While doing some googling on composting I happened to run across this thread. I have been studying expansive clay soils for the past 20 years. I thought I may be able to contribute a little. First off compost is expansive. You want to remove all organic material from any proposed building site. If you intend on building a new home hire an engineer. No one type of foundation will work on all soils. If you have ever had to have a foundation repaired you know that the expense if hiring the engineer is money well spent. After the home is built drainage is very important (Keep this in mind when determining the elevation of the foundation.) The dehydrated soil you are building on is currently shrunk due to our present drought. It can expand if drainage is not adequate. If you have an existing home adding compost will help only because it helps to retain moisture. The secret is to have moisture consistency. So if the home was built on dry ground then keep it dry. If the home was build on moist ground then keep it that way. I do not like soaker hoses. They tend to put out more water at the low points and less at the high points. A regulated drip system is my preference. If you take care of the upper layers of dirt it will help prevent moisture loss from the lower layers. Tree roots are the biggest problem. It takes several hundred gallons of water per day to maintain them. They will inevitable travel under the house for moisture, way past the drip line. Termites. All the ground in Texas is infested with termites. Foundations should have 6" of foundation exposure. All homes should have a regular program of termite control.

Thanks for the page of links! Now I know what to Google. I'd been unfamiliar with the term "rubblestone." I'll check out those links. There's no sign of the foundation changing in the past 40 years--no changes in the way doors close or other differences in the 1st and 2nd floors with its post-and-beam construction. It's reasonably water-tight (some water has always leaked in at the base of one corner; it follows a trench to a sandy spot where it sinks away). I'm not so much trying to "fix" our cellar's foundation walls as to plug up air leaks and make it a bit more challenging for rodents to get in. Basically we hope to patch it up more or less the way the previous generations did. We just heard from the guys who haul in our firewood each fall--suddenly our cellar work has to be done within the next 5 days due to their schedule. Looks like we'll be stuffing fiberglass into the cracks again. I did note in some article links (just started reading them) that there's a danger in repairing only from the inside--I can see there's more to this than I'd imagined. Sadly, we can't afford a major (or minor) engineering project. The house needs to stay intact about 15-20 years (our maximum expected lifespan), which I think it will do. Thanks again!

As others have experienced, my recently-purchased, 19th century farmhouse has a stone foundation in need of repair. I'm chatty, so grab a snack and sit back for some light reading. ;) Of the 3 basement rooms, the east room is not parged, and the floor gets wet after it rains. The thing is, we accidentally discovered the south walls are hollow. Yes. Hollow. So far, we've repaired an approx. 3' x 4' area of hollow, interior foundation wall that we could easily access. We knew there'd be more. (I agree that parging only serves to hide problems.) Sure, the mortar is nothing more than sand, in much of the south walls and the west corners. But when we started pulling away the loose stones, we found huge voids within the foundation. Using stones and cement/mortar, we repaired the voids as best we could. We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves, for finding the exterior sources of the water problems, correcting them, and then fixing the foundation voids.) (When we first moved-in, I spent about 100 hrs in the one, non-parged room in the basement, brushing the surface and pointing every little gap.) We also painstakingly went around the above-ground exterior foundation, and filled-in any obvious gaps, and redirected downspouts and other water purge pipes. (As renovations continue, a new roof and gutters will be installed appropriately.) But here's what happened (and why my urgency to get this solidified ASAP)... I like my music and movies. I'm very hard on subwoofers. The last one was 400W, and began deteriorating a few months ago. I lived without one due to the numerous renovation projects going on in the house. (We've lightened the house substantially, I suspect, by removing all the heavy, heavy plaster & lathe - double layers, in places - to lightweight drywall, as we reconfigured everything.) So, as a kind of treat, once the home theatre was able to be set-up again, my husband bought a bigger, better, badder subwoofer for me. I now have 650W of goodness at my disposal. Yippee! But, as always in life, there are pros and cons to everything. The thing is, the west basement room has yet to be addressed, and sits directly under the new sub. After extended play at delicious levels, I went to the basement...just to see if there were any repercussions (pardon the pun). Frighteningly, there was some evidence of surface degradation. i.e. There was some sand/mortar, parge, and some small rocks on the floor. As best I can tell, the thumping bass dislodged them (although I can't be 100% sure, as I didn't check first, and we had similar results elsewhere, when doing the main floor flooring). Again, here's the thing... I took my super-skinny pointing tool and poked various spots on the interior foundation wall under the subwoofer. When it easily went all the way in, I tried a longer length of stiff electrical wiring. It went in a foot, with ease. A little freaked out, I went back to the middle basement room, where we'd repaired part of the wall. The untouched areas are parged, so it's not easy to find gaps to test. Then, just under the repaired area, I tried a space just big enough for the pointing tool, and it wet all the way in. Our exterior, south wall of the house is covered in ivy. A neighbour informed us that, a few years ago, the (brick) wall collapsed inward. The repairs are only evident once the ivy dies away in winter. However, it doesn't appear the foundation collapsed, or was affected by the collapse. But with that parge and paint, who knows? Soooooo... As I get down and dirty with more urgency in wire brushing and re-pointing, any expert thoughts, recommendations, pro tips? (And no...the foundation needs to be strong enough to handle the subwoofer, as that bad boy's not going anywhere.) ;) Until now, I'd always kind of felt a little invincible, in that the house has faced countless storms and even some minor earthquakes over its century+ life. There even used to be a railroad across our front lawn, not 75' from the front porch. Surely, a little truck rumbling, thunderstorm, or occasional subwoofer use couldn't hurt it. Now, I'm nervous. :O

You have to rerun spouts get water away from house,then have the foundation repointed.Ours wast too bad as we have rock laying everywhere up here.We gathered rock so where some needed replaced we had it there for masons.