How does water drainage affect your home's foundation? Water drainage can destroy your home's foundation. Water drainage is the single most important aspect of building a house foundation. It can and will...
Water drainage is the single most important aspect of building a house foundation. It can and will affect the foundation in the future if the drainage is poor. Water can be very destructive to foundations, basements and crawlspaces and will be very costly to repair. The trick is keeping it as far away from the house as possible. On a positive note, to achieve a dry, well-drained lot is very economical. Drainage affects a foundation in two ways.
If water stays undetected and does not drain properly, then the water will soak into the soil. This causes the area where the standing water is to swell up more than the adjacent swells. "Basically, it will lift your house," says Fred Marshall, owner of Advanced Foundation Repair. His company started repairing foundations 13 years ago and has repaired more than 10,000 foundations. By lifting the house, it causes a problem called heaving. Heaving is when the soil actually lifts the structure up. Heaving is much more difficult to deal with and much more expensive to repair than settling. Avoidance of this problem is key.
When looking to build a house foundation, the first thing to do is make sure that the ground has good, smooth slopes away from where the location of the home will be. Make sure the top of the foundation or slab stick is up high enough out of the ground. If not, then it is impossible to create sloping grounds with adequate drainage. By having sloping grounds, it directs water away from the house and it drains naturally. If a builder follows model building codes, then they will know the requirement states that the ground slope should be at least six inches down in the first 10 feet of distance away from the house, says Tim Carter, a national syndicated newspaper columnist on askthebuilder.com.
Another important factor is to waterproof a home. One can start with downspouts, informs HGTV.com. "Make sure they are not dumping rain water where it will pool against the foundation of the house." If the downspouts are open ended, make sure to use an extension hose to direct the water or rain water away from the home. Keep it at a safe distance. Make sure gutters are placed, stay clean and are sloped toward the downspouts. If landscaping or gardens will be put it, then make sure that edging does not trap water and hold it up against the house or foundation. The soil should stay damp but a homeowner does not want to be able to see puddles and puddles of water accumulating from poor drainage. "There are high quality waterproofing systems out there," says Carter. "Some are actually synthetic rubbers that have incredible elastic properties or other systems use a natural clay that swells when it gets wet." Out on the market are plastic foundation wraps that waterproof a foundation. These products are large rolls with bumps that create a pathway for water to easily flow down the sides of the foundation to the drain tile. When meeting with the builder or when buying a home, ask questions to know what you are buying into.
