Drainage is a critical part of the maintenance of your home. Without proper drainage, you will have trouble maintaining the health of your home’s foundation, and you will struggle with maintaining your landscaping and the curb appeal of your home. Drainage is important for so many reasons, and you will need lots of different solutions to be in place to care for your home adequately.
If you have been working on a remodel or are doing any kind of upgrade to your home, you might want to make sure that your drainage solutions on the exterior of your house are correct. Being sure that you are caring for your home’s well-being includes everything from paint, to changing light bulbs, to checking that drainage solutions are correct and effective.
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If you are ready to learn more about the types of exterior drainage that you might need to add to your home, you need to read on!
Types of Exterior Drainage Solutions for Your Home
Water damage can harm your landscaping, create unsightly ponding and mud, and can lead to issues with your foundation or water in your basement. When you have the right drainage in place on your property, your home, and other structures will be safe and secure even during the winter and spring when rain is likely in many places of the United States.
1. French Drains
This kind of drain is used to make sure that standing water is handled correctly. This is a perforated pipe drain that is laid in a sloping trench that guides water off your property. The pipe can be of various sizes depending on the volume of water that your yard or property is exposed to.
French drains are economical to install and simple to maintain as well as being highly effective. If you are tired of struggling against drainage issues that are causing pounding in your yard or water near your home’s foundation, this is a great choice for your needs. You will be able to make your French drains fit right into the landscaping in your yard so that they look natural and attractive, which is another added plus of this drain style.
2. Footing Drain
This is a really useful drain style that is used to protect the foundation of your home from water. This is done with a pipe that is installed at the same level as the footing. The pipe will collect water that would leak into the basement or stay trapped against the foundation. The drain is covered with gravel and drains the water off toward a lower place in the yard or a catch basin of some kind.
This is a really important tool for some kinds of situations, like homes that are placed at the base of a hill or homes that are in areas that get high volumes of rain from time to time. It can also be a good solution for an older home that needs some additional help with drainage added to the exterior of the house.
3. Gutters
Pretty much every home needs a gutter system to catch rain and direct it into pipes and away from the foundation of your house. Gutters are pretty familiar to most people, and they collect the rain off the roof and capture it in drain pipes that run down to the ground. The water might be discharged into underground drainage piping or basins, or the drains attached to the gutters might send water down the driveway or into the yard.
Gutters can be set up in many ways, and there are different levels of gutter related to different weather demands. Homes that experience snow, as well as rain, might need tougher gutters than homes that are not exposed to these challenges for most of the months of the year.
4. Changing the Grade
The yard and the area around your home might be causing water to run down into your basement or collect near the foundation of your house. You can elect to forego installing drainage solutions in some areas and can instead change the slope or the grade of your yard to change how water runs off the higher places in the yard.
This kind of work can change the areas where water is directed significantly and can sometimes replace other kinds of drains like French drains. Grading can also make your yard more beautiful and can help to afford your property better growing condition for lawn and trees and flowers. If you have been struggling with standing water anywhere on your property, grading work can resolve this issue in most cases.
5. Slot Drains
While not common to all home needs, slot drains can be a great solution for pathways that need some help draining and areas like pools and fountains. Slot drains can be installed in a variety of ways, but these drains are made to be sleek and hard to see while also handling lots of water volume with ease. These drains will not catch heels or wheels of carts and wheelchairs, and this is a really sturdy and durable drain style for many kinds of use.
Slot drains can be a great solution for pathways, walkways, and driveways as well. This is a versatile drain that can stand up to a lot of use, and that will not clog or back up.
Drainage on the Exterior of Your Home is Important
Without the proper drainage on the exterior of your home, you could end up with damage to the foundation as well as unsightly puddles and mud. Drainage solutions care for your yard as well as your house itself, and you will need to take both things into consideration when you are planning the drainage on your property.
Installing the right drains in the right places will make your home much more comfortable and will take care of any problems that could happen related to flooding, heavy rains, or snow. Make sure that you work with an expert installer when you add drainage to your property so that you get the right drainage solutions in play the first time.
