How Can You Protect Your Foundation When Your Home Was Built On An Area With A High Water Table?
If your home was built on an area with a high water table, it's important to take steps to protect your foundation. A high water table means that the depth where the soil is saturated with water is very shallow, and saturated soil can cause damage to your foundation. There are a few reasons why an area may have a high water table. It may be in a valley or near a stream, or the depth where the soil turns into granite bedrock may be shallow (the granite can't absorb water, so the water becomes stuck and can't drain further down). If you're not sure about the depth of the water table below your home, it's a good idea to test it during the rainiest time of the year by having an exterior waterproofing contractor take a sample of the soil near your foundation.
Protecting your foundation requires installing an exterior waterproofing system that continually drains water from the soil next to your foundation, preventing the high water table from damaging it. To learn about the damage a high water table can cause to your foundation and what steps you need to take to protect your home, read on.
How Can a High Water Table Cause Damage to a Home's Foundation?
When the soil next to the foundation of your home becomes saturated with water due to the high water table, it will start to swell. The swelling soil will press up against your foundation, which can crack it or cause it to shift. Cracks in your foundation are difficult to repair and can lead to your foundation completely failing if the cracks begin to spread and widen. A shifting foundation can cause your home to slope up or down, and this can cause multiple problems across your entire home — your doors and windows will become difficult to open and close due to the slope, and your roof will begin to warp and sag.
If the soil around your home's foundation is acidic, then a high water table poses an even greater threat to your home's foundation. Acidic soil pressing against your home's concrete foundation will begin to slowly dissolve it, weakening it and making it more vulnerable to becoming cracked.
How Do You Protect Your Foundation From a High Water Table?
In order to stop a high water table from damaging your foundation, you'll need to constantly keep the soil around your foundation drained. An exterior waterproofing contractor can install drain tile around your foundation to remove water from the saturated soil. They will dig a deep trench around your home and place the drain tile below the level of your home's foundation, which allows it to drain water from the soil both around the sides of your foundation and underneath it.
In some areas, building codes will allow you to connect the drain tile to the sewer system or drain the water out onto the street. This is a convenient option to remove all of the water that the drain tile connects. If it's not allowed in your area, the contractor will need to hook the drain tile up to a sump pump that will move the water far enough away from your home that it won't soak back into the soil around your foundation.
If your home was built on top of a high water table, keeping the soil around your foundation and beneath it constantly drained will help prevent your foundation from being damaged. As water from the high water table moves towards your foundation, it will enter into the drain tile and be diverted towards the sewer, the street, or the sump pump in order to make sure the soil around your foundation stays dry. To protect your home's foundation, call an exterior waterproofing contractor and have them install drainage tile around your foundation.
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