Tips For Proper Yard Drainage

Standing water next to your home’s foundation is trouble. It saturates the soil and can seep into basement cracks, leading to water damage and mold growth. Draining the water away from the house requires creating a sloping yard, when possible, and installing guttering to divert roof runoff. In some cases, the installation of a buried drainage system is necessary. A homeowner’s drainage options depend on the geography of the yard, building development rules and budget.

Grading the Yard

A 2 percent grade away from the foundation is adequate for most yards. This equals a 2 foot drop over a distance of 100 feet. A shallower grade will not drain as quickly and a steeper grade might be subject to erosion. During new home construction, the contractor grades the yard after the foundation is in place, but for existing homes, the homeowner may need to have topsoil delivered to raise the level of the soil around the house. The caveat when raising the yard level is that the soil should not be closer than 6 inches from the bottom of the siding. This 6 inch space is often required by local building codes to reduce the risk of wood-boring insects entering the home.

Guttering

Without guttering and downspouts, rainwater runs off the roof and can pool next to the foundation. Even if your yard has the correct grade, the force of the roof runoff from a heavy rain can dig a trench along the foundation that will hold water. Install guttering and downspouts and add downspout extensions that carry runoff at least 5 feet away from the foundation.Trench Drains and Swales

Talk to a contractor about adding swales to your yard if the existing grading already is within 6 inches of your siding. If that's your situation, it’s not feasible to raise the grade of your yard. An excavation contractor can create a series of swales, which are similar to shallow ditches, for diverting water away from the house. When your house sits at the bottom of a sloping yard, you can install a trench drain between the foundation and the yard. Water will run into the trench and run to a collection pond or to a storm sewer. Trench drains typically feature a U-shaped trough made from heavy PVC or a similar material. The contractor installs the trough with its top level with the ground and then pours concrete around the trough to stabilize it. A metal drain fits on top, which allows water to run into the trench drain.

Drainage Considerations

Check your plans with your housing association or municipal code enforcement office. Most housing developments regulate the way in which water drains. When the developer plans the subdivision, preparations are made to install storm sewers beneath the street and to form gutters that carry water to the storm sewers. Easements and property lines are also common routes for carrying water to the storm sewers. Fill dirt left in easements or a neighbor’s yard draining onto your yard can create problems. Your municipal inspector can consult the development plat to determine whether the municipality or an adjacent neighbor must address the issue. Likewise, if your yard-grading efforts create a drainage problem for your neighbor, you might be required to correct the problem.

Waterproof Your Home In One Weekend

Spring brings with it many pleasures: flowers, sunshine, and the return of baseball season, to name just a few. It also brings with it rain – sometimes lots of rain. All that rain unleashes the eroding power of water upon your house and yard, and can cause tremendous damage to your home and its value if left unchecked. Fortunately, a short amount of time spent in upkeep chores can help your home weather spring showers and summer storms. Here are five ways to waterproof your home in one weekend:

1) Rain gutter repairs

Nobody likes to clean or repair gutters. However, there are a few ways to make the job easier. First, for clogged downspouts, try using barbecue tongs to reach in and pull the leaves out. This doesn’t always work but considering the alternative — using a hose to flush the clog out, getting wet and covered with gutter goop — it’s worth a try.

Second, to repair loose gutter nails try replacing them with extra-long lag screws. The lag screws tend to be stronger, hold better and can easily be installed with a cordless drill equipped with a nut driver bit.

2) Repairing cracks in concrete

Concrete always cracks, but that doesn’t mean you have to live with it that way. For most cracks less than 1/4″, applying concrete caulk is a good way to make repairs. Just clean the crack out with a high-pressure hose nozzle, let it dry and then apply the caulk into the crack.

For larger cracks, substitute concrete patch for caulk. Large cracks or small, repair is necessary because water that finds its way into cracks will soften the ground underneath and cause more cracking. The situation worsens if the water freezes.

3) Sticky windows and doors

With all the wet weather that spring brings, wooden windows and doors can’t help but swell and stick. To repair a sticky door or window, first mark where it is sticking. Next, remove the door or window by taking out its hinge pins, prop it up securely and with a hand plane, carefully remove any excess material. Power planes will work, too, but there is a tendency to remove too much. When the wood shrinks back during the drier, warmer days of summer, the gap will be too wide.

For sliding windows, often the trim around them is the culprit and must be removed and reinstalled to allow for more movement. To do this, carefully remove the trim with a flat bar and pull the nails out backwards that is, grasp the nail point with pliers and pull. If the trim was installed properly with finishing nails, you should be able to do this without damaging the wood. When reinstalling, keep the fit snug but not as tight as it was. If you reinstall the trim too loosely, the windows will rattle when the wood shrinks again.

To keep windows and doors from sticking in the first place, make sure that they are sealed with a good coat of paint, including the tops and bottoms. But dont paint the channels where windows need to slide. Instead, use a light coat of linseed oil as a sealer.

4) Painting over water damage

The problem with water stains is that painting over them will not make them go away unless you use a primer-sealer first. When looking for a sealer, follow these basic guidelines: First, oil-based sealers usually work better than water-based. Second, choose a sealer that has a high amount of solids. Solids consist of pigments and other elements that do the actual covering of the stain. Paint, hardware and home centers carry primer-sealers (sometimes called sealer-primers) such as Kilz and Zinsser.

One other tip when using an oil-based sealer, consider using disposable brushes and rollers. Cleaning up after using oil-based products can be messy and often requires that you spend more on paint thinner than your brushes and rollers are worth.

5) Painting and repairing rusty fixtures

It used to be that the only way to do a good paint job over rust was to get out the naval jelly or wire brush and remove the rust first. Thankfully, paint additives are now available to help paint stick to rust while also neutralizing the rust and stopping corrosion from continuing under the paint.

If left untreated, rust will eventually cause your fixtures to lock up. Prevent this by keeping fixtures well lubricated. One of the most common mistakes people make is trying to lubricate outdoor fixtures with light oil or silicon from spray cans. Because these oils are so light, they often evaporate and/or dilute existing lubrication thereby making the problem worse. For fixtures like gate hinges and latches, use heavy grease. It will not evaporate and its heavy viscosity is the best thing for heavy-duty parts. Most auto parts stores have heavy grease.