A town on a fault line
The Handbook of Texas places Comal County on the divide between the Blackland Prairies and the Balcones Escarpment. Below the escarpment, in the eastern quarter, the Blackland Prairie soil is loam with clay subsoils. The northwestern three-quarters of the county is hill country, where the loam is shallow to deep loam. The same source adds that the Balcones Fault zone of the Edwards Aquifer is the county’s main source of groundwater.
For a homeowner, the practical result is the lot-to-lot swing. Clay subsoil under a lawn on the east side swells and shrinks; a hillside lot to the northwest may sit on shallow soil, partly on rock. The county’s rainfall averages 33.19 inches a year, per the Handbook, which leaves plenty of room for dry summers and flooding rains.
Newer houses, mostly slabs
New Braunfels is young. The Census Bureau puts the median home’s construction year at 2006. 63% of its 44,517 housing units date from 2000 or later and only 20% from before 1980. 68% are single-family detached houses.
Houses of that age are almost all slabs, the usual Texas foundation per ASCE’s Texas Section. Their problems aren’t old-house problems: builder-graded drainage, clay under thin slabs, landscaping that holds water against the wall.
Call to schedule an inspection
The water rule nobody else has
Most cities in the area say only that hand watering is allowed. New Braunfels Utilities goes further and names foundations. Its current conservation stage page says foundations may be watered up to two hours on any day, within 24 inches of the foundation by hand-held hose, or with a soaker hose or drip system that doesn’t spray above the ground.
The stages follow the Edwards Aquifer and Comal Springs. NBU says Stage 1 may be declared when the aquifer falls to 660 feet or 225 cfs, whichever comes first. On October 19, 2026 the page listed Stage 2, so check it for the current status. Water for foundations is a drought-time allowance, not an excuse for soaking the ground; the watering guide covers how much is enough.
Permits
New Braunfels is stricter than the phrase “repair” suggests. The city says it requires a permit permit for any repair of a structure, and its online portal has a Foundation permit type. Two of its checklists mention foundation repair:
| Project | What the city’s checklist asks |
|---|---|
| Remodel with foundation repair | A foundation plan under IRC chapter 4 |
| Addition that needs foundation repair | A sealed engineered foundation plan for additions |
| Any of the above | All contractors, including the general contractor, must be registered with the City |
Those are checklists for remodels and additions; a stand-alone repair may use the Foundation permit type. Call the Building Safety Division before you sign, and ask the contractor who pulls the permit and who provides any sealed drawings.
Call to schedule an inspection
What to check at a New Braunfels house
- Where does the lot slope, and where does the water go?
- Which side of the Balcones Escarpment is the house on?
- Is there a tree, a sprinkler head or a bed against the slab?
- When was it built? The year tells you what kind of foundation to expect and which paperwork may exist.
Call to schedule an inspection, and ask for the elevation readings in writing.