Bradburn Village-Expansive Soils (Denver, Westminster, Boulder: buying a home, neighborhood, buying)

[zermmom]

We are moving to the Denver area and are interested in purchasing a home in the Bradburn Village neighborhood in Westminster. Does anyone know if there have been structural problems with homes in the neighborhood due to expansive soil. Also, is it recommended to have a structural engineer inspection when buying a home in the Denver area? I am from another state and am not familiar with expansive soil issues.

[Bradburn1]

I live in Bradburn, have for almost 10 years. As to soil issues, foundation/structural problems no, minor landscape (such as gate post) settling, yes there's been some of that in here, but no more than you would find in any other development in the area. The entire region has predominately clay, expansive soils. As long as appropriate steps are taken during construction they are not a problem. Still a reasonable thing to check though and be concerned with in the entire Denver area.

There is one place in this area though notorious for especially difficult soils and that's the town/area of Superior, which is 15 minutes west of Bradburn on the way to Boulder. I wouldn't not buy a house there because of this, but would check an existing structure carefully and would check the soil report extra carefully. Obviously would still check that anywhere in Denver.

If you have other Bradburn questions, feel free to send me a private message. Good luck with house hunt!

[2bindenver]

All areas of the front range have the potential of expansive soils. Every lot has been tested and the foundation engineered specific to the report.

The first house I sold in 1989 was a VA repo for $9,000 a house the had split in two due to the expansive soils.

If you are looking at new ask for the soils report if resale, ask for it with the due diligence docs.

You can search for a 2011 thread here or read http://fieldguides.gsapubs.org/content/1/1.full.pdf