Watering Foundation in OKC?

[Mary Ainsworth]

Property owners in Oklahoma City - do you water your foundations? I just found out foundations in OKC are susceptible to having issues... I had a couple questions if anyone's willing to weigh in:

1. Do you do it every day? Twice a day?

2. Do you do it year-round? 

3. Is it worth it?

4. Could I instead hire foundation repair and soil stabilization services to prevent foundation issues?

I'd love anyone's input!

[Marcus Auerbach]

Looks like you guys have a lot of port silt loam, which is NOT a very expansive soil. But if you do have a house that sits in expansive soils and are susceptible to shrinking and expanding they can put pressure on the basement walls (exacerbated by frost/thaw cycles) and cause them to crack horizontally. This is a very common issue in parts of Milwaukee and I have done lots of basement reinforcing on our rentals. The issue stems from when the homes were built and excavation spoils were used to backfill around the walls - instead of bringing in #2 stone. The issue with watering your foundation is that you have to do it always, every year without a break in order to achieve the desired effect. I would say on a rental property that's unrealistic, if it really is an issue on a property, better to address the root cause.