The large majority of house foundations constructed in the Greater Houston Area in the last 25-years have been post-tensioned foundations. In addition, if you are looking for a house within a specific price range in a particular subdivision or area of town, every house that fits your criteria may be either post-tensioned or conventionally reinforced. From a practical perspective, what is important is how well or how poorly a specific foundation has performed in the past rather than how it is reinforced.

My experience with post-tensioned and conventional slab foundations

One of the authors grew up in a house founded on a conventionally reinforced foundation and has lived in a house founded on a post-tensioned foundation for the almost 30-years. Neither house has ever shown any significant distress due to foundation movement with the exception of the house the author grew up in and that house displayed problems only after it was rented and the occupants did not water the soil adjacent to the foundation during dry periods.

Post-tensioned versus conventional slab foundations: The bottom line

The bottom line is that, in our opinion, the question of whether a resale house has a conventionally reinforced foundation or a post-tensioned foundation should be a non-issue.