I dont seen anyone watering the foundation of their houses

[taroberts]

We purchased out soaker hoses from Amazon. We have a soaker hose and a sprinkler system. The sprinklers are for the grass more than the foundation as we frequently have water restrictions here but your soaker hoses can run as often as you like.

[taroberts]

Oh I see someone dug up an old post...nevermind

[DitsyD]

Originally Posted by taroberts

Oh I see someone dug up an old post...nevermind

I hadn't noticed. My bad.

[FalconheadWest]

Originally Posted by Gkhadivi

Hello,
How often should I water the foundation with soaker hoses and how long each time? I am new to Texas and just bought a house and found out I have to water the foundation.
Thank you

It greatly depends on how much rain is coming. In the Summer, your main sprinklers should do most of the work, but with restrictions, you might need an extra day a week for about 10-20 minutes depending on moisture level. In the winter, maybe once a week for 10 minutes, and sometimes every 2 weeks if there's been steady rainfall. You need to watch the soil and if it starts to move away from the slab, it's too dry and you need more water. If it's constantly spongy, too much water.

Originally Posted by DitsyD

You are violating the city's water restrictions. You are limited to watering a maximum of TWO times per week.

The original post was in 2009, so no such water restrictions way back then...

[jacobr]

I am currently using soaker house to water the foundation twice daily (7:00AM & 7:00PM) for 20 mins each. I setup rain delays on the meter according to the rain pattern.

[FalconheadWest]

Originally Posted by jacobr

I am currently using soaker house to water the foundation twice daily (7:00AM & 7:00PM) for 20 mins each. I setup rain delays on the meter according to the rain pattern.

I think that's too much and your slab is possibly going to heave up. Too much water is not good just as not enough water isn't either. Plus, you should also water earlier or later so there is less evaporation. 7pm at night is still too hot in the heat of the Summer to be watering. Wait until closer to 8pm or after, but better around 5-6am using a timer as to not have to wake up.

[TeamLynn]

Possible that homes in your neighborhood have a built in sprinkler station that waters the foundation. They don't have outside spray heads, so if they do you will never see the water....it soaks into the soil like drip irrigation.

An alternative is soaker hoses. Again you may not see them. Typically covered by grass. They don't spray, they drip slowly. I'm guessing every Home Depot and Lowes have them if you ask in Garden department. Typically black and rough.

Old homes typically need more help than new.

[Tyryztoll]

I've found in my year and a half of living in the metroplex that the battle to maintain a decent lawn/foundation around ones home is just that.....particularly if there's no sprinkler system installed. We had one at the first home we lived in, which was obviously convenient in terms of not having to put any effort into watering, but don't have one at our new place in Anna. Therefore, I get up twice a week (depending on the precip. we get, which this time of year is usually none) at 4 a.m. to water with two yard sprinklers and a handheld spray nozzle for the foundation and those nook & cranny areas the sprinklers can't get to. I'm not an expert by any means, but I have no desire to run a soaker hose around the entire perimeter of the house, and would rather just do it by hand. Yes, it's time consuming..... it also sucks getting up that early, but once I'm outside I actually enjoy the peace and tranquility of the pre-dawn morning and find the effort I make to be rewarding and worthwhile. A tumbler full of coffee so strong it reaches out and slaps you helps as well!

For those wondering "Why water at that particular time?", my research indicated that the pre-dawn hours were best in correlation with minimizing evaporation and potential fungus accumulation. Most of my neighbors who don't have sprinkler systems water when the sun is up and burning hot, so they're probably wasting a lot of that water (although I know not everyone can be up to water their lawn at 4 a.m. for various reasons).

Our current foundation still looks pretty good on all sides of the house except one, and it was like that when we moved here. The bottom of the concrete pour is visible along much of that side, but you can only see beneath it it one little spot, which I'm working on. The grass here is much more established and healthy than our previous house.....which was a disaster foundation-wise, as whole sections of the lawn pulled away from the house and also the driveway, leading to terrible eyesores with bad cracking. We moved here from the Midwest that year, and I learned about the North Texas soil, the burning, rainless summers, and foundation maintenance issues the hard way.

[sirdevan]

When I had my home built I offered to pay extra (think it was $400) to have a drip installed around entire foundation and hooked to sprinkler system. The builder did it and I didn't pay for it. Best thing ever. I have it on it's own program and it drips every day all year around.