Water Entering a Daylight Basement

I hear so many people call in about problems with water getting in their crawl space or lower level of their house. Tom reiterates the importance of gutters and downspouts placed at least 4 to 6 feet away and the proper grading of the soil. My girlfriends house has a daylight basement and has an area that water is entering. I explained to her about gutters and grading. However, we are at a disagreement!!!! Sooo….. I am here to get some clarification. I told her that putting plants close to and around the house are asking for trouble. I am against it. In my opinion, how she waters them and how much would be a concern, so why not just avoid a costly time consuming problem???

Any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Our Answer

I love a good debate! Truth be told, you can have your landscaping and keep water out at the same time. For starters, following the gutter advice is CRITICAL as in most cases that is 75% of the problem, if not more. Leslie once flooded her entire basement just because one single downspout had become clogged — so it doesn’t take much!

So, make sure you have clean gutters and spouts, at least 1 spout for every 400-600 square feet of roof surface and that the spouts discharge at least 4 to 6 feet away form the house (and then grading that allows the water to keep moving further away)

If that is all set, then here’s what you need to do with the landscaping. remove mulch as well as any kind of physical border like bricks or wood landscape ties. Add clean fill dirt to the foundation perimeter, grading it to create a slope of a 6 inch drop over 4 feet. Be sure this is well tamped.

Once that is set, you can add mulch, top soil, grass, or shrubs on top of this to prevent erosion.

Hope this helps!