We had a bit of a dry spell last week and I decided to run my soaker hoses to make sure the soil around my concrete slab foundation was staying moist.
I hadn’t needed to run the soaker hoses in quite a while. Even though I have gutters that take most of the rainfall away from the foundation the soil was not drying out significantly because we have had a lot of rain in my area this spring and so far this summer. Record amounts of rain.
I’m using a “T” splitter on the west side of my foundation to make sure I have enough water pressure in the entire length of the soaker hose. I’m using a configuration similar to the diagram on this page.
Sure enough, there was plenty of pressure, because the end cap of the soaker hose popped off. It was an easy fix as these parts are pretty simple to work with. I loosened the clamp with a screwdriver, shoved the end cap back into the hose and re-tightened the clamp. You can see some of these soaker hose parts here. They are the same parts you would use with a regular garden hose.
If your concrete slab foundation sits on shrink-swell clay soils, soaker hoses are a great way to keep the moisture content even and the movement of your foundation to a minimum.