Gardening this weekend? Keep your house in mind
It’s been a long and brutal winter, but it’s finally Victoria Day weekend — the official start to barbecue season. Many Canadians will be firing up the grill, but not before rolling up their sleeves and getting dirty.
This weekend is one of the most popular weekends to do home projects, especially small outdoor jobs like landscaping and gardening. If you’re getting ready to gear up this weekend, here are a few things to keep in mind.
Before you buy landscaping tools, plants, grass seed and soil, take an inventory of your house. Look at the exterior, including the roof, windows, exterior siding and foundation. Are there any new leaks? Are there any new cracks in the foundation, or have older cracks become bigger?
What about your windows? How do the framing and windowsills look? Are there cracks in the bricks, or are they flaking or spalling? Is there missing mortar?
These are things you — or the right pros — need to fix before you worry about making things look great on the surface.
When everything checks out, then you can start to think about investments — like landscaping — that will enhance the value of your home. Can you imagine spending time and money working on your yard and garden only to have it stomped and trampled by someone who is trying to fix the framing around your windows or sealing a crack in the foundation?
If you decide to do some landscaping this weekend, don’t plant anything next to your foundation. Every time you water the plants there you would be directing water right to your foundation.
Your house needs to breathe. If there isn’t enough space between your house and any shrubs or plants, moisture builds up, potentially leading to mould, termites and other insects. You don’t want to create the perfect environment for these types of problems.
And don’t forget about maintenance. How often do you need to water the plants you’re choosing? How often do they need to be pruned? If you don’t have a green thumb, get low- maintenance greenery. You could save yourself a lot of money, time, sweat and tears. You’ll also be saving many plants.
If you’re planning to plant a couple of new trees, choose the right ones for your property and make sure you plant them in areas where they won’t damage your home or your neighbour’s. That means as far away from the house as possible and ideally away from the sanitary line.
Large trees have large branches and foliage that can direct more water to the house, including the roof, siding and foundation. This leads to more wear and tear. And remember, a tree’s roots can be two to three times wider than the tree. Find out how big the tree’s canopy can grow to be — its root system will be just as wide or wider.
Tree roots can do a lot of damage to your plumbing and weeping tile. If you have mature trees on your property, contact a professional plumber who can scope your plumbing lines to make sure there aren’t any roots causing damage to your underground pipes.
If you catch the problem early, you can prevent water or sewage from backing up into the house. I don’t know a single homeowner who wouldn’t want to prevent that.
Small landscaping projects are good ways to get outdoors and improve your home. But if you don’t know what you’re doing, you could cause problems like messing up the grading or drainage around your property — or worse, your neighbour’s.
If you aren’t 100 per cent sure about something, hire a pro. It’s your safest bet.