Watering your house's foundation, part 2
Cow did some more research on this question of watering your house foundation to prevent drought-related damage.
The arguments go as follows:
The engineer society says builders are at fault for foundation problems in clay soils (Texas, Mississippi) because they didn't pour a thick enough slab due to cost-cutting.
The builders blame the home-owners for not preventing damage by "watering" around the foundation.
Other engineers scoff that it is impossible to water around the periphery of your slab enough to prevent damage.
Cow has discarded all information from commercial sites and lists below only information from professional organizations or other presumably more objective parties.
Newspaper article
article
article
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Water your trees
The arguments go as follows:
The engineer society says builders are at fault for foundation problems in clay soils (Texas, Mississippi) because they didn't pour a thick enough slab due to cost-cutting.
The builders blame the home-owners for not preventing damage by "watering" around the foundation.
Other engineers scoff that it is impossible to water around the periphery of your slab enough to prevent damage.
Cow has discarded all information from commercial sites and lists below only information from professional organizations or other presumably more objective parties.
Newspaper article
article
article
More
More
Water your trees
posted by The Topiary Cow at
12:25 PM
6 Comments:
Thanks for posting these links. My house was built in the 60's so you KNOW it has had work done. Right after I bought it I had a couple of foundation company people look at it just so I'd know what to expect. One of them told me to water the house, and to get rid of my flower beds. Since dtiching the flowers wasn't going to happen, he said to make sure the beds drained really well. I've also heard that installing French drains helps, but I haven't gone that far!
I need to find some time to study these links. Somehow no matter how effective, I can't see myself out hosing down the perimeter of my house. I'm just too dang lazy.
Thank you for your info, Susan. Cow will probably do as you did, get some professionals out to see what they say.
Supermom, Cow believes the recommended procedure is to have soaker hoses permanently in place where you can just turn on the water in times of no rain.
Moo!
Interesting articles, tc. Not sure which side to believe, though. Still praying that God and good fortune will smile on me, at least for a while longer.
and move them every time the lawn needs mowing or underground?
I really need to carve out some time to read these articles.
busy, busy, busy
Yes, difficult.
Cow thinks you need to either roll up the hoses before mowing, or bury them.
Cow finds herself believing that the slab SHOULD be thicker, and that droughts will hurt, since this year, in her 12-year-old house, more cracks have appeared than at any time before.
Cow figures, the water bill will be cheaper than foundation repairs.
Moo!
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