Got some drainage issues around your home? You want to do something about it, but it has to be easy stuff you can handle independently without much equipment or manpower. You don’t want to spend a ton of money either, so you’re interested in the do-it-yourself route. What can you do to begin solving drainage issues on your own?
At Anchor Foundation Repair, we’ve seen many drainage issues over the past 40+ years that have caused foundation problems. We know what drainage solutions will be most helpful to your foundation’s environment and can make a few recommendations.
In this article, we share several simple solutions you can use to start addressing drainage problems around your home. We’ll also review some other drainage fixes to consider with professional help.
Top 3 DIY Drainage Solutions for Your Home
When we say DIY, most people hope for cheap, easy, and fast. These 3 ideas are all that: relatively low cost, super simple, and easy to do in as little as an hour or perhaps a few sessions over a normal weekend.
You can try one, two, or all of these ideas if they apply to your home. We’ll give you the shortlist and then elaborate on each.
- Install downspout extensions,
- Pare down high spots in flower beds,
- Fill in low spots with fresh topsoil.
Next comes the details . . .
1. Install Downspout Extensions
If you already have a gutter system, this one’s for you. Most homes tend to have gutters already, so hopefully, this one applies to your home, and you’ve at least got that head start.
For some strange reason, many homes have downspouts that let out right at the base of your home. There’s no extension to it at all. This is an unfavorable situation for your foundation and also causes drainage issues.
After years and years of rainfall and strong storms, as we have here in Central Texas, dirt can erode near the home, creating low spots, washout, and areas of pooling water. This is not good for slab foundations.
It’s even worse for crawl space foundation homes (and for basement homes, but we don’t have those around here) because you don’t want water flow or accumulation in the crawl space or seeping down basement walls.
No matter what type of foundation you have, it’s better if the area directly around your home stays relatively dry and for any rainwater to drain away quickly. It’s also better for any water coming off your roof and through your gutters to be let out several feet (or preferably more) away from your home.
The minimum distance for a downspout extension to release water from your home would be 4 to 6 feet away. Underground downspout extensions that release water eight to ten feet away from your home are even better. Extensions that run all the way to the curb are ideal.
I’m not suggesting that you dig some trenches and install underground downspout extensions. However, you can get the materials to do an easy DIY version of extensions that at least gets the water farther out from the perimeter of your home.
Search online for any number of downspout extensions that you can easily add on to your current system. Some are rigid plastic, some are metal. I even saw some vinyl ones that roll out when it rains and retract when it’s not raining.
They’ve got all kinds of above-ground downspout options with prices starting around $15 each. You’ll have to get one for every downspout you have on your gutter setup, but it will be money well spent.
2. Pare Down High Spots in Flower Beds
Often, dirt and debris can pile up near your home, especially in flower beds with loose material and no grass. Also, when you don’t have gutters, water dripping off the roof wears a channel along your home. The uneven ground has high spots and subsequently creates low spots where water can accumulate and stick around for too long after rain.
The goal would be to knock down any high spots of dirt and move the dirt into the low spots, creating a gentle and even slope away from your home. Check around your home. See if there are any places where the dirt is too high or sloped toward your house and rearrange the soil to a more favorable condition.
This could be easy or more labor intensive depending on your situation, but it is still doable for most homeowners.
Assuming you have a shovel, this option doesn’t involve any cost except time and effort. If you don’t own a shovel, you can pick one up for $20 at the very least. Spending a little more for a comfortable shovel handle and more durable material might be worth it. A basic round-point shovel will work just fine.
If you don’t own a shovel, you could borrow one from a neighbor, which would be free! But seriously, you should have a shovel if you own a home, so go ahead and spring for one.
3. Fill in Low Spots with Fresh Topsoil
You might have only low and no high spots because water has eroded the dirt away. In this case, you wouldn’t have any dirt from high areas to move into the low areas. You just need more dirt in general to even things out. Topsoil geared to your geographic location is optimal. We recommend buying a load of high-quality soil from a local supplier.
Fill in any holes with topsoil and rake it in. Don’t worry about covering up the grass, it will grow back through the soil. Make sure the soil you add slopes gently away from the perimeter of your home.
This is the most expensive option, but it’s still not as costly as other drainage fixes. You might spend around $60 to $100 for 2.5 cubic yards (a basic truckload) of topsoil. You will need a shovel and a wheelbarrow, and a leaf rake would also be helpful.
This will be more physically challenging work than the other choices, but still reasonably straightforward for a homeowner with some time on their hands and DIY projects on their heart.
Tips on Purchasing Topsoil
Big box stores can carry bulk topsoil, but who knows if it’s best suited to your location. Instead, ask a landscaper you trust where they get their soil, or you might ask them to order it for you.
Buying topsoil in bulk is cheaper and easier than buying individual bags. A 40-pound bag of soil might cover 12 square feet, but that’s only at 1” of depth. When filling in holes in your yard, you need a lot more dirt than you think, and it needs to be packed down some.
You can get topsoil delivered right to your driveway or go and pick it up if you’ve got a truck or have a buddy willing to let you borrow theirs.
Bulk topsoil is sold by the cubic yard. A typical full-sized truck with a regular bed can hold up to 2.5 cubic yards of soil. Short-bed pickups might only hold 1.5 cubic yards. Make sure the vehicle will also be able to handle the weight because 1 cubic yard of soil can weigh 2,000 to 3,000 pounds, depending on the moisture levels in the dirt. Some sellers might set limits on how much they will put in your truck too.
Know Your DIY Limits
Everyone wants to save money and do things DIY-style in theory. When you start actually doing the project, you might realize you would rather have someone else do it. Just know your realistic limits; they are usually:
- Time,
- Physical ability, and
- Cost.
For example, if it will take you more than the length of a movie to get it done, maybe you’d like to go to a movie with your family on the weekend instead of doing this yard work. If you *might die* if you have to sweat for more than an hour in the Texas sun, then perhaps DIY is not your thing.
Sometimes, cost is tricky. Sure, you save a little money doing things yourself, but with simple stuff like this, you might be able to pay a teenager to do it for you. Now that you’ve thought about these tasks, would you rather pay the kid down the street a hundred bucks so you don’t have to spread that dirt around on your day off? For many folks, it might be worth it.
I’m not saying don’t do DIY stuff, just be sure it’s what you want to spend your time on and that your body will cooperate. Pushing a wheelbarrow around looks easy and *possibly fun*, but when it’s filled with topsoil and you’re attempting to push it around your bumpy yard, you might feel otherwise.
Drainage Solutions That Require Professional Help
Now that you’re *filled in* on all the easy drainage solutions to try out, what else is there to do to help your poor drainage situation? If you don’t have a gutter system with underground downspout extensions, that’s the #1 solution, but you will certainly need professional gutter installation.
Beyond gutters, you can also consider:
- Fully regrading your yard,
- Creating swales or berms to redirect water,
- Installing catch basins, or
- Other underground water movement systems like French drains.
The above solutions are also likely beyond the DIY level. These remedies need larger equipment, considerable digging, and a lot more time, in addition to more know-how and experience. It’s important to do these things properly. A drainage fix gone wrong can go very wrong indeed, and you can end up with water in all the wrong places.
When You’re Ready For More Drainage Help
Drainage issues are not often solved by one quick fix. It’s more like you try something easy and then try something more involved to improve it further. We wish you the very best of luck in attempting to address your drainage problems.
At Anchor Foundation Repair, we want to empower homeowners to learn about their homes and handle things on their own whenever possible. But we also know that sometimes it’s worth your time and dollars to get help from the folks who deal with this stuff every day and have already figured it out.
If you need more significant drainage assistance in the BCS or greater Brazos Valley area, here are a few local landscaping companies we recommend that have a ton of experience handling drainage.