Home Maintenance: Prevent Damage to Your Walls & Foundation

Preventing damage to your walls and foundations is possible, but you need to know what you’re doing. If you have the wrong strategy, you may find that things don’t work out the way you want. So, what do you need to do to prevent damage to your building’s structure? Let’s take a look, shall we?

Manage Your Drainage Properly

You’ll want to start by managing your drainage properly around your home. Getting this step right is critical if you want to prevent issues and ensure that you don’t wind up with problems with your foundations. 

Water should be taken by storm drains at least five feet from your property, and preferably even more. This effect will reduce soil erosion and prevent water from seeping into the walls and other areas. If you notice erosion after a storm, call in professionals to identify and fix the problem. 

Deal With Gutter Issues

If you want to protect the walls and foundations around your home, you also need to deal with gutter issues quickly. Failing to manage them properly can lead to damage to your foundations and rising damp. Getting a proper gutter servicing can deal with this problem quickly. If you can get professionals over to your home to ensure that everything is level and clean, you will save yourself a lot of money in the long-term. 

Keep Trees At A Safe Distance

You also want to ensure that you keep shrubs and trees as far from your property as you can. They should be at least 20 to 30 feet from your home, and preferably further. Any overhanging plants could potentially cause you issues and lead to structural damage, which is something you’ll want to avoid at all costs if you can. 

Tree roots are a problem because they can creep through the soil and eventually come into contact with your home. When they do, they can cause uneven settling of the ground. 

Ensure Proper Grading

Proper grading around your home is another issue. You want to ensure that all the land around the property slopes away from it (in general) and not toward it. 

If you do have land that slopes onto the property, you’ll need to deal with water run-off with a drainage system. Having the proper drains in place reduces the risks that you face and increases the likelihood that you’ll escape serious damage down the road. 

Install Foundation Watering Systems For Dry Climates

You might also want to look into the possibility of installing foundation watering systems if you have a dry climate in your area. These maintain soil moisture and prevent shrinkage which might lead to damage to the underlying slab. 

Avoid Overloading

Lastly, you’ll want to make sure that you’re not overloading your foundations. Many homeowners assume that their existing foundations will support their extensions, but that’s not always the case. Many times, they actually wind up adding too much weight, and that leads to problems further down the line. Foundations, like walls, have maximum weight specifications.