Getting Rid of Standing Water Around Your Home

a field with water and grass in it

The landscape of your property and the environment around it play an important role in the overall health of your home and foundation. There are many factors that are responsible for causing structural damage to a home. For example, the moisture content in the ground beneath your foundation can cause the soil to contract or expand, which could affect your entire home. Depending on the soil’s water content, the response of the soil will immediately be to expand with excess hydrogen particles from water or to contract when the soil lacks hydration.

Having control of the moisture levels in the soils beneath your structure may seem like an impossible task. That’s simply because watering your foundation won’t be the only factor you need to take into account in order to step in a forward direction to a balanced soil moisture content without much change to the volume of the soil. In that case, you should also consider a few additional environmental factors, such as:

  • outdoor air temperature and humidity levels;
  • water evaporation rates;
  • vegetation around your home and foundation, which could absorb a lot of water from the soil, causing your foundation to sink.

All the pressure exerted by over-hydrated soil on the home followed by soil shrinkage, which occurs when the water evaporates from the ground, can put a great deal of stress on your foundation and home. Furthermore, continuous changes in the level of soil moisture can lead to soil movement and structural damage.

Getting Rid of Standing Water through Proper Drainage

Having a proper drainage system in place can help you eliminate the recurrent changes in the soil moisture content along with the movement of your foundation. There are several drainage options and picking the right one is dependent on the environmental elements that typically affect your property.

Having proper ways to drain water from your home is crucial. Not only does a drainage system divert water away from your foundation, but it also prevents water damage by collecting excess water and controlling the soil water content around your home.  Here are several ways you can implement a proper drainage system around your home:

  • Design a proper gutter and downspout system – One of the most effective drainage systems put into practice today can be as easy as choosing the right gutter size and extending the downspouts to divert water at least 4 feet away from the foundation. 
  • Install a French drain to control excess water French drains are another common way of removing standing water from the yard. Using a perforated drainage pipe that allows for surface water to easily make it into the subsurface soil, a French drain can solve the issue of standing water by directing excess water to a dry well or other areas of your yard, such as flower beds.
  • Use regular drain pipes – Regular PVC drainage pipes deliver another clean, fast, and effective way to get rid of water from a standing puddle. For this type of drainage system to work, the discharge area must be lower than the water inlet. Thanks to the drainage pipe connecting those two points, the excess water will flow from the highest to the lowest point.
  • Fix landscape grading problems – Many drainage problems stem from poor grading techniques during the home building process. By slightly altering the landscape around your property, you can easily encourage the water to flow in the desired direction.

Causes of Standing Water

Soil that has undergone compaction is a major cause of standing water in your yard. When soil compaction occurs, soil particles are pressed together, which reduces the space and aeration between them. As a result, compacted soil is less able to absorb rainfall and resist surface runoff, which makes it more susceptible to erosion.

Compacted soil also holds less oxygen, making it difficult for plants to survive and thrive in that environment. If you have compacted soil around your property, there are a few ways to improve it. For instance, some solutions can be the use of lawn aerators, soil conditioners, or a simple layer of mulch that can help prevent water runoff.

Before selecting a specific drainage system for your property, it’s important to draw out a plan and take into consideration all the factors that are playing a role in the drainage problems that are affecting your property. Choosing only one system can be effective. But a well-thought-out drainage plan will allow you to integrate different drainage solutions to finally build the best drainage system for your property. Furthermore, using different drainage solutions that interact with each other will smooth out the process of driving standing water away from your foundation and direct it toward other areas.

For more information on how to get rid of standing water around your home or to have your property inspected by one of our experienced professionals, call our office today!

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