OT: More about the flood

That's a good point. After my dad installed aerials using a pushbike with a trailer he got a motorbile and sidecar with a trailer. Then he got a Bradford Jowett van.

My excuse is that I wasn't really installing aerials towards the end of my time as a useful member of society*, I was installing systems so was carrying big rolls of CT167 and in some cases head ends that took people to lift!

Bill

But at least we know where to send the Christmas cards :-)

(Or for people who have taken offence, where to deliver the lorry loads of manure :-) )

The council has installed a temporary CCTV network.

Bill

Moving all the mains sockets to waist height and using waterproof render on the bottom metre of the wall makes a fair difference. That way with a bit of luck you don't end up with soaking wet walls and rewiring.

There is a limit to what you can do by sealing entrances and exits since flood water will always find its own level and ground floor toilets will then be the weakest link! This also assumes your house is sturdy enough to withstand the water external pressure. Modern build probably isn't.

Actually, bunding it works.

So, dig down around it and pile the earth up to make a dam. You end up with a house in a cup shaped depression.

You need one way drains out of that so that water can run out, but not run in.

Or pumps. Just like a classic polder - If it works for cloggies it should work for Yorkshiremen

None return valves are available to fit on drains/sewage

All wiring on the ground floor should be at high level with drops down to sockets. Sockets should be at least three feet above the floor. Walls should be cement rendered and tiled (waterproof tile fixing. ie swimming pool standard.

Plastic boxes should be kept handy to stack furniture on etc

I just recall seeing houses on stilts in Florida (with boats tied up beneath them :) )

I'm never convinced by the pile of sandbags loosely stacked in front of people's doors. I'm quite sure that unless they're well rammed, there'll be gaps round the edges. If I was in a place liable to flooding, I'd have a bag of plastic pottery clay handy somewhere (available from all good potters' suppliers, and well wrapped to stop it drying out), and then smear it generously around the edges of the outside doors when shut, to seal them, and over any low air-bricks to close them off as well. Sandbags might then be useful to stop the swirling water washing the clay away, but not for actually keeping the water out.

I'm reliably told by one of my late wife's relatives who was involved in a company selling flood-proofing systems a good few years ago, that a big problem was that often the houses were built on gravelly i.e. permeable soil, and the water just came up through it and up through the floors, regardless of how well sealed the doors and air-bricks were.

In message <qrjkik$got$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, The Natural Philosopher snipped-for-privacy@invalid.invalid writes

Quite a bit of that area is inhabitable because of the cloggies.

Adrian

The vans have got much bigger because as the aerials have got much smaller, the installer gets a lot less exercise and so ends up morbidly obese and so needs a much bigger van, stupid.

It might be an idea to redact your address?

Well, people only need to google me plus a key word or two and they'll find it. But yes.

Bill