Creating a stone barrier around a home foundation. Instructions and ideas to add the rock and to direct water drainage away from your home.
I ordered tons of stone… literally 3 tons… for our path out to the backyard and apparently I overestimated. We had a LOT left and it was all sitting on our driveway so we needed ideas QUICK. My husband had the idea to line around our foundation with it. This would create a barrier around the house to keep the grass away from it, and a barrier between to garden’s mulch as well.
The benefit, we hoped, would be to keep the ants’ nests away from the foundation. We’ve been getting a lot of ants inside our house and it’s driving me nuts.
The other thing I decided to add after looking around some online forums was pond liner. I cut it into strips to lay around the house, laying the rock over it. This prevents (hopefully) water from seeping into the house right at the foundation base.
To make sure this worked as intended, I curled up the edge of the pond liner (see video) so it wasn’t curving down back towards the house.
For more ways to use this stone, check out my post:
Projects for 3 Tons of Red Barn Rock.
Dave
Tuesday 7th of March 2023
Nice work! FYI: it has been become popular knowledge lately that ants are drawn to woodchips like mice to peanuts. As woodchips contain protien and sugar, especially carpenter ants set in as the chips decompose releasing more of these proteins and sugars. Once the chips become soft peat on their way to eventually building a loamy type soil, it also then attracts grub and small rodents feeding on them in a natural eco-environment. Extending the stone boarder out at least 4 feet if not the traditional 6 feet will greatly increase chances for a drier, pest-free interior. Good Luck!
Danielle
Friday 10th of March 2023
@Dave, Thanks, yes it seemed to help a bit. It was certainly lovely. It was a LOT of work though! :)
John Brown
Tuesday 16th of April 2019
It is really a great idea to protect the home foundation. I agree, the stone barrier will not only protect the foundation, it will also provide a decorative look if we do the decoration properly.
Walking on Sunshine
Monday 22nd of June 2015
That looks really good. I hope it helped your ant problem. Thanks for joining Foodie Friends Friday! Hope to see you again this week!