soil and drought than I do, clay shrinks alot during drought conditions; and when your house is built on this type of land, that's not a good thing. Over the course of the last year, the right side of my house started sinking, causing the foundation to crack, and that side of the house was lower than the middle by almost 2". Kind of like the Titanic when it split in half before going down. :-(
So, I had to have that side of the house piered. Basically, they drive a set of steel piers down to to the bedrock (in my case that was 7') to jack up and support that side of the house. Not cheap ($8500 for my home), and NOT covered by homeowner's insurance.
Positives- at least my home is now pretty much drought-proof for the future. Also, I already had a working relationship with the foundation repair company owner(had done his website), so it could have been FAR more costly(I've heard of homes costing 20-30 grand to do this repair).
Was curious to see if anyone else here has had similar problems.
Z