In Colorado Springs and Black Forest, the ground can lift a foundation

Some parts of buying a home around Colorado Springs have nothing to do with the house itself. They are about the ground under it.

Many spots in El Paso County, including the Colorado Springs and Black Forest areas, sit on expansive soils and rock. These contain clay minerals like bentonite and montmorillonite, which soak up water and swell. The Colorado Geological Survey notes this clay can expand a lot when it gets wet and push with very large force. When that happens under a home, it can crack basement floors, lift slabs, and damage a foundation. As the ground later dries, it shrinks again, so the movement is not a one-time event.

There is a local twist here, too. The survey has mapped areas of steeply dipping bedrock under the City of Colorado Springs where the layers can heave unevenly. That uneven, or differential, lift is hard to spot from the curb, which is why it is worth knowing about before you buy.

None of this is a reason to avoid the area. It is simply normal Front Range homework. The standard way people handle it is not a guessing game about repair costs. It is a soils, or geotechnical, report from a qualified engineer, plus a foundation designed to match what the ground does. The survey itself says only a competent soil engineer and engineering geologist should judge this hazard.

To understand how these soils work and where the heave zones are mapped, start with the Colorado Geological Survey.