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Residential Foundations Guidelines

The Texas Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers is pleased to announce the availability of the following documents:

Guidelines for the Evaluation and Repair of Residential Foundations

Recommended Practice for the Design of Residential Foundations (revised October 2007)

On January 8, 2005, the Texas Section-ASCE Executive Committee voted to provide these guidelines at no cost.  The guidelines can be downloaded using the links above.

The Texas Section welcomes comments on these guidelines. At this time the online Comment Submittal Form is not available. Please call the Section office for instructions on submitting comments (512-472-8905).

These documents grew out of the response from many Section members to the residential foundation Policy Advisory issued by the Texas Board of Professional Engineers (TBPE) in 1998. Many ASCE practitioners expressed the opinion that technical guidelines, such as the Policy Advisory, should be created by a technical society such as ASCE rather than by the TBPE. A goal of the guidelines is to provide the TBPE with guidance in their evaluation of complaints brought against engineers practicing residential foundation engineering. Two Texas Section committees composed entirely of ASCE member Professional Engineers began work on these guidelines in 1999. The guidelines were adopted in October 2002 with an effective date of January 1, 2003.

These guidelines are not intended to be Standards, but are guidelines only, reflecting the engineering opinions and practices of the committee members. They in no way replace the basic need for good engineering judgment based on appropriate education, experience, wisdom, and ethics in any particular engineering application. Thus, they are primarily suited as an aid for and use by engineers.

Updated 2/27/2008

1524 S. IH-35, Suite 180 | Austin, Texas 78704-2615
Phone: 512-472-8905 | Fax: 512-472-5641
office@texasce.org