Colorado Expansive Soils, Grading and Drainage Defect Lawyer
Colorado's Front Range has some of the most expansive clay soils in the country. When these soils get wet they swell, and when they dry they shrink, which can lift and crack foundations, slabs, driveways and walls. Builders know this. That's why Colorado building practice calls for soils reports, engineered foundations, careful compaction and drainage that moves water away from the structure.
When those steps get skipped or done wrong, the damage can be severe. As a former excavation company owner, I've seen how grading and drainage decisions made in the dirt work phase show up years later as structural damage.
Signs of a Soils or Drainage Defect
Soil sloping toward the house instead of away from it
Water pooling against the foundation after rain or snowmelt
Downspouts that discharge next to the foundation
Settling or sinking around the perimeter of the home
Heaving basement slabs, garage floors, patios or sidewalks
Window wells that fill with water
Cracking that worsens seasonally
Common Causes
Typical failures include building without an adequate soils investigation, ignoring the geotechnical engineer's recommendations, poor compaction of backfill and utility trenches, final grades that don't meet the required slope away from the foundation, missing or failing perimeter drains, and landscaping or irrigation that the builder installed against the house. Overlot grading problems in a subdivision can affect many homes at once.
Who May Be Responsible
Depending on the facts, responsible parties can include the developer, the builder, the geotechnical engineer, the civil engineer who designed the grading plan, the excavation and grading contractor, and the landscape contractor. Where many homes in a community share the same problem, there may be grounds for a coordinated claim.
Frequently Asked Questions
Isn't drainage the homeowner's responsibility after closing? Owners do have maintenance duties, and builders often point to them. But a homeowner can't maintain their way out of grades that were built wrong or a foundation that wasn't designed for the soil. The facts decide who's responsible.
Did my builder have to get a soils report? Colorado law requires builders of new residential construction to provide buyers with a summary of the soils report and related information about the site's soil conditions. If you never got one, or the builder didn't follow it, that matters to your claim.
Can neighbors with the same problem bring a claim together? Sometimes, yes. Common defects across a subdivision can support joined claims or a class action, which can share expert costs and increase leverage.
Contingent fee representation is available for qualifying soils and drainage claims, and hourly arrangements are available for other matters. Call 303-409-7529 for a free case review.