Drainage Problems and Cures
Drainage has become even more important in recent years as more and more homes are built on reclaimed wetland areas. If this is the case with your home, you can be fairly certain that any problems you are going to have will be caused not by surface water but by ground water. The earth supporting a wetland has a far higher water content than other kinds of soil. This means that excess surface moisture, caused by a heavy rain fall, may not be able to drain adequately. It also means that you may have a high water table, which can result in ground water elevating, closer and closer to your foundation.
The purpose of drainage is to try to protect your home from moisture either by insulating it or by directing unwanted water a safe distance from the house. The more modern homes are built with damp-proofing, and one would hope that if your home is built on a wetland that this is the case. When a home is damp-proofed, the exterior is treated with bitumen coating. This is not an absolute method, but coupled with good drainage it can be successful. Unfortunately retrospective damp-proofing can be a big endeavour, and expensive.
The best thing to do, whether your home is damp-proofed or not, is to make sure that the drainage around your home is able to keep up with your drainage needs and that it is maintained properly. The primary object of drainage is to keep the foundation around your home as dry as possible. This can be achieved by installing gutters around the roof of your home. Gutters catch the water and then drain it down and away from the foundation through down-spouts. If your gutters are not maintained they can become clogged, which leaves the water to spill over into the ground around your foundation.
Another drainage method which acts in conjunction with the gutters and down-spout is a French drain. This is a trench filled with gravel or rock that catches the water and transports it further away from the foundation. The combination of these drainage methods will assist in keeping the foundation as dry as possible. If you have good damp-proofing and maintain the integrity of your gutters, you will have done an excellent job solving the drainage problems around your home.