Baytown, Texas: what the ground under the city is like
Baytown sits in Harris County, on texas gulf coast prairie. The soil mapped here is predominantly classified poorly drained — and that classification, not the rainfall total, is what decides how a slab foundation behaves.
Linear extensibility 9.4% — very high.
68% of the mapped soil area around Baytown is wet enough that the USDA describes it as needing artificial drainage.
Shallowest annual water table around 70 cm (2.3 ft).
Values are for Harris County, which is what the soil survey resolves to. Full county report · soil map for a specific address.
The ground under Baytown
Texas Gulf Coast prairie. Beaumont and Lissie clays — deltaic smectite clay, flat, water table close to the surface
Highly expansive clay and a shallow water table on ground with essentially no slope. Houston is the largest single market for residential foundation repair in the country and this soil is why. Add regional subsidence from groundwater withdrawal and the movement is not always the house's fault.
When it shows up here
| Slab moisture | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ground movement | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
Water peaks from August to October with the tropical season, when a single storm can deliver a season’s rain in two days. The spring dry spell is when clay movement shows up.
Climate pattern for this physiographic region, not a forecast for your house and not from the soil survey. It answers a question homeowners actually ask: when does this show up.
What repairs cost in Texas
| Reference job | Modelled range |
|---|---|
| Slab foundation lifted and stabilised on 12 piers | $16,900–$36,100 |
| Two slab cracks injected + regrading around the perimeter | $1,900–$6,300 |
| Engineer's report plus buried downspout discharge | $1,200–$4,150 |
Regional factor for TX: ×0.94. Full cost breakdown for Texas · run your own dimensions.
ZIP codes in Baytown
77520, 77521, 77522, 77523
Soil does not stop at a city boundary, and neither does this data — every ZIP code above resolves to the same county soil survey. For the individual survey polygons around one address, use the soil map.
Other places in Harris County
Questions about Baytown
Is the soil the same everywhere in Baytown?
No. These values describe Harris County as a whole, which is the unit the soil survey publishes. Within a city, map units change over a few hundred metres — the soil map draws the actual polygons around a point and is the honest answer for one address.
Which contractor should I call in Baytown?
We do not rank or recommend individual firms and we are not one. What this page is for is knowing which kind of work the ground here points to before anyone quotes you, and which claim to check. If you want quotes, the form below passes your request to the named networks.
Does this replace an inspection?
No. It tells you what the ground is; an inspection tells you what your building is doing on it. The useful order is: read this, print the brief for your county, then have someone look.
Get quotes in Baytown
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Page data updated