FOUNDATION WATERING
Written by: Advanced Foundation Repair
Expansive soils act like a sponge. As they absorb water, they swell and as they lose water they shrink. Soils tend to dry out (and shrink) during the summer and to absorb water (and swell) during the winter and spring.
As the soil under a house shrinks and swells with the seasons, the house and foundation will move up and down. As long as the foundation movement is not great enough to damage the house and/or foundation, it is not a problem. If the up and down movement of a foundation always returns the foundation to its original level position, then damage to the house and foundation may appear and disappear on a regular basis as the seasons change.
If a homeowner wishes to stop seasonal house and foundation damage, the first course of action should be to follow a controlled watering program. By keeping the moisture content of the soil under the foundation constant, foundation movement can often be stopped. Advanced Foundation Repair has written this to assist the homeowner in performing a simple foundation preventive maintenance program.
The goal of a foundation watering program is to maintain a constant level of moisture in the soil under the house and foundation. The best way to water a foundation is to install a buried foundation watering system. If you do not want to go to the expense of installing a buried watering system, soaker hoses will provide you with many of the same benefits. The best way to use a soaker hose is to bury a soaker hose three inches deep, 6 inches from the edge of your foundation. Placing the hose a short distance from the foundation allows the water to soak into the soil evenly.
The hose should not be placed against the foundation. When soil has dried and cracked, water can travel along the cracks for several feet in all directions. If the soil around your foundation is dried and cracked, then water placed next to the foundation will run through the cracks and accumulate at the bottom of the grade beam (the thick portion of the foundation that is under the exterior walls). In some cases, an accumulation of water in the soil at the base of a foundation can cause the soil to loose some of its load bearing capacity. If the soil loses enough load bearing capacity, the house will sink into the ground.
Obviously, it is necessary to water more during hot, dry weather and less during cold, damp weather. The amount of water required to keep a foundation stable during the summer can be surprisingly large. A single large tree can remove as much as 150 gallons of water, or almost 20 cubic feet of water, from the soil each day. Shrubs and other plants can also remove large quantities of water. During persistent hot dry weather, it may be necessary to water a foundation daily.
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Watering should supply enough water to keep the moisture content in the soil under the foundation constant. If the amount of water applied is only enough to keep the surface damp, the watering program will not work. Obviously, the homeowner is the only one who can weight the benefits of controlling foundation movement versus the increased size of the water bill.
Advanced Foundation Repair • 5601 W Jefferson Blvd • Dallas, Texas 75211 • 800-405-8880
More information on Soaker Hose Watering
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_Pryce
Soaker hoses are one way to keep even moisture around and under your foundation. The basic idea is to ring the house with them, hook them up to faucets and turn them on and let them dribble water slowly into the soil.
A problem that often pops up is that if the length of soaker hose is too long there is not enough water pressure to reach the far end. You'll have plenty of water bubbling out of the section nearest the faucet, some in the middle, but none by the time you get to the end.
The way around this problem is to use a combination of regular garden hoses and soaker hoses. To provide even watering and to offset the pressure drops that occur in soaker hoses, a separate water line (or regular hose) is run to each section of soaker hose and spliced in with a T connector. The soaker hoses will extend no more than 20 feet away from the connections to the water lines.
A typical home will have about 4 zones, each with its own water line and control valve. For a few hundred dollars in hoses and connectors and a little work, homeowners can put together their own systems. The hoses and parts are easily available at hardware stores and home centers. These systems don't need to be eye-sores. In fact it's a good idea to bury them under several inches of landscape mulch.
How often to water and how much? There is no simple answer and you'll need to use your judgment. The hotter and drier it is, the more you need to water. How wet the surface is, is not a good indicator of how your watering program is working. It is possible for the surface to be soaked while the soil a foot deep is relatively dry.
One way to check, if you have clay soils, is to use a plumber's probe. A Plumber's probe is a 4 or 5 foot long fiberglass pole with a "T" handle on the end. If your soils are too wet, then the pole can be pushed down into the soil with little or no effort. When the soils are wet, but not too wet, you should be able to push the probe 3 to 4 feet by leaning heavily in the handle. If you can't push the probe into the ground without banging on it, the soils are probably too dry. This test will not work well in sandy or rocky soils. Do not use a metal pole to probe the soils. If you hit a buried electrical line with a metal pole, bad things can happen.
Bill Pryce is a Journalism and Mass Communications graduate of New Mexico State University and writes on various topics. Bill's websites include http://www.repairfoundation.net where you can find more information on soaker hoses.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4742312
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