Plumbing Mistakes You Will Never Make Again

If your home's foundation has water leaks or you've been told that your property needs better drainage for any reason, you'll typically want to dig a type of trench or otherwise excavate the soil for better drainage. It's not enough to simply start digging up your yard in the direction of the curb and expect that the soil will drain properly, but you need to plan your excavation drainage carefully. If you haven't hired a contractor to do this for you, note a few simple tips to keep in mind.

1. Map out the excavation first

Remember that trees and other vegetation cannot grow if your excavation affects their roots, and you want to work around buried power lines, cables, and plumbing pipes. Driveways and sidewalks can also collapse if you dig underneath them or too close to them, so that the soil becomes unsteady. While digging an excavation trench in a straight line from your home to the lowest point on the property may be easiest, you need to work around all these obstacles in order to keep everything on your property safe.

2. Take soil samples

Your topsoil may not be the soil that you will have underneath this layer, but you may have very sandy or rocky soil, or encounter excess moisture. Each of these will mean different types of digging processes and machinery. You may need to plan for bracing of the trench if the soil will be very soft, or rent diamond-tipped digging machinery for very rocky soil, as this will give you the strength you need to cut through these materials. Don't wait until you get into the soil to find out what is under the surface but take those samples first so you can be better prepared.

3. Slope the drainage trench properly

In many cases, drainage excavation for home property will be gravity-powered, meaning you can simply slope it from one end to another and the soil will drain on its own. Digging a trench in of itself usually does not good to actually drain moisture away, but you need to slope the trench as you dig so that water begins to actually run and drain down the trench itself. You may need to take depth measurements of the trench as you go along and dig, to ensure that it's properly sloped for the drainage you need.

Remember that if these steps seem overly complicated for you, it's good to have a professional handle this work and ensure that your property drains as it should without causing soil erosion or runoff. To learn more, contact a company like Minpex Drainage.