Three years ago I bought an older home in a nice subdivision in Tyler. My home was built in 1959 and had landscaping around the front of the house. I noticed a problem with the drainage around my home when it rained. The inside of my garage would have water standing after one of our East Texas hard rains
I started doing some research on why I had water in my garage after a hard rain. I learned that over the years and many different owners' landscaping around my home that instead of removing the dirt around the house before starting their project they added dirt along with plants. The result of this is having 6 to 12 inches of dirt build up above my foundation especially around the garage.
When landscaping around your home the water should drain freely away from the house, all walls, foundation and support priers, and even porch and patio slabs. The soil should be at least two inches below the top of the slab. Water can have a devastating effect on a structure. If water does not drain freely away from the house it will soak into the soil along the foundation or under it, causing settling and serious and costly cracking of the floors, slabs and walls of the house.
Prior to placing landscaping material, the soil in the area to be covered should be excavated (lower/dug out) and removed to the depth or thickness of the landscaping material being brought in. The material brought in should not block or change drainage conditions. The excavated material can be used for mound building (landscaping) in other areas of the yard.
If the drainage cannot be corrected with the grading of the beds, then a French drain system might be needed.
By paying attention to soil levels when landscaping, all structures should be safe.
Luanne Harms, Smith County Master Gardener
Texas AgriLife Extension Service
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