what to put around foundation of house

Landscaping around the foundation of a house plays a crucial role in ensuring its structural integrity. Neglecting this area can lead to severe damage such as water damage, termite infestation, and weed overgrowth. To prevent these issues, landscaping experts recommend using sustainable and protective materials for landscaping ten feet around the base of the foundation. With many landscaping materials available in the market, selecting the right one can be overwhelming. However, four materials have proven to be effective in safeguarding a house’s foundation while still ensuring curb appeal. These materials include gravel, rubber mulch, concrete, and brick masonry. Each material has unique features that make it ideal for foundation protection. Gravel prevents weed growth and helps with natural drainage while rubber mulch insulates and requires little to no maintenance. Concrete is cost-effective and low-maintenance, while brick masonry is aesthetically pleasing and provides necessary structural support. Read on to explore the benefits of each material and determine which is the best fit for your home’s foundation.

Gravel

Gravel is a popular foundation landscaping material that offers a natural and affordable solution to enhance curb appeal and protect your home’s foundation. With its various forms and sizes, gravel is an adaptable landscaping material that can be customized to fit your home’s aesthetics. Whether you opt for traditional limestone or the whimsical look of river rock, gravel serves as an effective protective layer for a home’s foundation. Additionally, the construction process of a gravel bed includes a weed membrane that helps prevent unwanted growth, further strengthening the defense against weed overgrowth. A layer of gravel on top of the weed barrier provides an extra barrier of protection, ensuring the foundation won’t have to deal with an unruly weed and shrub growth. Apart from preventing weed growth, gravel also helps with natural drainage, ensuring water moves quickly through the area, and preventing plants within the bed from getting too much water and drowning. This feature can be particularly helpful if you live in areas with high precipitation levels. Furthermore, gravel does not absorb moisture, making it an effective bug deterrent since pests thrive in damp environments and can wreak havoc on a house’s foundation. Lastly, rocks store heat from the sun, so adding gravel around your foundation results in heat distribution that can keep your foundation and any plants that live in the bed warm even after the temperature decreases.

Rubber Mulch

Rubber Mulch is a non-traditional yet effective landscaping material that has grown in popularity over the years. Though the product is made from synthetic materials, it’s often lauded for its insulating properties, ease of maintenance, and ability to protect a home’s foundation. While it may not be the best option for covering young trees or newly planted shrubs due to its synthetic nature, rubber mulch serves as a durable and long-lasting option for foundation landscaping. The material often comes in different colors, ranging from browns, blacks, and even reds, which provide an excellent contrast with the surrounding landscape. Additionally, rubber mulch doesn’t require annual replacement due to its slow degradation process, which takes around ten years to break down. Better yet, the product requires little to no maintenance since it doesn’t attract pests due to its inedible nature. Moreover, the foul odor of the chemicals used to create the rubber also deters pests from residing in it. Rubber mulch is also widely popular because of its ability to insulate the surrounding area, ensuring that older plants and trees do not dry out, and the home remains warm. Finally, the material is also an eco-friendly option since it comprises a mixture of recycled tires and other rubber products.

Concrete

Concrete is one of the most robust and cost-effective foundation landscaping materials that can add significant value to your home’s exterior appeal. Used widely on construction sites, this abundant material is admired for its strength, durability, and low-maintenance qualities. Using concrete for foundation landscaping has multiple advantages, such as added durability and supporting the household against the potential damage from water and flooding. It also serves as an additional helpful layer for protection against weed growth and pest infestation. It’s an excellent choice for larger areas where other materials may be challenging to use due to their size. Since it is solid, it doesn’t permit weeds to grow and require less attention. Besides the low maintenance, perhaps the most significant advantage of concrete landscaping is its affordability as a landscape material. It is abundant, and since you don’t need to replace it every year, it’s an investment that pays off in the long run. Lastly, concrete assists in maintaining the home’s foundation’s curb appeal while still providing a functional protective barrier. The simplicity of the material provides homeowners with an endless variety of styles and appearances, which can be customized to fit their home’s specific aesthetic.

Brick Masonry

Brick masonry is among the most commonly used materials for foundation landscaping. It’s known for its aesthetic appeal, added structural stability, and cost-effectiveness. The material may feature the traditional red brick color or be designed in modern gray or white color, giving homeowners much versatility in terms of aesthetics. Brick masonry is reinforced with steel bars that ensure it can withstand extensive weight and serves as an extra layer of support for the foundation. It makes a great landscaping alternative, and apart from its structural benefits, it creates a barrier for weed growth and pest infestation. Brick masonry is also advantageous in terms of insulation, as it helps keep the home warm by storing heat from the sun. It’s an eco-friendly and durable material that’s ideal for homeowners looking for a long-lasting solution to foundation landscaping. Maintaining brick masonry is relatively easy and requires little effort, meaning it will serve you well without requiring too much attention. Furthermore, it provides a color-popping feature that adds to a home’s landscape and gives it an element of eye-catching appeal. In conclusion, brick masonry is an excellent option for homeowners seeking cost-effective material that is low-maintenance, structurally sturdy, and aesthetically appealing.

What is the best fill next to a foundation?

When laying the foundation of your house or building, it is vital to choose the right soil type. Undoubtedly, the ideal soil material for the construction of foundations is loam. Loam soil is a combination of sand, silt, and clay that provides the perfect balance for supporting your house’s foundation. The right balance of the soil components in loam helps in creating an ideal base to lay your foundation. Unlike other soil types, loam can withstand the presence of water and does not shift, expand or shrink drastically, which could cause damages to your foundation over time. Therefore, when planning to create a long-lasting building structure, the use of loam soil for your foundation is a great choice.

Should I put rocks around my foundation?

When you own a house, you want to prevent damage from any source. One way to prevent such damages from occurring is by keeping vegetation at bay. Luckily, there are several approaches to prevent vegetation from damaging your foundation, for instance, using rocks. Installing a stone bed around the foundation is one of the cost-efficient ways of preventing overgrown weeds and shrubs from infiltrating your home. Cost-effective, yes. But also highly effective since stone beds prevent soil buildup, thus reducing the chances of soil mounds. By inhibiting soil buildup, you decrease the probability of water pooling around and under your home’s foundation, as well as the risk of subsidence. Therefore, if you’re looking to prevent water damage, subsidence, and other related kinds of damage to your home’s foundation, the installation of stone beds is a great decision.

What is used to cover foundation with on house?

Stucco

It’s often said that the foundation is the most important part of your house, but aesthetics are equally as important. If you’re looking to enhance your home’s exterior look, one great option is to use stucco to cover your foundation and walls. Stucco, a type of cement that comes in a wide variety of textures, can be applied to your walls, ceilings, and foundation using a putty knife, making it particularly easy to use for both DIYers and experts alike. One of the most significant advantages of using stucco to cover your foundation is that it gives your home a textured look that appeals to many homeowners. Moreover, it conceals any exposed concrete, which may not always appear attractive but is necessary for the safety and strength of your building’s foundation. Thus, adding stucco to your home’s foundational structure is a great way to make your home both safe and aesthetically pleasing.

How do you fill a gap between foundation and house?

If you’re experiencing gaps between your foundation and house, it’s essential to address the problem to protect your home’s structure. Fortunately, there is an easy way to handle such gaps: by using a foam backer rod, caulk, and a spoon. To start with, gently insert the foam backer rod into the gap between your house and foundation. The foam backer rod will act as a support for the caulk that you will apply to the joint. After filling in the gap with the foam backer rod, it’s time to apply the polyurethane caulk. Apply the caulk over the foam backer rod with a caulking gun, making sure to fill up the entire space adequately. Once the gap is entirely filled with caulk, smooth it out using a spoon for a clean finish. This technique is particularly useful if you’re dealing with expansion and contraction due to changing external environmental conditions. A well-done filling with a foam backer rod and caulk will help to maintain the structural integrity of your home and extend its lifespan.