For many of the residents of the Houston area, watering your foundation is critical to its health.  The expansive soil which exists to some extent throughout the greater Houston area shrinks as it dries and causes differential settlement which results in the cracks in the brick, sheetrock, and damage to the structure which often leads to the need for foundation repair.  Often preventing such damage is as simple as watering your foundation.

Recently a competitor of mine here in the Houston area published a video on how a home owner can setup a simple watering system to get water to the foundation effectively.  The video is pretty good and should be of use to my clients which makes it worth sharing here even if I did not create it.  The only suggestion I wish to make is that in most cases in the Houston area the use of a pressure regulator and removal of the flow restrictor disks as shown in the video is not a necessary expense.  This is my opinion based upon testing and experience and results may vary.  Also I do not recommend runs longer that 75 feet, and 50 feet is normally considered optimal for this type of setup.  You should also consider burying the soaker hose a few inches below the soil to prevent mower damage.  This can be done by inserting a spade in the soil and creating a separation by rocking it to create a small channel you can stuff the hose into without actually digging.

Keep in mind that in some cases there area also concerns such as the need for root barriers and improvements in drainage which will drastically affect the performance of a watering system but those are beyond the focus of this video.  If you want a commercial system installed, check our links page.  The system shown in the video requires a great deal of maintenance and should be checked weekly to insure it is working and that components have not failed including the soaker hose.