LEAWOOD

Leawood incorporated in 1948 and has been extending south ever since, so the north end of the city and the south end are effectively different housing markets with different foundations under them. The older north has post war homes with mature trees on top of them.

The south has larger, newer houses on ground that was farmland within living memory and had to be graded before anyone built. Indian Creek and Tomahawk Creek run through it, and proximity to either changes how long the ground around a basement stays saturated.

Our records cover more than 50 Leawood jobs. On alluvial ground the questions are about water and fill rather than swelling clay, and that is where most of that Leawood experience actually sits.

What the ground under Leawood is actually doing

The soil most common under Leawood is Kennebec, which is alluvial — laid down by water rather than weathered in place. It is about 27% clay with a linear extensibility of 4.0, on the low side of moderate.

Alluvial ground brings its own question, and it is not swelling. Soil that was deposited by water tends to sit where water still wants to go, and it can vary in density over short distances because it was never laid down evenly. In Leawood we are usually more interested in what the water table and the fill are doing than in how much the clay expands.