These 6 Landscaping Practices Hurt Your Foundation
Lush and vibrant plants, shrubs, flowers, and trees around your home dramatically enhance curb appeal. However, some landscaping practices can hurt your foundation, impacting its structural integrity and leading to costly repairs.
Our skilled team at Align Foundation Repair offers a variety of foundation repair services to address foundation defects. We also provide homeowners with some smart landscaping tips to help stop problems in the first place. Accordingly, we recommend avoiding the following to keep your foundation intact.
1: Planting Too Close to the Home
The roots of trees and plants will grow and expand beneath the ground. When plants are too close to a home’s foundation, these roots soak up much needed moisture and cause settling. That’s why homeowners must situate new plantings away from the foundation. For instance, new trees should be as many feet away from the home as their height upon reaching full maturity.
2: Overwatering Plants
Plants need water to thrive, but too much can negatively affect their growth and your foundation. Drainage problems on your property exacerbate these issues, as the soil will absorb excess water and heave against the concrete foundation. Along with using the correct amount of water on your landscape, you must address drainage issues to repair puddling and pooling.
3: Improper Gutter Maintenance
Your rain gutters can also cause an excess of moisture within the soil. If they become clogged, water will likely flow out of the basin and collect in the soil surrounding the foundation. Along with regularly removing leaves and other debris from them, trimming trees around your home can stop the gutters from clogging and ensure they properly divert water from the property.
4: Problems with Grading
Improperly graded soil can bring water back toward your foundation instead of sending it away from the property. Grading issues can quickly lead to foundation damage, but creating a downward slope can prevent it. While it depends on the layout of your property, grading issues can often be remedied by adding more soil or reducing the soil that already surrounds your home.
5: Not Leaving Enough Foundation Exposed
It’s recommended that homeowners leave at least six inches of foundation exposed, meaning this area should not be covered by soil or plants because the concrete is constantly exposed to moisture. Over time, this moisture will wear down the concrete and possibly allow water to flow into your home if sizable cracks and defects develop in the foundation.
6: Choosing the Wrong Trees
In addition to planting new trees a safe distance from your home, you should also avoid some specimens known for having invasive roots. This includes trees like willows, magnolias, and maples, which can have a destructive effect on properties due to their accelerated growth rates. When choosing new trees, avoid those with aggressive root systems to keep your home intact.
Contact Align Foundation Repair for a free consultation
If you’ve already experienced issues, now is the time to contact us. By scheduling a free foundation consultation, you’ll know exactly what steps to take to keep your home surrounded by plants and trees while maintaining the integrity of your home.
