No one likes when water collects around your house or in your basement. Flooded basements and sunken landscape beds around new home foundations as a result of misplaced downspouts can create not only costly messes, but big headaches for Idaho homeowners.
And though we don’t always get a lot of rain here, when we do we tend to get an inch of rain all at once, and that’s when better managing stormwater flow in a home’s landscape can make all the difference between a wet or dry basement.
Understanding Stormwater On Your Property
Stormwater is typically defined as water from rain or melting snow that flows from rooftops, over paved areas, and through sloped lawns and soil.
Standing outside with an umbrella during a rainstorm can teach you a lot about how stormwater flows on your property and where it tends to puddle or collect.
In our area, most of the homes are built with basements on two to three acres of property. When new homes are built, rain gutters are installed but they usually just fall toward the home foundation, or have downspouts that empty next to basement window wells.
While our area only receives approximately 11 to 12 inches of rain each year, this gutter placement and the fact that these new home foundations are still settling usually leads to a mess when we get a lot of rain at once. Beds can settle one to two feet and basements can eventually flood.
Landscape Solutions That Ease Stormwater Flow
Yes, a yard that slopes away from a home’s foundation can help prevent water from pooling near a house and leaking into a basement. And, certainly, planting turf or groundcovers can slow or help prevent erosion of your landscape beds, as well as mulching them. However, new home foundations still tend to slowly settle and sink as too much water is dumped into the area. And more water that collects or flows around a foundation in this way can also lead to basement leaks.
As a result, directing stormwater away from the property is the best way to avoid costly and unnecessary landscape and home repairs.
Outback Landscape has worked with many Idaho homeowners to help them run drainpipes from their rain gutters 20 to 40 feet away from their home via a French drain or pop-up emitter that ensures this stormwater runs out into the yard or lawn versus collecting anywhere near the home.
Our sole focus is to ensure water flows away from the basement and into the yard where it’s more welcome. In a lawn area or a lower bed area with shrubs and perennials, this stormwater flow can be slowed and it can seep into the ground, watering the lawn and plants instead of your basement.
If you are worried about stormwater flow on your property, give yourself a little gift this season and contact Outback Landscape for a free consultation. Your home foundation—inside and out—will thank you.
