El Paso, Texas: what the ground under the city is like
El Paso sits in El Paso County, on trans-pecos desert. The soil mapped here is predominantly classified well drained — and that classification, not the rainfall total, is what decides how a slab foundation behaves.
Linear extensibility 7.9% — high.
9% of the mapped soil area around El Paso is wet enough that the USDA describes it as needing artificial drainage.
Shallowest annual water table around 185 cm (6.1 ft).
Values are for El Paso County, which is what the soil survey resolves to. Full county report · soil map for a specific address.
The ground under El Paso
Trans-Pecos desert. Gravelly desert soils, gypsum and caliche horizons, alluvial fans
Arid, deep water table, minimal seepage risk. Two local hazards instead: gypsum, which dissolves and leaves voids, and collapsible fan deposits that settle abruptly the first time they are thoroughly wetted — often by a leaking irrigation line.
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 |
Rainfall is low all year, so the water line stays flat. What moves is the ground: the late spring and early summer dry-down is the sharpest part of the cycle, and summer monsoon storms end it abruptly.
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 El Paso
79901, 79902, 79903, 79904, 79905, 79906, 79907, 79908, 79910, 79911, 79912, 79913, 79914, 79915, 79917, 79920, 79922, 79923, 79924, 79925, 79926, 79927, 79928, 79929, 79930, 79931, 79932, 79934, 79935, 79936, 79937, 79938, 79940, 79941, 79942, 79943, 79944, 79945, 79946, 79947…
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 El Paso County
Questions about El Paso
Is the soil the same everywhere in El Paso?
No. These values describe El Paso 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 El Paso?
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 El Paso
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