Landscaping

The foundation of your home is constructed beginning with an excavation into the earth. When the foundation walls are complete, the area surrounding them is backfilled with earth. This area is not as compact and dense as undisturbed ground.

Water can penetrate through the backfill area to the lower areas of your foundation. This can cause potentially severe problems such as wet basements, cracks in foundation walls, and floor slab movement. This can be avoided through proper installation of landscaping and good maintenance of backfill drainage.

Backfill areas will settle and require prompt attention to avoid damage to the structure and voiding of the warranty.

Builder Installed
We continually attempt to install healthy shrubs and trees. We have taken extra care in the handling and installation in an endeavor to furnish you with plants that will thrive with proper care.

If you live in a community where Becker Communities has landscaped the front yard or has provided trees for your planting, the plant material supplied is guaranteed for ninety (90) days from the date of the planting. The warranty covers a ONE-time replacement. The guarantee applies only if there is reasonable evidence that the plants were properly cared for during this period. Replacement plants are NOT warranted.

After installation of plant materials, you are responsible for providing care and attention for their establishment and growth. Trees should be watered on a weekly basis as a minimum. During the spring and the summer months when expiration of moisture through the leaves is high, the moisture must be replaced at the roots for continuity of circulation. Shrubs should also be watered at least once a week for the first six months. If installation is completed in the spring or summer months, plants should be watered every other day for three to four weeks. Fertilizing of trees and shrubs during the initial rooting period for two to six weeks is not recommended.

Lawn and Plants
Water your new lawn and shrubs often. In the fall of the first year rake the lawn thoroughly, reseed it with the appropriate mixture and add an organic fertilizer or manure. Give special attention to any bare spots in it.

Important
Do not plant landscape material adjacent to the foundation of your home. Always grade the soil away from the foundation structure. Never super-saturate the soil at the perimeter of your home with landscape watering, swimming pool or spa backwash, or rain gutter downspouts. Failure to maintain uniform moisture conditions in the soil around your home may cause an uneven shift in the foundation.

Maintenance Hints to Help You Enjoy Your Landscaping

• Your landscaping, whether a do-it-yourself project or done by a professional landscaper, should be done in a manner that insures proper drainage so that your property, as well as your neighbors’, is protected from surface waters.
  
  
• Maintain drainage from the rear yard through the side yard to the street, utilizing drainage pipes, rock, groundcovers, or grasses to prevent erosion along the side yard “swales”.
  
  
• Swales, which have been graded around your home or on the lot pad, should not be blocked. These shallow ditches have been put there for the purpose of quickly removing water toward the driveway, street, or other positive outlet.
  
  
• Do not let water gather against foundations and retaining walls. These walls are built to withstand the ordinary moisture in the ground. If water is permitted to pond against them, it may cause structural damage due to erosion or expansion.
  
  
• Do not create depressed planter boxes or areas next to foundations such that irrigation or rainwater collects in them.
  
  
• Avoid planting shrubbery too close to your foundation — three feet is a good minimum. When preparing flowerbeds or planting areas adjacent to foundations, make sure that the ground surface slopes away from the foundation.
  
  
• Becker Communities recommends careful consideration of landscape design and selection of planting materials to minimize the demands of your yard on water supplies. Additional material on Xeriscape is available from all reputable nurseries. This has the triple benefit of helping the environment, saving on water bills, and reducing the amount of moisture that can reach your foundation.
  
  
• Never water toward the foundation of your house or water more than necessary for the growth and maintenance of lawns, flowers, shrubs, or trees. Remember that less water is more desirable than too much.
  
  
• Make provisions for efficient irrigation; drain and service sprinkler systems on a regular basis. Conduct operational checks on a weekly basis to ensure proper performance of the system.
  
  
• Provide good soil mixes with sufficient organic material. Use mulch at least three (3) inches deep to hold soil moisture and to help prevent weeds and soil compaction. In areas with high clay content, it is advisable to prepare the soil before installing your grass.
  
  
• Do not allow edgings around decorative rock or bark beds to dam the free flow of water away from the home. A non-woven membrane, such as Typar or Mirafi, can be used between the soil and rock or bark to restrict weed growth while still permitting normal evaporation of ground moisture.
  
  
• Settlement will not disturb your utility lines; however, you may see a slight depression develop in the front lawn along the line of the utility trench. To correct this, roll back the sod and spread top soil underneath to level the area, then relay the sod.
  
  
• Be sure to check the homeowner association guidelines and/or requirements prior to landscaping or making changes in an established design.
  
  
• Sometimes it is desirable to install concrete patios at the rear, sides, or front of the house. In order that such installations do not have a detrimental effect on your house, the following rules should be observed:
  

1. Patio slabs should be poured up to house foundations, wherever possible, and a planting strip between the patio slab and foundation should not be left unless proper under-slab drainage away from the foundation is provided.
   
   
2. Since patio slabs are usually much larger than sidewalks, there is more chance that drainage patterns will be obstructed, particularly at the rear of the house. It is, therefore, emphasized that positive drainage be restored around the perimeter of the slab by constructing drainage swales or other means. It is extremely important that this be done in the event patio slabs are covered.
   

By observing the above rules, the patio slabs can be constructed as desired and yet preserve the integrity of the drainage pattern of the lot.

Grading and Drainage

Foundations - All soil is expansive when exposed to moisture. Certain soils rise and fall vertically as much as 6” from a dry condition to a moisture-saturated condition. Your foundation is designed as a floating foundation and will rise and fall vertically with soil conditions.

It is important to maintain uniform moisture conditions in the soil around your home. If this is not done, one area of your foundation may shift more vertically than other areas. If certain areas around your foundation have a high degree of moisture, the foundation will bend but not cause damage. However, the walls and interior drywall will not bend with the movement of the foundation and will show cracks. To prevent or at least minimize these conditions, we recommend the following:

1. When your home was completed, the earth around the outside of the foundation was graded so that it slopes away from the house, providing positive water drainage. We oftentimes construct swales (drainage ditches) to insure that water drains away from the home and off of the lot, either to the street or the alley. These swales are often inadvertently filled in by a homeowner or become filled by soil erosion and/or grass sodding. It is your responsibility to maintain these swales and keep drainage of water away from the foundation.
   
   
2. Homeowners will sometimes create unequal soil moisture conditions around the foundations by creating water traps. This can be caused by a metal flower bed edging. Whenever building planters near the foundation, take into consideration the necessity of water draining away from the house.
   
   
3. In drought conditions you might experience large cracks in the yard soil because of lack of moisture. However, the soil beneath the foundation is protected from the drying effects of the sun’s rays and retains its moisture. As a consequence, there is a tendency for the inner foundation to maintain a stable elevation, while the outside walls will drop. In watering plants and shrubs around your home, it is better to water a short period of time every three to five days rather than watering once a week for an extended period of time.
   
   
4. Hairline cracks in both drywall and brick mortar joints are normal. Cracks larger than these are indications of excessive soil movement and usually indicate a drainage problem. If you find these larger cracks on your home, you must correct the lawn drainage problem. Allow three to six months before repairing cracks, since most cracks will become smaller after the soil moisture equalizes itself from proper drainage conditions.
   
   
5. Drywall cracks may be filled and repainted. Patching plaster or texture material is readily available from paint stores and is fairly simple to use.