Hey everyone. So I live in an area that is mostly clay underneath the ground. To keep my foundation from shifting when it contracts during the dry months, I have to water it regularly. I have a soaker hose that runs around the house, placed 1 foot away from the foundation.
This creates a problem with mowing where I can't just let my robot mower (or my push mower) run freely because of the risk of the soaker hose getting caught up in the blades, which has already happened once when I accidentally mowed too close.
To resolve this, I want to kill the grass (using landscaping fabric) in the 1 foot space between the foundation and hose and replace it with something else so I don't need to bother manually trimming it. At the same time, I don't want to use organic stuff like mulch because underground termites also exist in my area and I don't want it to attract them close to the foundation.
A brief search pointed me to using gravel. However, the problem with stones (especially larger ones) is that they also trap moisture underneath them, and the dark and damp areas can also maybe attract termites. Reading a bit more, I think a good compromise would be smaller and uneven gravel/rocks, as more space between them means sunlight penetrates more and moisture gets dried up quickly. Is this a good solution?
Realistically I think you should just keep the grass and stop watering your foundation perimeter. Any cracking or shrinking is temporary and inconsequential.
However, if you really want to get rid of grass around the foundation, go for a perennial bed of native plants. They'll look better than grass, won't need near as much water, and may even attract pollenators or birds.
If you go the gravel route, which I think you would end up regretting, remember that you will end up with weeds growing in it no matter what. Enough organic matter will eventually accumulate to allow weed seeds to sprout, then you'd be stuck with a much more manual maintenance problem than you have now.
If your only concern is termites, there are perimeter termite poisons you can get and apply, or any pest control service would likely be able to do that for you.
Is that so? It's common advice in my area to water the foundation else be saddled with tens of thousands of $$$ worth of work in ~10 years to deploy piers and fix cracks around the house.
That's news to me! If you've heard it from a reliable source then I'd keep on doing it, though. I will say that I personally haven't had issues with termites despite mulch right against the house, but it was a one time application to get plants established.
Yeah, the expansive clay here is that bad. But thanks for the information!
This really tells me you dont live where OP lives (my money is on texas). In different soils, like a big chunk of Texas, the soil is expansive. If you let it dry out, you can have the whole foundation crack, and since they often use slab-on-grade foundations, where the crack could easily result in a plumbing issue with huge repair bills.
It's cheap to build slab on grade, but expensive after that, so needless to say, developers love it.
It should be a crime to build a home with a foundation that requires weekly maintenance.
Lots of places need sump pumps to combat the water table. If the power goes out, your house floods.
Check your insurance limitations, there’s probably a note about only being covered if someone checks on the place every 72 hours.
A water leak can do a lot of damage in a week, a lot can be damaged during the winter when stuff freezes.
A home is constant maintenance.
That's the first I've heard of that. Pretty cool how different engineering concerns arise due to local differences. Thanks for sharing!