How Your Yard Affects Your Home

There are a vast amount of technical and serious issues that can happen to a house’s foundation, and we love to help homeowners with those issues, but there is a number of things that any homeowner can check to help the foundation of their home. All these things have a direct correlation to the yard around the foundation.

First off is downspouts. If you’ve ever seen white water rushing out of a gutter’s downspout you have seen firsthand the importance of proper downspouts. If all the water runs out straight into the ground around the foundation, the water will settle there and find its way to the lowest pressure area. This area will be around your home’s foundation and the water can get into the smallest of cracks. To combat this, homeowners often install downspouts that direct the water further into the yard.

Secondly, incorrect grading can create major issues for the home. The area around the house, if it is graded at a slope toward the home, then all the runoff will be pounding against the foundation. Grading projects can be simple such as adding a flower bed, or they can be complicated such as adding onto the home. Either way, whenever the yard of your house is concerned the grading needs to be tamped downed and sloping away from the home to help save it from excessive water damage over the years.

Another factor is tree roots. If a tree is planted too close to the home the roots can disrupt and push the ground next to the wall and form wall cracks. This issue is a little trickier as it can be hard to solve by yourself. This situation would need wall anchors or braces to hold the wall in place, or other professionals may be needed in relocating the tree elsewhere.

When it comes to your yard the bottom line is that anytime the earth around the foundation is assisting water or pressure in its natural erosion process it is harmful to the foundation. Eventually, after enough harm has taken place the house starts to see cracked and bowing walls or molding floor joists inside the crawl space. What happens outside the home does effect what goes on inside. If you are experiencing water issues or cracking walls it can be useful to start with changes that have been made on the outside. Of course, we are here to help if needed and just a call away to offer a free inspection.