Now when most of us in the US think about coastal cities we think about the ocean and lush sandy beaches, abundant sunshine and just a relaxing feeling. Shoot, I am thinking about the opportunity right now to go sit on the beach and soak in some rays! But, just a few feet away from this sandy paradise we start to have a change in scenery as well as a change from the sandy beach to a less attractive, dark, slimy clay soil make up.
Yes, there is a lot of clay soils once you come off of the beachy ocean areas of the coast. Clay soils make up most of the soil within our Southern California coastal communities. From Imperial Beach all the way up to Pismo, the soils are heavily filled with clay. There is nothing wrong with it, but as you have learned from our other articles, clay soils just tend to have more expanding and shrinking characteristics than the sand that we think about when we talk about coastal communities.
We have met with thousands of homeowners throughout this region and a lot of them are surprised by the amount of clay soil that is supporting their home. Most of them are in the mindset that “I live in a coastal community, why would I not have sand supporting my home?” And how would you know any differently, unless you are in our industry or a geotechnical engineer that performs many soil samples and borings of these areas. You wouldn’t and no one would expect you to. Just like we couldn’t tell you any differently on a type of mail carrier services is better, at the end of the day the mail still gets delivered, but just how effectively.
Bottom line is that if you live in a coastal community you are not eliminating your home from having potential foundation movement from expanding and contracting clay soils. The clays are very dense in these communities, minus the beach of course. Just don’t think your home is the only one, trust us, it is not at all!
