Stone choices: drainage and parking

I am glad you asked about his. LOL I think this is mostly something that appeals to you. The river rock will probably drain better than marble chips since there are greater voids. The chips will lay flat against each other and close the drainage space. I would want to keep the rocks the same in any area so I would probably remove the smaller amount of rocks and move them to the area that is larger then replace the rocks if I wanted them to be river rocks. Of course the easiest thing would be to leave them the same and just add more chips to it. I know you are not a man to do anything the simple way so get out your Kroil, come-along, big hammer and get busy….LOL How will it look if you change and use 2 different kinds of rocks? If you think it will be okay then I see no reason to throw any of them away. It is all about curb appeal. How will it look to other people when you make this change. If you don’t have gutters I would consider them. I think you get a good deal more rain in your area of the country than we receive here. People here do it both ways. In fact most of them choose to not use gutters and spend that money in another place. Gutters would keep rain off your logs and in the long haul this will be beneficial to you. Use extensions and empty all gutters 4” to 6” from the footing. I don’t know which would be best for your foundation. I would wonder why you would have either of the stones near yur foundation. You want the rain to drain away from the footing. I will check on this and report back to you on this. I have those resources. I think you actually want soil that will carry the water away. You want a slop of 6” minimum for the first 10 feet. After this the yard can level out or a swale can be used to carry the water away from the house and out of the yard. I will report back on this.

Thanks Grandpa! The previous owners had an almost immediate drainage problems that required Earth moving equipment and a lot of money to fix. The grades are appropriate, so I’m not sure why they went with a perimeter of rock; it could be simply for ease of mowing; who knows. It’s a big house, so I’d rather not string-trimmer all the way around the foundation every time I mow, so I’ll probably keep them. The problem with removing them is that they extend under the decks that encircle the home. In all, there’s several tons of rock, so it’d be a big job. The house is fully equipped with gutters. They’re not gutterguard or one of those fancy systems but they seem to be installed appropriately. I’ll have to look at it again in detail. It may be possible to remove the marble chips that surround the house, leaving the ones under the decks where they are (hidden by lattice). I could then just put riverrock around the house. I could probably get by on one ton or so; it’s only about a 2 foot wide path. I’ll keep you posted!

you need to put extensions on the downsputs of the gutters. They should empty 4’ to 6’ from the footing. this keeps the foundation from having a wet loblolly then an arid place for many feet then more mud. Consistency is what we are looking for here. When this is done right the tops of the extensions are cut out for about 4 inches. Screws are used to attach the extensions to the elbows on the bottom of the downspouts. This makes the extension where they can be raised and they will prop back against the verticle downspout. When you are finsished mowing you just flip them back and let them fall. Otherwise you will end up running over the tip ends etc because if you are like most people you don’t want to get off the mower to walk around and remove the extensions to mow then back around and stoop over to re-install the extension. that is why most homes don’t have extensions. This is the first line of defense on moving water away from the footing. I don’t think I could get excited about removing a lot of gravel that seems to be doing a perfectly good job just to install more gravel of a different color and shape. Of course you are listening to a guy that spent his USAF years in Tucson, Arizona, and blue gravel was the order of the day in 1970. YUK! I do think you will want to keep the rain off the exterior walls of your log house. That just helps to keep damage at bay as long as possible. Let’s face it, that siding is difficult to replace and problems do occur with log homes. I imagine the previous owners put gravel arouind the house to make less yard work.

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Choosing the right stone for your home’s drainage and parking areas is crucial. River rocks are indeed better for drainage due to their natural shape and size. For stone gout medication near the foundation, consider using a gravel or crushed stone that compacts well. Moving the marble chips to the parking lot for river rocks could enhance both aesthetics and functionality.