water your foundation

[Randy West]

In my local newspaper today was a column that recommended, due to our dry climate, that you should install a soaker hose around your home:

"Poor soil evacuation can direct water to your foundation, so it is also important not to let the soil get too dry. Long dry spells let the soil around your house dry out and shrink. A whopping rain may make the soil expand and put pressure on your foundation walls. In a dry period, run a soaker hose around your house at least 6 inches from the foundation and 3 inches under the soil. That should help quiet soil contraction and expansion."

The article does not recommend a duration. Our 'monsoon season' is about 3 weeks long in July/August, the rest of the year we're very dry. I can see a homeowner burying a soaker hose and turning it on permanently, since there is no mention of a timer or duration in the article. Anyone that reads these forums regularly would not be too surprised at a homeowner doing this.

I googled "soaker hose at foundation", and found many recommendations for this, some with 'name brand' endorsements. My reports will continue to say that gutter/downspout systems, site drainage and irrigation systems should be installed and maintained to keep all water away from the home.

Has anyone ever recommended a soaker hose at the foundation?

[Jerry Peck]

Here are some links to information I found in a search:

Irrigation and Expansive Soils (http://www.irrigationtutorials.com/faq/expansive-soil.htm)

http://armypubs.army.mil/eng/DR_pubs/dr_a/pdf/tm5_818_7.pdf

http://web.mst.edu/~rogersda/expansive_soils/DAMAGE%20TO%20FOUNDATIONS%20FROM%20EXPANSIVE%20SOI LS.pdf

Watering Foundation - protecting foundations during drought (http://water.tamu.edu/watering-foundation/)

[Jim Luttrall]

In my local newspaper today was a column that recommended, due to our dry climate, that you should install a soaker hose around your home:

"Poor soil evacuation can direct water to your foundation, so it is also important not to let the soil get too dry. Long dry spells let the soil around your house dry out and shrink. A whopping rain may make the soil expand and put pressure on your foundation walls. In a dry period, run a soaker hose around your house at least 6 inches from the foundation and 3 inches under the soil. That should help quiet soil contraction and expansion."

The article does not recommend a duration. Our 'monsoon season' is about 3 weeks long in July/August, the rest of the year we're very dry. I can see a homeowner burying a soaker hose and turning it on permanently, since there is no mention of a timer or duration in the article. Anyone that reads these forums regularly would not be too surprised at a homeowner doing this.

I googled "soaker hose at foundation", and found many recommendations for this, some with 'name brand' endorsements. My reports will continue to say that gutter/downspout systems, site drainage and irrigation systems should be installed and maintained to keep all water away from the home.

Has anyone ever recommended a soaker hose at the foundation?

Common place here but unless you have expansive clay soil or regular wet seasons and dry seasons and slab foundations, it is likely of little benefit.
Here in the world capital (sarcasm) of expansive clay soils and weather extremes along with a predominance of slab on grade foundations watering around the foundation is a given. But the most often troublesome and overlooked issue (in my opinion) is poor drainage. As I tell my clients, get the excess water away from the foundation in the wet season and add water around the foundation in the dry season. The idea is to maintain consistent soil moisture content. Your mileage may vary depending on your climate and soil.

[Jack Feldmann]

Knoxville gets about 50 inches of rain per year. Several years ago we had a drought that lasted a year or so. We started seeing lots of cracked drywall, racked door openings, etc, as well as cracked foundations. The common opinion among the structural engineers (that were very busy looking at these homes) was the drought caused the foundations to shift/settle/move.

They suggested that in period of drought to wet the areas around the foundation.

[Alton Darty]

It's pretty common in my area (NE Arkansas SE Missouri) to find a trench dug around the foundation inside the crawlspace with a soaker hose running the length of the trench, sometimes it's a bigger trench with a garden hose laid in and left to run for days at a time. I am within a mile of the Mississippi River at my home and the soils 25 miles out from here are expansive "gumbo" soil. Lots of movement with weather changes, very few sidewalks, driveways, slabs or brick veneer walls manage to get by for more than a year or two with cracking...:(

[Lon Henderson]

Soaking foundations was common where I grew up in Lubbock, Tx on sandy loam soils. But here with our expansive clays, soaking a foundation can result in dramatic and very undesirable results.