Poor Soil Drainage May Damage Your House

Splashing through puddles might be fun for kids, but dealing with pooling water as an adult doesn't have quite the same appeal. Poor soil drainage often causes standing water in your yard, and it could cause valleys of erosion to cut through your property.

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Even more, how well your soil drains could affect your home, potentially causing poor soil drainage and house damage if the water issue is bad enough.

What Does Soil Drainage Have to Do With My Home?

How quickly water drains through your soil might seem unrelated to your home. Muddy puddles in your yard could lead to messes inside your home, but that's just the beginning. Slow-draining soil holds excess water in the ground near your home. That creates hydrostatic pressure, which can push against your foundation.

Soil drainage also causes expansion and contraction in the soil as water enters and exits it. The changes in the soil can cause shifting and pressure that also affects your foundation.

Erosion caused by soil drainage issues could also eventually impact your home's foundation. When the soil gets washed away, your home loses support that keeps it secure with a strong base.

What Can Happen If You Have Poor Soil Drainage?

Poor soil drainage house damage often affects the foundation first. The foundation damage may cause other issues throughout the home. Here are some potential problems you could face:

• Structural damage: Hydrostatic pressure and shifting soil could cause your foundation to move. This includes bowing and cracks in the walls.

• Foundation cracks: Another cause of cracks in your foundation is the water itself. Concrete foundations absorb water, which can become a problem in large amounts. Excess water in your foundation can cause the concrete to deteriorate, creating cracks that weaken the foundation.

• Basement leaks and flooding: The cracks and structural damage often lead to moisture in your basement. It could start as excess moisture and eventually lead to major flooding. This can cause additional issues, such as water damage to drywall and flooring in a finished basement. Mold and mildew growth are also concerns with excess moisture.

• Weak foundation: Loss of support could weaken your foundation. Weak, structurally damaged foundations often cause issues inside your home, such as sloping floors, cracked walls and doors and windows that stick.

How Can I Test Soil Drainage on My Property?

You can test how well your soil drains by digging a hole that's 12 inches deep and 12 inches wide. Fill it completely with water and let it drain completely. This step gets the soil wet first before you do the actual test.

Once the water drains completely, fill the hole up again with water. This time, you're going to monitor how fast the water drains. Using a ruler, measure how many inches drain out of the hole each hour.

An ideal drainage rate is about 1 to 4 inches per hour. If it drains faster than that, the soil might not hold enough water for plants. If it takes longer to drain, you have poor drainage on your property.

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Solutions to Prevent Poor Soil Drainage House Damage

Determining the specific soil problems that are causing damage to your home is the first step. This helps you create a plan for correcting those issues. Potential fixes include:

• Correcting the grade: If the problem is the grading of your yard, you may need to change the slope of the ground to direct water away from your foundation. The ground should ideally slope away from your home to encourage water to flow away from the foundation naturally.

• Installing drainage systems: Adding a drainage system, such as a French drain, helps move water off your property and keeps it away from your foundation.

• Redirecting downspouts: Fixing your gutters and downspouts can prevent water from soaking into the ground near the foundation. Ensure the downspouts move water away from the foundation and the gutters work properly.

• Handling aeration and amendments: Drainage issues can happen because of soil compaction. Aerating your lawn could help ease that issue and improve soil drainage. You can also add soil amendments, such as compost, perlite or vermiculite, depending on the needs of the soil, to improve drainage.

If you're not sure how to improve your lawn, a landscaping professional can help assess the situation and make recommendations. For existing foundation issues caused by poor drainage, a foundation repair company can help correct the issue before it gets worse.