Surface water is one of the worst enemies your house’s foundation could ever have. It can damage your foundation, it can damage your health, and it can affect the value of your property in a very bad way. Still, you can’t stop rain from falling down, right, so you need to find other ways to deal with it. And while they are plenty of those, the first thing you need to do is find out whether your house is having a problem caused by surface water or not.
Puddles of water after it rains located near the foundation of your house are never a good sign. Water finds a way to get everywhere, so you can expect to see wet basement walls if there are puddles near the foundation. You might not see it right away, but if you don’t react as soon as you notice that puddles are forming after the rain, you will see it eventually, at a point when fixing the damage can be more tiring and expensive than when you noticed the problem.
But even if you think your house is safe because the surface water near your foundation is quickly absorbed by the ground, you’re in for a nasty surprise. Even though it’s not on the surface, the water is still there, exerting pressure on your house’s foundation walls, and causing them to crack in time.
Luckily, dealing with surface water can be done easily by drainage systems, creating a steep terrain around the foundation, and installing proper roof drainage systems. There are other methods as well, but these are the easiest to do once the house is already built. So if you notice that water is pooling around your foundation, make sure you react quickly - the faster you are, the more chances you’ll avoid serious damage to the foundation.