Mother's Day approaches, the sun warms us well and we are all more time outdoors. I hope, rose bushes and plant daylilies this year, and made with sod in our backyard. This means that a system of drip irrigation lines and additions to the landscape.
It 'a good time for me to assess how a landscape plan that will be nice to start preserving our climate, and safe for my foundation. That's right, the landscape must be designed so that it can not because foundation problems later.
Here are some guidelines to creating landscaping that won't incur foundation repair costs later:
1. Plant trees at least 6' from foundation walls, further if it's an elm or aspen tree. Why? Tree root systems branch out like tree tops, they can plunge around, under, and through concrete foundation walls. They can also draw out all moisture around a foundation, leading to settling. Elms and Aspens create groves through an expansive root and offshoot network and they do it quickly! They can subsume a foundation's integrity in just a few years.
2. Bushes and plants should be 3' from foundation walls. Why? Introducing frequent watering near a foundation leads to soil expansion and contraction, which places stress on the foundation. In turn, that leads to foundation wall bowing and bulging, cracking and leaking, or heaving.
3. Sprinkler systems should not spray the house. Why? Most of Centennial is built on mildly to severely expansive clay soils. Watering the soil near the foundation will introduce a catalyst to the soil, leading to heaving, which is the most expensive foundation problem to remedy.
4. Check the grade of your yard. Why? The grade of your yard determines whether water will run toward your home, drain into the ground in uneven patches, or drain away from your home. If the grade of the home is not dramatic enough, you risk getting a damp basement, which is definitely not enjoyable to deal with.
5. Minimize watering through appropriate plant selection for our climate. Why? The answer is two-fold. It's easier to maintain landscaping that fits into our Alpine Desert climate. It keeps utility payments low and allows for less maintenance. Secondly, it keeps the soil consistently stable and decreases the risk of cracking and settling foundations.
Overall, the most important things to remember when creating your landscaping plan are that foundation problems mainly caused by water--either too much or too little--and an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
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