A beautiful, well-designed landscape adds value to your home just by the aesthetics. But it also helps lower electric bills, and even protects your foundation. A poorly planned landscape can have the opposite effect, wrecking your foundation over time.
Get Grading Right
The most critical part of a landscape is also the least visible: grading. This is where the landscape slopes away from your home, keeping your foundation clear of standing water. This is important when you consider flower beds are often situated right alongside the house. A proper slope should give you two to three inches of a downward slope for every 10 horizontal feet. You can measure your slope by running a string line with a line level, pulled tight, from a high point to a low point. Hold the string level and measure from the low point to the string.
If you have problems with insufficient grading and poor drainage, consider having your yard regraded. It's easy to install a moisture barrier or have a foundation drainage solution installed. You may also want to look at soil injection, which would help your home’s foundation better handle the change in water levels.
Keep Tree Roots Away
Trees offer shade, natural beauty, and add character to the landscape, but tree roots are a constant threat to foundations. When choosing trees to plant close to your home, select evergreen shrubs and smaller, ornamental trees. It's also vital you plant them at least five feet away from the house.
But what if you already have large, mature trees planted in your yard? You may want to look into installing a root barrier to protect your foundation from overreaching roots. If an encroaching tree is young enough, you may want to remove it. Making sure that a tree is well-irrigated close to the trunk base will prevent roots from seeking moisture close to your house.
Landscape on All Sides
Homeowners often choose only to landscape the parts of their yard that are visible from the street. Unfortunately, that means that they only irrigate those parts of the yard, which leaves the soil in the backyard dry and thirsty. The problem with this setup is that hydrated soil expands and dry soil contracts. By having soil on one side of the house expanding while contracting on the other side, the foundation may become cracked or distorted.
Landscaping around all sides of the house ensures even soil moisture and less stress to the foundation of your house. You also gain a bit of visual interest in the backyard.
Use Mulch on Landscape Beds
In addition to simple landscaping all around the house, make sure you top off the soil with a nice, thick layer of mulch. This helps to protect the soil from evaporation on hot summer days and keeps moisture locked in. Replace mulch annually as part of your routine yard maintenance. This will also add nutrients to your soil and fertilize plants naturally.
Mulched beds benefit from drip irrigation systems. Sprayers will only moisten the mulch layer, failing to penetrate to the soil below. A well-designed drip system will keep your plants well-hydrated and can save water by sending moisture directly into the soil.
Your landscape should be a point of pride and a source of joy, not worry. So, if you have a drainage or root problem that we can help you solve, let us help get your yard back on track.
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