Your home’s foundation is crucial for the structural integrity of your property and should be protected to avoid structural issues. One of the ways you can take an active role in protecting your home’s foundation is with strategic landscaping. At Tom’s Basement Waterproofing, our family has worked since 1975 to help metro Detroit home and business owners keep their foundations structurally sound and solid. Let’s take a closer look at some of the steps you can take to protect your foundation with landscaping and grading.
The Importance of Grading and Plant Placement for Foundation Health
One of the biggest threats to your home’s foundation is water. Water pooling around your foundation can lead to increased hydrostatic pressure, water intrusion into your basement, and soil erosion. Proper yard grading is one of the best ways to prevent water from collecting around your foundation. Your yard should slope at a five-degree angle to allow rainwater to drain away from your foundation and prevent standing water from causing expensive damage to your foundation. Plant placement is just as important as the plants planted. Planting landscaping too close to a foundation can damage it with tree root intrusion. For larger plants like trees and shrubs with larger root systems, it is recommended that they be planted as far away from your foundation as the plant will be tall once it reaches its peak height. Planting native plants with smaller root systems can benefit your home’s foundation, as their small root systems can hold soil together and prevent erosion.
Choosing Foundation-Friendly Plants
When it comes to plants that can damage your foundation with their root systems, some top the lists as the most damaging. Plants that can easily damage your foundation include:
- Willow trees
- Silver maples
- Elm trees
These trees have extensive root systems that can badly damage a foundation as they grow. There are some foundation-safe plant varieties that you can plant near your home’s foundation, including:
- Ornamental grasses
- Boxwoods
- Dwarf shrubs
In addition to being safe to plant around your foundation, these plants have tightly wound root systems that can help hold soil together and prevent soil erosion. If drainage continues to be a problem around your foundation, you can take other steps by installing drainage features like French drains.
Installing Drain Features Around Your Foundation
When water collects around your foundation, the risk of cracking, shifting, or basement leaks dramatically increases. Installing a French drain is one of the most effective solutions for this issue. French drains are gravel-filled trenches with a perforated pipe that captures rainwater and redirects it away from your foundation. With a French drain, you can address several of the most common issues associated with water damage to your foundation. French drains can address topics like:
- Increased hydrostatic pressure
- Soil erosion
- Uneven settling
- Water intrusion into your basement
At Tom’s Basement Waterproofing, we can install a French drain on your property in a way that seamlessly blends into your landscaping.
Contact Tom’s Basement Waterproofing for Help With Smart Yard Design
At Tom’s Basement Waterproofing, we have helped home and business owners across metro Detroit since 1975 with our foundation repair and basement waterproofing services. We can help address issues associated with landscaping around a foundation and correct any minor problems with your landscaping before they threaten the structural integrity of your home. Call us at (586) 776-7270 to learn more about our foundation repair and basement waterproofing services.