Water by the Foundation Is a Problem That Gets Worse
If water pools against your house after a storm or snowmelt, or your crawlspace is damp every spring, it won’t fix itself. Water against a foundation finds its way in, and in Montana’s freeze-thaw climate it can heave and crack footings. The good news: it’s almost always solvable with the right drainage — and it’s far cheaper to fix the water than to fix what the water damages.
The two jobs: surface water and subsurface water
There are two kinds of water causing foundation problems, and they need different fixes.
Surface water is what runs across the ground — and the fix is shaping the ground to send it elsewhere:
- Grading away from the house so the ground slopes away on all sides.
- Swales — shallow shaped channels that catch runoff and carry it around and away.
Subsurface water is what moves through the soil toward the foundation — and that’s where a French drain comes in: a gravel-filled trench with perforated pipe that intercepts the water and carries it off before it reaches the wall.
Why both usually matter
Most wet-foundation problems are a mix of the two. A French drain alone won’t fix water that’s sheeting off a hillside toward the house, and regrading alone won’t catch water already moving through the soil. The mistake we see most is fixing one and being surprised the problem persists. We look at where the water actually comes from — the roof, the slope, the neighbor’s runoff, the high water table — and combine grading, swales, and drains to match.
Where the water goes next
A drain or swale has to take the water somewhere — a daylight outlet, a ditch, a dry well, or a safe low spot well away from the house. Sending it ten feet away to pool again isn’t a fix. We plan the whole path so the water actually leaves the area.
Catch it before it’s a bigger problem
A damp crawlspace today is a cracked footing tomorrow. Dealing with water around a home in Paradise Valley? Request a quote or call (406) 623-9075 and we’ll trace where it’s coming from.
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EZ Road Repair handles road building, excavation, drainage, masonry, and snow work across Paradise Valley and Southwestern Montana.