As the winter season ends and we move into spring, it’s the perfect time to take a walk around your property and look for signs that rain or snow is doing damage to your property.
Right now is when drainage problems, erosion, and soil instability are easy to spot without getting soaked by the rain or frozen by the cold. By May, things dry out. Grass fills in. Cracks close. You forget that water was ponding against your foundation for three days in February.
Here’s what to look for on your end-of-season property walk.
1. Look for Standing Water Stains or Soil Discoloration
Walk your entire front and back yard and look closely for discoloration on concrete, fencing, retaining walls, or the base of your home’s exterior. A gray or greenish tint to the soil or areas where moss is growing where it wasn’t before tells you water was sitting longer than it should have been.
This is a sign that your current drainage isn’t moving water away fast enough. Left unaddressed, it leads to foundation issues, rot, and soggy, unusable yard space.
2. Check for Erosion Channels
Look for small channels, rills, or scour marks in exposed soil, especially on slopes. These are created when water moves fast enough to carry soil particles with it. Even a modest rut or channel is worth noting as the creation of these channels exponentially increases the progression of erosion when it rains.
Take note of where the channel is coming from and where it ends up. the soil that erodes from your slope often ends up clogging your drainage infrastructure downstream.
3. Look at Your Retaining Walls Closely
Walk along the face of any retaining walls on your property. Look for:
- Bowing or leaning
- white chalky deposits on the wall surface
- Cracks, particularly diagonal or stepped cracks in block or brick walls
- Soil seeping through weep holes or gaps
- Vegetation growing from cracks
Any of these signs means the wall’s drainage system may be compromised or the wall itself may be under more stress than it was designed to handle. Spring is a good time to have it assessed before another wet season does more damage.
4. Check Your Downspouts and Where They’re Discharging
This is a simple one that’s really easy to miss!
Downspouts that dump water at the base of the foundation or that splash onto a slope can cause enormous damage over time. Walk the perimeter of your house and trace where each downspout is currently sending water.
Are they directing flow toward the house? Into a low area that’s now saturated? Any downspout that isn’t directing water toward a proper drainage path is a problem worth solving before next fall.
5. Look for New Cracks in Hardscape
Concrete driveways, patios, and walkways crack for lots of reasons but new cracks that appeared or expanded this winter can signal soil movement underneath. When water saturates the soil, it expands with enough force to move concrete, pavers, or asphalt. When it drains or dries, it contracts leaving voids underneath these surfaces. Repeated cycles of this cause the soil to settle and eventually the hardscape deforms to to insufficient support.
A crack that’s widening or a concrete slab that’s starting to tilt is something worth addressing sooner rather than later.
6. Take Notes, Take Photos
Finally, Take your phone and document what you see with photos. Note anything that changed compared to last year, any areas where the problem seems to be worsening, and any spots where you have no idea how the water is getting in or out.
That documentation is useful whether you end up doing the work yourself, hiring it out, or just filing it away for next winter.
What Comes Next
If your walk turns up anything significant or you think is concerning, the time to address it is now. Even if you aren’t sure what you’re looking at or whether it warrants a call to a contractor, give us a call and let us know what’s going on. We can come out and walk the property with you to develop a plan to fix the issues you are looking at.
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