Watering under decks, additions can help foundation

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Question: Hello Ari. You have been to our home in the past and we appreciated the information we received. I just read one of your Free Press articles on avoiding cracks in foundations.

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This article was published 01/09/2018 (2591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Question: Hello Ari. You have been to our home in the past and we appreciated the information we received. I just read one of your Free Press articles on avoiding cracks in foundations.

I water as well, but we have a deck on the front of the house, and another in back, as well as a four-season addition. Both are attached to the house, but the foundation is quite a way beneath.

In each case, should we be watering underneath the deck and addition, in order to avoid further soil shrinkage? I am sure this is a subject of interest to many of us in this new, very dry weather. Thank you. Kind regards. — Will and Charlotte Tataryn, St. Boniface

Jessica Hill / The Associated Press files
With extremely dry conditions like we’ve experienced in southern Manitoba recently, the soil around your home can dry out, leading to cracks and stress fractures in its foundation.
Jessica Hill / The Associated Press files With extremely dry conditions like we’ve experienced in southern Manitoba recently, the soil around your home can dry out, leading to cracks and stress fractures in its foundation.

Answer: Watering the soil around your home may seem like an unusual thing to do and possibly a waste of precious water, but it may be critical in preventing serious movement of your home in the current drought-like conditions. If you let this go too long, you will not only see the soil shrink away from the foundation but you may also see some nasty new cracks open in your walls and ceilings, so get out the hose and start today.

There is always some uncertainty and debate about how to approach home maintenance when we have an unusual situation caused either by the weather or some other unusual occurrence. Violent storms, hail, floods and other natural phenomena are not unprecedented in our area and often require repair or remediation due to damage that can occur to our homes. Home insurance will often cover damage caused by a sudden event but what do we do when things happen over a longer period of time?

For the last half decade or more, we have been experiencing extremely dry summer weather. I have even gone so far as to suggest it is a prolonged drought but there has been little talk about the effects on our homes. I have done numerous inspections in the past several late summers and autumns for homeowners who have experienced the effects of the dry weather.

The majority of the calls are after they see new or recently expanded cracks in the walls and ceilings in their homes. In the last few weeks, as there has been almost no precipitation during the hottest summer in recent memory, I have received these inquiries daily. The majority of which are directly related to the lack of moisture in the soil around their homes.

On most occasions, when I inspect the problematic houses the soil around the house is exhibiting conditions familiar to many southern Manitobans. Dry, cracked soil, which has often shrunk away from the house foundation revealing a significant gap. Large trees in the yard, or elsewhere that are too close to the home for comfort, can also add to the problem. So, what do we do about this issue when we see our walls and ceilings start to crack?

The initial answer to the question is to get out the garden hose, nozzle or sprinkler and water like hell around the home. This is the most immediate and direct action any homeowner can take.

The proper method is to wet the soil adjacent to the house without pouring or spraying it directly onto the foundation itself. The reason to avoid direct foundation wetting is to prevent seepage through small cracks or openings in the foundation or wasting water that may run down through any soil gaps and disappear into the weeping tile system. While this will not replenish the moisture in the soil deep enough to prevent settlement of the footings, it will help prevent further evaporation of any remaining moisture that far down.

How do we know when we have enough water in the soil? The simple answer can be discovered by using common sense. If you have grass next to the foundation, water until it is green and healthy. If it is brown and dead looking, it may have gone dormant due to the hot weather or a lack of water. The second criterion is the condition of the soil itself. If you see cracks or fissures in the surface of the soil, it is much too dry. If you see a gap between the dry soil and the foundation walls that you can stick your fingers or a pencil into, you are again way too dry.

To address your question about watering under your deck or addition, the answer is a resounding yes! Those are areas that may need watering even in years with higher precipitation levels. Since they are covered from receiving much of the normal rain and snow, they will surely be dryer than the surrounding soil, unless these areas are much lower than the surrounding grade.

If that is the situation in your home, I would bring in fresh soil to build up to the height of the rest of the yard, and then commence with watering. That is to prevent leakage into that area, and potentially your foundation, once we do get a substantial rain.

Watering the soil around your home, including under additions, is important in normal conditions but may be critical in a super-dry year like the current one.

Neglecting this simple home maintenance chore, or leaving it too long, may leave you wondering why there are new cracks or signs of movement in your home.

Ari Marantz is the owner of Trained Eye Home Inspection Ltd. and the past president of the Canadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors — Manitoba (cahpi.mb.ca). Questions can be emailed to the address below. Ari can be reached at 204-291-5358, trainedeye@iname.com or check out his website at trainedeye.ca.

 

 

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