Should you water around your foundation? (2023)

Should I water around my foundation?

Be sure to water every part of the perimeter that comes into contact with the soil. A sprinkler is also a great option for watering the foundation around your home.

Watering your foundation with a soaker hose or drip system will prevent cracking and other damage from occurring. When watering your foundation, about one to one and a quarter inches of water per session is needed. Avoid overwatering—soaking the ground completely can cause the clay to shift, taking your home with it.

The answer is that a yard sprinkler can be effective in some cases but more often it is not run enough to be effective at preventing some seasonal differential settlement in a foundation due to soil drying, which can affect interior finishes.

The best way to do foundation watering is by using soaker hoses (which can be linked to a timer and/or an irrigation system). Soaker hoses should be placed around your foundation. It helps to bury them a few inches deep, generally 4 to 6 inches from the edge of your foundation.

You can hydrate your soil with a sprinkler system or soaker hose three times a week for about 30 minutes. But be careful not to add too much water to your foundation. It should be slightly damp, and not soaking wet. Cole said draining water away from the home is also key to keeping a healthy foundation.

Expect to run your hoses for 15 to 20 minutes per day, three to five days per week in peak summer heat. In drought conditions, you may need to water up to 45 minutes every day. This should keep the ground moist but not muddy. After a few days, the soil will expand and meet up with the side of the foundation.

Depending on your soil conditions and water release rate, you may need to water anywhere between 20-45 minutes. If all sides of your foundation are completely exposed, you may have to purchase 2-4 drip hoses, setting each side to a different watering time.

Winter watering is just as important as watering in any other season! One of the easiest ways to avoid foundation problems is by keeping the soil uniformly moist throughout the year. Foundation problems often arise from the expansion and contraction of clay soils.

Water from the exterior of the foundation exerts stress on your foundation walls, causing them to crack. Depending on the nature of the cracks, you should expect anything from a minor foundation repair to an expensive repair job. Concrete is porous and gets easily discolored when groundwater stays on the surface.

Soil that isn't watered frequently enough actually shrinks in size. As that soil shrinks, it leaves more open gaps beneath your home. Your foundation can then sink into these spaces. In the same breath, water can more readily fill these spaces when it does eventually rain.

How do landscapers keep water away from foundation?

Gutters and downspouts are excellent methods for moving water away from a home foundation. Rainfall on the roof naturally drips directly next to the foundation, creating various issues like hydrostatic pressure, differential settling and erosion.

Start by digging a trench around the house, lay a drainpipe with holes in the trench, then cover it with gravel. Top it off with soil. The pipe will direct water away from the foundation. The trench should be three to four feet deep, two to three feet wide, and have a 3% to 5% downslope to direct rainwater effectively.

Soaker Hose Flow Rate

To give your plants the amount of water they need to stay healthy, you'll need to leave it on for roughly 200 continuous minutes. Or, 2 hours and 20 minutes. This may seem like a long time, but that's the whole idea.

Unfortunately, no one factor causes damage, and so there is no fixed amount of time. Underground water sources can cause the concrete to crack. If this is the case, it could be years before you notice any damage. However, these gradual changes are almost a constant attack on the foundation.

Therefore, it is necessary to look at the exterior portion of the basement and consider waterproofing basement walls from the outside. Waterproofing can prevent seepage through cracks in the basement. An exterior basement waterproofing system involves excavating the soil surrounding the foundation of your house.

Cover your irrigation lines (drip or soaker hoses) with 2-3 inches of mulch to protect from sunlight. Do not bury soaker hoses with soil unless they are designed for this purpose or you may clog the pores.

Start running your soaker hose about 30 minutes twice a week. After a watering day, check your soil to see if the moisture has penetrated several inches, then adjust accordingly. When you find the magic number for your conditions, use a timer to water the same number of minutes every time.

Drip irrigation uses flexible plastic tubing with tiny holes or “emitters” that slowly drip water into the soil. Learn more in Tips for Installing Drip Irrigation at Home (pdf). Soaker hoses are made of porous material that “leak” or seep water all along their length. Learn more in the Soaker Hose fact sheet (pdf).

Water Dry Soil

The best way to address this problem is to stop it before it starts by keeping the ground evenly moist. To maintain soil moisture, simply water around your house's foundation using a hose. Doing this procedure regularly in the dry season will help keep your foundation secure.

What is the best way to water your foundation?

You can either hand water the foundation (using a garden hose,) or use a soaker hose or sprinkler system that waters the area for approximately 15-20 minutes. The most effective way to water your foundation is by having the water placed about 10-15 inches away from the actual foundation (not right on it).

Water can ruin the exterior and interior of your home. Your foundation can be discolored, and prematurely aged. If it soaks through to your floors it can ruin hardwood, laminate, and tile… not to mention the damage to baseboards and your walls! Basements smell musty from always being damp.

The goal of a foundation watering program is to maintain a constant level of moisture in the soil under the house and foundation. The best way to water a foundation is to install a buried foundation watering system.

The amount of watering your foundation will need depends on how dry it is in the winter. If it rains very little in January and February, be sure and water your foundation at least 2-3X a month. You'll probably need to apply moisture for 15-20 minutes at a time.

Taking care of your home's foundation is vitally important. And one of the best ways to do this is to water the foundation regularly, particularly when the weather is hot and dry. The main reason why you have to keep the soil around your home moist is that the dirt can dry out and shrink.

During summer times, heat can cause the soil to shrink and lead to foundation failure. Soil can also shrink if there are trees near the foundation who may suck water from the soil and cause the home to settle. Sometimes, plumbing leaks from sanitary sewers may cause cracks in the foundation.

What do I put around the foundation of a house? The answer is simple: flower beds, plants, mulch, and grass that will keep the soil moist and absorb the water, keeping it away from the foundation and also providing stability.

Having gravel beds around the foundations of your house is one of the most cost-effective methods of preventing overgrown weeds and shrubs, and possibly soil mounds, from infiltrating the building.

Should I fill gap between foundation and soil?

Avoid Filling Foundation Perimeter with Soil

Adding extra soil can add pressure to structures once healthy moisture levels resume.

The best way to move surface water away from the foundation is to install an underground roof (also called below-grade flashing) made from heavy-duty plastic or roofing membrane attached to the foundation and sloped away from the house. The depth depends on foundation plantings, soil type, and amount of surface water.

Codes from not too long ago said that you need at least 6 inches of foundation showing above the grade. What's more, you need at least 6 inches of fall in the soil in the first 10 feet of horizontal distance away from the house. Remember, this is a minimum standard.

Soil Grading Around Your Home

Ideally, the ground should drop one inch for every one foot that you move away from the house for the first 5-to-10 feet around your house. While this is not always possible, the ground should never be sloping upwards as you move away from your house foundation.

So, a 50 foot soaker hose would apply about 30 gallons of water per hour. Comparing this to the output of one gallon drip emitters on standard 3-foot spacings, the soaker hose applies double the amount of water over the same given time.

Disconnecting the Soaker Hose From the Source

After running the water, remove the hose coupling from its spigot. Bury the hose end into the ground.

between the hose and the stem. When the hose is in place, attach an end cap and bury the hose with bark or another type of organic mulch. Don't bury the hose in the soil. Allow the hose to run until the soil is damp to a depth of 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30.5 cm.), depending on the needs of the plant.

The three best options for redirecting water away from home foundations include French drains, gutter systems and swales. However, all of these options require professional installation to ensure they function as intended and drain or collect water in a responsible manner.

Water in the soil around a home puts pressure on the foundation that can cause cracks, leaks, and structural damage. When water pools and saturates the ground next to the house, it can cause significant foundation damage.