Water and moisture accumulating near your home’s foundation can cause severe damage if left unchecked. Costly repairs are an issue homeowners are always striving to avoid. To avoid such issues, it’s best to take preventative measures to ensure water doesn’t build up in the future.
The best way to prevent water damage on your home’s foundation is to improve the drainage system. This can be done by grading the soil around your home using dirt. By adding dirt around a foundation, the water will flow away from your house, preventing moisture buildup and water damage.
How To Build Up Soil Around House Foundation
The process of adding dirt around a foundation should be straightforward, but it can be time-consuming. It requires a lot of work in your yard, adding soil and then ensuring you achieve an excellent slope so that the water flows away from the foundation. If you don’t have the time and tools to complete the job, it’s best to leave it to the professionals. Experienced teams can advise you on how to build up soil around a house foundation and protect your property from water damage.
Contact The Utility Companies
The first step is to call the utility companies to help you determine where the utility lines are. Next, you need to find the gas, electricity and other utility lines and mark them. Finally, you must go to your basement and trace the cables and sewer lines.
Preventing Molds and Termites
Ensure the soil line is at least six inches from your home’s siding. Maintaining this distance from the wooden structures of your house can help prevent termite invasions and mold buildup.
Dig the soil one foot below the bottom of your home’s siding. However, make sure to avoid excavating ground from the areas where the utility lines are located. Till the area around the foundation, again, avoid the places where the utility lines are located.
Finally, spread fresh topsoil on the areas you excavated until it reaches the current soil level. Add more topsoil up to three inches, and then use a rake to slope the soil away from the house.
Measure Your Initial Slope
The next step is to determine the initial slope of your yard. To do this, you can take a 10-foot board and set one end right next to one of your home’s foundations. Lay it perpendicular to the house. Place a carpenter’s level on top of the board and lift the other end until the level indicates that the board is even. Measure the distance from the bottom of the carpenter level to the soil.
This method can help you determine the current slope of the soil, which should be a minimum of one inch to ensure the water flows away from the house. Depending on your measurements, you can adjust the slope as needed. Measure the slope every eight feet around the foundation.
Build The Soil Grade
After ensuring that the soil around your home is on a proper slope, the next step is to build the soil grade. Doing this step ensures that the soil drains water properly. Next, add soil where necessary while maintaining the desired slope. In addition, you will have to choose the best soil for foundation grading.
You will need to measure the slope of the soil every 10 feet to ensure consistency and make the necessary adjustments to the soil level as required. It may be time-consuming, but it’s an essential step in the process.
The Best Soil for Foundation Grading
Fill dirt is best suited for the base of your home’s foundation. Professionals use it to build mounds and create a good foundation. It’s then covered with five to 10 inches of topsoil. Topsoil has organic matter, which is beneficial for planting, which you can do after you’ve ensured proper grading of your soil foundation.
Work with the Foundation Specialists
Protecting your home’s foundation from water damage is critical and can be a laborious process. It’s best to leave it to professionals who know how to build up soil around a house foundation.
At HD Foundations, we have the training, expertise and industry experience to ensure that the soil around your home is properly graded to prevent water damage. Our team has proudly served thousands of homes in the DFW metroplex, and we have received an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
If you need help building up the soil around your home’s foundation, fill out this form and we’ll be happy to help you.