Your yard is your pride and joy.  A beautiful lawn, wonderful hedges, and nicely pruned trees all laid out and lit up to accent your home.  Of course, when you think of plumbing and yard care, two things come to mind immediately: the dangers of sewer line repair and the wonder of automatic sprinklers.  But taking care of your lawn while taking care of your plumbing actually goes beyond these two things.  Your yard is part of your home, and caring for it is important for the health and structure of any buildings on it (your home included).

Foundations and Water Proofing

Water is big when it comes to your yard.  Proper watering is essential to keep a lawn healthy during the summer.  You need enough water to keep your yard green, but should avoid overwatering, which can drown your plants.  Here’s the thing though, too much or too little water is just as bad for your home.  If your yard goes for too long without water, especially during a hot and dry spell, the ground under your foundation can harden and shift, causing the foundation to crack.  A cracked foundation adjusts the shape of your home, leading to ill-fitting doors and windows or shifted pipes that can begin leaking.

You should also pay attention to the shape of your yard.  Gutters and drain pipes are designed to flow downhill and carry roof-water away from your home (always make sure these are clear and working before the rainy season starts).  If you notice water pooling against your home, either because the earth has shifted or eroded away from the edge or because heavy rainfall has simply oversaturated the ground, it’s best to act as soon as the water dries out.  Pooling water runs the risk of damaging your home and your lawn.  It will eventually find or forge a way into your home, soaking the foundation or leaking into a basement.  If the foundation is cracked already, water will compound the problem.

When it comes to your yard, water that’s pooled up against your home will erode soil begin to expose roots that are nearby.  The best solution is to make sure that water has a clear path away from the edges of your house.  There should always be a downhill drain of some kind that will carry water away from the foundation of your home.

Avoiding Yard Damage

There are two very clear ways to minimize and avoid yard damage from plumbing repairs.  The first is to have your sewer line repaired or replaced using a trenchless technique.  Trenchless piping techniques replace old piping by either breaking up the old pipe as new segments of pipe are pulled through (burst piping) or by pushing an epoxy coated balloons through the old pipe and allowing the new pipe to set and cure in place (cure-in-place piping, CIPP).  Both of these techniques will allow a plumber to replace or repair existing underground pipes and sewer lines without extensive damage.  Some holes will still need to be dug but the overall devastation is limited.

The second method is prevention.  Do your level best to avoid damage to pipes in your yard.  Take notice of freezing temperature warnings, don’t plant trees and large plants near underground water lines, and have new lines installed with protections against root systems.  By protecting your pipes in the first place you can avoid costly repairs in the future.

Metro Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning is the service company you want!  Call us today at (423) 616-1025!