Does Your Yard Drain Correctly?
Yard Drainage Tips
Your lawn is more than just a patch of grass. The property around your home serves a more important role than just enhancing aesthetics. A yard should allow excess water to drain away from your home and its foundation. Many South Texas homes stand on concrete slab foundations. Proper water drainage affects the structural integrity of the slab. Follow this guide from Baird Foundation Repair to learn more about how drainage affects the value and safety of your home.
Improper water drainage
Heavy rains and improper watering habits can reveal low spots in your yard and around your home. These low spots can allow excess water to collect and pool, causing structural damage to your home. The most common cause of these low spots involves yard grading.
Yard grading
The slope of your yard falls into one of two categories: positive grading and negative grading.
- Positive grading means your house sits at the high point on your property, with the surrounding land sloping down around it.
- Negative grading means your house sits at a low point on your property, like a bowl, with the land sloping up around it.
If your property has negative grading, irrigation runoff, heavy rains, or melt from rare and unexpected Texas snow, then excess water will collect around your home’s foundation. This can cause many different structural issues.
Yard drainage problems
Landscape damage. Water can collect in low spots in your lawn causing spongy soil that seems to never dry up. Over time, excess water can drown your lawn and kill your turfgrass. Also, draining water poorly can erode the soil under your driveway or sidewalk, resulting in cracked or uneven concrete. Extensive damage to these areas can require professional concrete repair.
- Standing water. In areas like San Antonio and Corpus Christi, stagnant water around your home is a magnet for pests. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some species of mosquito can grow from an egg to adulthood in a week and a half. To keep those numbers down, rid your yard of all sources of standing water. Water can also collect next to your house and cause damage to your crawl space or foundation.
- Structural damage. A poorly draining yard can damage your house. Water can seep into your foundation or wash away the surrounding soil and cause concrete slab cracks. A weak or damaged foundation can make your chimney tilt or your garage sag. Interior and exterior cracks around doors and brick walls are tell-tale signs of structural damage.
Yard drainage solutions
- Redirect the water. If your lawn is constantly soggy or rain keeps washing out your driveway, consider installing a French drain to redirect the flow. Another option for steering water away from your home is a landscaping berm or a dry creek bed. These two options are above-ground solutions for redirecting water away from your yard and foundation.
- Care for your crawl space. Keep excess moisture from damaging your home’s foundation by investing in a waterproof barrier. Dehumidifiers are another popular option for homes with humid crawl spaces. If your crawl space has already succumbed to water damage and has begun to sag, you may consider investing in a crawl space stabilizer.
- Professional assessment. Pinpoint the source of your drainage issues by putting your trust in the professionals. Your yard might have a slight negative grading, or you may have faulty gutters. Let a trained professional pinpoint your drainage issues so you can be sure they’re fixed the first time.
Restore your home!
A poorly draining lawn does more damage than killing your grass and causing puddles. Water can damage your driveway, foundation and if not addressed, your house itself. Trust Baird Foundation Repair to restore your home’s value and solve your drainage problems for good. Contact us to schedule your free inspection today!
Baird Foundation Repair , Proper yard drainage , San Antonio foundation issues