Los Alamos, New Mexico: what the ground under the city is like
Los Alamos sits in Los Alamos County, on rocky mountains. 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 4.5% — moderate.
16% of the mapped soil area around Los Alamos is wet enough that the USDA describes it as needing artificial drainage.
Shallowest annual water table around 145 cm (4.8 ft).
Values are for Los Alamos County, which is what the soil survey resolves to. Full county report · soil map for a specific address.
The ground under Los Alamos
Rocky Mountains. Stony colluvium and glacial deposits, bedrock close to the surface
Shallow bedrock and coarse material. Basements are shallow or absent, and the problem is spring meltwater rather than a water table.
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 with the March–April thaw, when frozen ground stops absorbing and meltwater plus spring rain arrive together. If a basement here leaks once a year, that is when.
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 New Mexico
| Reference job | Modelled range |
|---|---|
| Slab foundation lifted and stabilised on 12 piers | $17,100–$36,500 |
| Two slab cracks injected + regrading around the perimeter | $1,900–$6,350 |
| Engineer's report plus buried downspout discharge | $1,250–$4,200 |
Regional factor for NM: ×0.95. Full cost breakdown for New Mexico · run your own dimensions.
ZIP codes in Los Alamos
87544, 87545
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.
Questions about Los Alamos
Is the soil the same everywhere in Los Alamos?
No. These values describe Los Alamos 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 Los Alamos?
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 Los Alamos
We pass what you enter to the contractor networks listed below. You choose whether to hire anyone.
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