I thought it might be interesting to discuss this..
Issues as I see it revolve around preventing water ingress to parts of buildings 'below high water mark' potential damage to foundations, and ability of basic services, particularly sewage, to function in these conditions.
One solution that has occurred to me in the past, is to surround residential areas with levees. Roads and so on are built on these - like in the fens..some areas are set aside as 'allowable flooding areas' and buildings are within pumpable zones.
Another option is to simply build on piles, in order to allow flood water to gaily rush by underneath ('Hello Sailor!') and limit damage to simply the garden.
It is not possible AFAICT to not 'allow' flooding: the water has to be stored somewhere, or else downstream rises will be massive. Your flood protection is someone else's overtopped levee.
Utilities like power and water supply should be proof against what? a 5 meter flood?
Likewise any sewage works should also be high enough, and run from sewage pumps to prevent overtopping. Sewage systems should be sealed as far as possible to prevent sewage and flood waters mixing.
I am not clears really as to how much issues like blocked storm drains etc actually impact on generalised flooding. However a motorway blocked due to bad drainage is a disgrace.
Many new properties built on flood planes are not liable to flooding because of drainage installed. The problem is the water that used to wait on the flood plain has to go elsewhere, so someone downstream, perhaps in an old house that has never been flooded is. So the answer is do not allow any building on flood plains at all.
It's not often that I agree with the government, but in this case I think I do, in that it is impractical in this case to prohibit flood plain (note spelling) development.Most of occupied england is to a greater or lesser extent on a flood plain of some sort. Arguably about
70% of London is. As is about 90% of the Cambridge and Lincolnshire fens.
The Fens have been subject to a well developed system of water control for generations. Maybe there are lessons to be learnt.
I think I read recently that some houses in the Netherlands are built to float. They have a bouyancy chamber, normally rest on separate foundations, and rise between vertical rails if a flood arrives.
As was Winchester Cathedral nearly 932 years ago, the wooden and stone 'raft' lasted almost 800 years before needing underpinning by William Walker and 250 others who had to go under the foundations in diving suits.
Build all houses on 1 Metre stilts (including garages with a suitable ramp)
Make all external doors waterproof.
This would make all houses flood proof to at least 2 metres above road level so long as the doors were not left open
Put the bedrooms downstairs so most of electrical goods would then be upstairs this also means that the downstairs windows can be smaller and higher up further raising the waterproof level
It also has the benefit of reducing heating bills as the rooms which need the higher temperatures are at the top of the house
Have electric and gas meters etc upstairs as well
Alternatively make all houses 3 floors where the bottom floor is just concrete walls and floors with a separate electric circuit Occupiers could use this for whatever they choose but possessions left there would not be covered by house insurance in the event of flood
Good thinking..however most cavity walls are not actually that waterproof..In germany they tank cellars with polystrene and surround te masonry with a plastic membrane.
MM. Nice pount actually.
The 'read your meter from outside' boys will LOVE that one.
Yup. Thats a typical german house with basement. My sisters one got sewage spewing up through the toilets in there when they had a flood.. otherwise the basement comprised one minimalsist guest room with ensuite,. storage for outdoor toys - bikes, lawnmowers etc etc, and a huge laundry room and food storage room with a huge boiler in it.
Personally i think its a good arrangement- all the crap stuff is below, and living stuff is up higher. Also a 3 storey building is more energy efficient - more living area per unit outside wall.
On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:40:58 +0100 someone who may be "TMC" wrote this:-
Some years ago there was film of big floods in Germany taken from inside a building, it might well have been the parliament in Bonn before it was moved to Berlin. What impressed me was that the water was about 2m deep, outside the glass walls of the building. Inside it was dry.
Stop using wood and plaster in the downstairs construction. Paint all the downstairs with polyurethane so you can clean it. Have the floor on jacks so you can lift everything up by a meter or so at the flick of a switch. Use house boats.
================================== I suppose the government could order every householder to install a 'sump' in the garden with a minimum capacity of (say) 1000 gallons. The technical details of routing rain water into the sumps could provide some of our Town Hall staff with a useful challenge.
A small street of 50 houses would take 50,000 gallons off the street drains.
Simple :) Every house should have a massive pump installed behind a chimney breast. Then during times of flooding, a 4" diameter hose could clipped onto a port at the side of the chimney breast and water could pumped up thru the chimney and spurted toward the nearest ocean. n.b. People living in Birmingham would need a very big pump.
Loos to be upstairs. Any downstairs ones to be fitted with a big ballvalve to cut them off if flood is imminent (to prevent the crp flowing out the bog into the house)
Bank the land so the houses run along the top of the banks, roads along the lows. Sloping gardens are the price. Offroad garden parking next to the house would make life easier and greatly reduce vehicle flood damage.
Doors could be atop dwarf walls where flooding occurs to low level only. This would interfere with wheelchair access requirement though.
Ground floor used for garage and shed space only. This is similar to houses on stilts, as in practice people would frequently enclose the stilt areas and use for low value storage. Sacrificing the car isn't ideal, but would be a big improvement on today's flood damage costs.
Electric wiring all to be above the flood line.
Fully washable furniture, eg plastic
Deepen rivers for greater water flow.
provisions to get furniture upstairs in flood to minimise damage. Maybe an electric stair hoist?
Applying (polystyrene) foam cavity insulation in wet form could greatly improve water resistance and crack sealing. What is needed is not necessarily waterproofness, but rather to limit water ingress to a rate that can be pumped out with little or no damage.
New meters can send the readings along the mains wires, avoiding the issue and reducing operating costs.
A simpler related idea is to have a hook in the ceiling above all water damageable items (perhaps require a matrix of heavy duty hooks in the downstairs ceiling), plus a rope attached to each item thats usually tucked under the item out of sight. In event of impending flood, put rope over hook and haul it up. 30-60 minutes work would get all the major items strung up under the ceiling, thus gaining around
5'-6' extra height.
I dont know whether it could be made possible to use a floating floor to reduce damage. I'm very doubtful but who knows.
Requiring new flood-prone house owners to keep a dinghy would take a lot of pressure off emergency services. Perhaps it need be nothing more fancy than a sheet material covered foldable.
another option is to require all building materials below the expected floodline to be floodproof. Eg tiled walls rather than plasterboard, ditto floors. Perhaps there would then emerge a market for kitchen units with bottoms & sides made of fully waterproof board.
A British Standard for floodproof goods would be a real motivator. Any goods sold with this on, the buyer would know would survive a flood. This could very much stimulate the flood-proof goods market. The BS could cover more than one possible way to achieve floodproofness.
Grant PP for multistorey structures, maybe 3 and 4 floors, with large garden areas. If a building has say 4 floors, the land around it can be divided into 4 areas, so each householder has their own garden. This way the flats are a bit more house-like, and more people might be tempted to buy into medium rise flats.
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