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What Measures Can You Take To Protect From Floods?
Even if your house is far from a flood zone, you can take some simple steps to protect your home from a potential flooding event. A couple of inches of flooding will most likely ruin your carpets and flooring. But, there is a considerable cost difference between replacing the moldy carpet and needing to rewire your home completely.
Protect Your Home's Electrical System
You can protect your in-home electrical system by opting to raise circuit breakers, sockets, switches, and other electrical wiring types. If your home is in or near a flood zone, you will want to keep all electrical outlets and wiring at least one foot above the flood zone. This set-up might mean that you will not have any lower electrical plug-ins to use for floor lamps, but that's a small price to pay to protect your home from significant damage.
You will similarly want to raise the furnace, water heater, air conditioning unit, fuel tanks, and other HVAC equipment so that they sit above the flood level in your property.
Stormwater and Grading Around Your Home
Even for a home located on a hilltop, well above any risk of flooding from rivers or creeks, incorrect grading can lead to severe flood damage. If the land around the foundation of your home forces water to run toward the foundation, heavy rains will cause water to accumulate around the base of your home. Small holes or cracks in your foundation can lead to large amounts of water making their way into your home.
You can check the grading or slope around your home by making a Bunyip water level. This method is a simple, DIY tool that will help you determine which way your water will flow around your home. Then you can manage the stormwater at your property to encourage water to infiltrate rather than build up around your home. Installing permeable paving for driveways and building bioswales are great options to promote infiltration, rather than run-off, at your property.
Homes that incorporate a rainwater catchment system and a cistern to store that water will also have better protection against flooding. An integrated rainwater catchment system will catch and store rainwater to be used by the home while mitigating the risk of flooding. Installing this type of system will stop you from discharging thousands of gallons of rainwater that accumulates and runs off your roof, down a gutter, and through your downspout system. For homes that already have a rainwater catchment system, regular checkups and maintenance on your gutter and downspout system are necessary. Even small cracks in this system can allow water to penetrate your home.
Levees and Floodwalls
Homes that are at risk for continued flooding, installing levees or floodwalls are effective protection strategies. These flood control options can include swing-hinged flood gates at the entrance to a raised property, including driveways or walkways. Flood Ark provides aluminum frames with removable UPVC boards that can be quickly assembled to offer needed protection during a flood event.
Bottom Line
Flood damage is the most common and costly event affecting homes across the country. Protect Yourself! Know your flood level. Protect the electrical equipment and installations in and around your home. Change the way you deal with stormwater on your property and protecting your home from sewer backups. You have the power to significantly reduce the likelihood of having your home affected by flooding.
Tobias Roberts
Tobias runs an agroecology farm and a natural building collective in the mountains of El Salvador. He specializes in earthen construction methods and uses permaculture design methods to integrate structures into the sustainability of the landscape.
