Maintenance

For a foundation watering system, all you ’ll need are soaker hoses and a faucet. Bury the soaker hose three inches deep, 6 inches from the edge of your foundation. Placing the hose a short distance from the foundation allows the water to soak evenly into the soil. Be careful not to place the hose against the foundation. When soil has dried and cracked, water can travel along the cracks for several feet in all directions. If the soil around your foundation is dried and cracked, then water placed next to the foundation will run through the cracks and accumulate around or under the foundation.

How much should you water? Obviously, it is necessary to water more during hot, dry weather and less during cold, damp weather. Start in the dry summer months with a 15 minute a day water regime. This can be increased or decreased as needed. The goal is to maintain a constant moisture level in the soil so that soil below the surface is damp – not soggy and not dry.

Once the watering system is set up, review the trees around the building. A single large tree can remove as much as 150 gallons of water, or almost 20 cubic feet of water, from the soil each day. Shrubs and other plants can also remove large quantities of water. When roots get under your foundations, they can cause foundation damage by drying out the soil under your foundation and causing your foundation to settle. Roots also break into pipes causing extensive plumbing damage. In such cases broken pipes lead to over wet soils which will cause foundations to heave.