When you are a property owner making any improvements to your landscaping, private road, or around your home's foundation, understanding how to control erosion is an important part of the process. Here are some options to help you stabilize your soil and reduce erosion around your home and property when completing any landscaping projects and foundation repair.
Control Erosion
The soil on your yard is exposed to wind and rain, which can cause it to erode away over time, reducing your soil's structure and causing issues with dust in the air, which can lead to breathing problems. As a result, a good portion of your property's topsoil can end up in the next property over. There are methods you can apply to your property, depending on the use of the soil, to reduce this soil loss to erosion.
Access roads through your property can become dusty from vehicle travel, but because pavement may not be an affordable option, you can instead look for soil stabilizing components. Slaked lime added to your property road is a good way to reduce the dust and erosion. This material becomes compacted down as a surface stabilizer to reduce airborne dust. The lime will also pull moisture from the soil and absorb it from the precipitation to become a hardened surface for a road base.
You can also add in a geotextile fabric within the surface of the soil. This is a great option when your soil slopes on a steep grade and the soil on the surface becomes loose from constant traffic. This durable mesh will help stop any movement of the soil.
Promote Foundation Drainage
The soil around your home's foundation can often be the cause of foundation damage and poorly-draining soil which can lead to moisture problems inside your home. After your home's foundation walls are poured and installed, the soil is backfilled around the foundation. Unfortunately, sometimes this soil is not replaced properly and is not compacted into the site, resulting in air pockets and voids in the soil that can cause problems in erosion.
When the soil around your home contains too much clay and is not compacted, the soil will absorb and hold moisture improperly leading to home moisture intrusion and also pressure on the foundation. Too much sand in the soil around your home without enough silt or clay will cause the soil to erode away from your home. This will expose your foundation to further problems in the future.
To repair this problem you should have the soil excavated and combined with other soil stabilizers, such as sand, clay, or silt to give the soil the right elements to prevent erosion. To learn more about soil stabilization, visit a professional near you.
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