Foundation Watering in Garland: A Soaker Hose Guide

If you've heard that you should water your foundation and it sounds a little odd, you're not alone. But on Garland's clay, it's one of the most useful things a homeowner can do. The clay swells when it's wet and shrinks when it dries, and a house suffers most when one side dries out while another stays damp.

The goal isn't to soak the ground. It's to keep the soil around the house evenly moist through the dry months, so it doesn't shrink away from the slab in one place and not another.

This guide covers how to set up a soaker hose, when to run it, what Garland's watering rules allow, and the other habits that protect a foundation, from drainage to trees.

The Foundation Performance Association, a Houston group of Texas engineers and repair professionals, puts the whole idea in one line: uniformity is the key. Soil that stays evenly moist on every side moves evenly, and a house can ride out even movement with little damage. Uneven moisture is what bends a slab.

That matters here because most of Garland sits on clay that moves a lot. Our guide to Garland's soil shows which soils are under the city and how much each one moves.

There's a catch, though. More water isn't better. The Texas Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers, whose guidelines Texas engineers work from, recommends keeping soil moisture near uniform on all sides, and cautions against watering too much. Soggy clay swells, and it can push a slab up just as dry clay lets it drop.

A soaker hose is a porous hose that lets water seep out slowly instead of spraying it. The Houston engineers' design paper calls it the easiest system to install, and it puts water into the soil more slowly than a sprinkler.

Here's how to set one up so it helps rather than hurts:

1. Lay it 1 to 2 feet out from the slab. The Houston group's maintenance guide says to water at least one to two feet from the foundation, and lightly.
2. Run it on every side. The goal is even moisture all the way around, including the shady side and behind the shrubs.
3. Cover it. The same paper says a soaker hose can be buried to cut evaporation and keep it safe from the mower. A layer of mulch works too.
4. Add a timer and a moisture meter. The paper also recommends a soil moisture sensor or meter with these systems, so you water by need, not by habit.

Know its limits too. The paper warns that soaker hoses wear out early, freezing can damage them, and too much water close to the house can draw tree roots toward it. Check the hose each spring, and don't leave water standing in it through a hard freeze.

A drip line works on the same idea, with emitters that release water slowly. Either is fine. What matters is even, modest watering.

Water when the ground is drying out. The Houston maintenance guide suggests running the system in dry periods, when the lawn and plants start to wilt. In Garland, that's usually the hot, dry stretch of July and August, and any long dry spell in between. Our signs of foundation problems guide has the weather averages.

There's no single schedule that fits every yard, so watch the soil instead of the clock:

• Keep the soil damp a few inches down, not muddy, on every side.
• Check the sunny sides first, because they usually dry out fastest.
• Never water into a gap where dry soil has pulled away from the slab. The Houston guide is clear on this one. Water the soil 1 to 2 feet out instead, and let the gap close on its own.
• Turn it off when it rains or freezes. Garland's code doesn't allow watering devices to run during rain or a freeze.
• Watch for runoff. If water is running across the sidewalk or into the street, it's too much, and the city's code forbids that kind of runoff too.

Garland buys its water from the North Texas Municipal Water District, and its watering rules are written into the city code. The good news is that they treat foundation watering gently.

In normal times:

• Sprinklers and irrigation systems may run no more than two days a week from April 1 to October 31, and one day a week from November 1 to March 31.
• No sprinkler watering between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., with an exception for soaker hoses, drip lines and hand-held hoses with an automatic shutoff nozzle.

When the city declares a drought stage, the sprinkler rules tighten. Foundation watering keeps its exception:

• Stage 1: sprinklers only on Tuesdays and Saturdays in the warm months. Foundations can be watered on any day with a hand-held hose, a soaker hose or a drip line.
• Stage 2: sprinklers one day a week, on your trash pickup day. Foundations can still be watered at any time with a hand-held hose, soaker hose or drip line.
• Stage 3: sprinklers are banned. Foundations can still be watered for up to 2 hours on any day with a hand-held hose, soaker hose or drip line.

Rules change, so check the current stage with Garland's water utility before a dry summer. The city also points residents to Water My Yard, a service that gives weekly watering advice for lawns.

Watering adds moisture evenly. Drainage stops water from piling up in one spot, and you need both.

• Slope the ground away from the house. The Texas engineers' guidelines call for the ground to fall 6 inches over the first 10 feet, where it's practical. Fill low spots where water stands after a storm.
• Carry downspouts well out. The City of Richardson's homeowner guidance says at least three feet from the foundation. The Houston group suggests five to ten.
• Keep gutters clear, so water doesn't spill over the edge in one place.
• Don't tie downspouts into a perforated pipe. The Texas guidelines say downspouts and surface drains shouldn't connect to perforated underground drain pipe, which would let roof water soak back into the soil.
• Don't dam the water. The Houston guide warns against metal edging and other barriers within five feet of the house, and says flower beds should slope away from the foundation.

If water still pools against the house, our foundation drainage page covers the fixes, from regrading to underground drains.

A big tree pulls a lot of water out of the ground, and it pulls it from one side of the house. The Houston group's checklist suggests keeping broadleaf trees, such as oaks and pecans, no closer to the house than the tree is tall. That includes a tree on the neighbor's side of the fence.

If a tree is already too close:

• Prune instead of cutting it down. The Texas guidelines warn that removing a large tree can make the ground swell back up, especially if the tree was there before the house. Talk to an arborist, and ideally an engineer, first.
• Keep the canopy in check. The Houston checklist suggests pruning every two to three years to hold the tree at its current size.
• Water the tree away from the house, so its roots grow outward.
• Give it extra water in dry spells. Richardson's guidance says that trees and large shrubs within 20 feet of the house may need it.

Root barriers, which are walls buried in the ground to block roots, can help. But the Houston paper is frank about their limits. Installing one means cutting roots, which can weaken the tree, and a barrier only slows movement rather than stopping it. If you go that way, have a professional put it in.

The same checklist suggests pulling any young tree that comes up next to the house, and cutting back shrubs that grow toward the roofline.

A single drip keeps one patch of clay wet all year, which is exactly the uneven moisture you're trying to avoid. The Houston group lists the usual suspects:

• An air conditioning condensate line dripping beside the slab
• A dripping outdoor faucet
• A leaking pool, pond or fountain
• A clogged or broken gutter or downspout
• A sprinkler valve box full of water, a sign of a leak or over-watering

For leaks you can't see, our signs guide explains a simple water meter test.

The Houston maintenance guide suggests a walk around the house twice a year, best timed just after the driest and wettest spells. Take photos of each outside wall the first time, so you have something to compare against.

Each time, look for new or wider cracks, water standing near the house after rain, blocked downspouts, and trees or shrubs crowding the walls. If you find new cracks, mark and date them before anyone patches them.

If your house has a crawl space, the same rules apply outside. Underneath, the Texas guidelines point to cross ventilation and drainage, with enough clearance between the wood and the ground. Our pier and beam repair page explains why a damp crawl space is the bigger worry.

Piers don't end the need for any of this. The Houston group's paper on why repairs fail says most repair methods only work if the soil around the house stays at steady moisture and water drains away. It's also worth checking whether your warranty asks you to keep up drainage and watering. Our foundation repair cost guide covers what to look for.