How to Protect Your Foundation from Flash Floods

It may be the last thing you expected in North Texas, but flash floods and longer-lasting floods have started to become a new normal that homeowners need to worry about. If you’ve already made adjustments to your landscaping in order to protect your home from the usual summer struggles, don’t worry! All that work won’t go to waste. Here are three ways to keep your foundation in good condition even during a watery summer.

How to Protect Your Foundation from Flash Floods

1. Keep watering your foundation soil.

While the multitude of rainstorms might be new, Texas’s abrupt switches from bone dry weather to heavy rain isn’t. Even just a day or two after the last storm, your foundation soil can start to crack and pull back from the concrete. Keep watering it with a soaker hose in the evening and keep it protected with foundation plants. Without those protections, flash floodwaters can shoot into the gap and cause displacement.

2. Consider installing a French drain to keep the water moving.

Standing water is one of the worst types of water for your foundation. If it’s somehow found its way behind your garden beds or is trapped because your house is on a slope, it’s time to find a long-term fix. French drains are a simple solution that helps the water drain away and gives you control about where that water leaves your property. Use these drains to both move water along and stop your yard’s soil from draining along with it.

3. Check your soil’s incline.

The rapid flooding and drying cycles can shift the soil around your home. Houses and structures need to be “uphill” at a slight grade to help keep water away from the foundation as much as possible. If that incline is starting to degrade into divots because the soil is washing away or your gutter’s overflow is cutting into it, have a landscaper reestablish the grade. You can also install plants to help lock the soil in place.

If the floods have already given you a reason to be concerned about your foundation, contact us today at Dodson Foundation Repair to schedule an evaluation.

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