Flood damage prevention

aw

I was just wondering to myself about this.
What could one do when construction a house to try and prevent against damage from floods that may occur?

This is a purely hypothetical question, say if you were building a house on a site where no flooding had occurred in living memory. But, as witnessed in the west, that makes no difference when so much rain falls in such a short timeframe. There are places flooded now which have never before been covered, and which may not be covered again, hopefully.

But there is always the risk. So, is there anything that can be done that can make it easier to try and prevent flood water from coming into your property?

Things that immediately spring to mind are ensuring to build on a well drained site, choosing a high-lying site.
Perhaps a solid strong wall around the site with only the gate open, thus providing only a small opening to block with sandbags, etc.

Any further thoughts on this?

sydthebeat

1. dont build on or near a known flood plain. Refer to hydrogeologist for info.
2. keeping floor levels above previous known flood levels, with freeboard additions of 750mm+

mfceiling

Build on a hill??
It is seriously worrying watching what has happened to peoples homes - Would your build engineer,architect make you aware of these problems before you build?

sydthebeat

mfceiling wrote: »

Build on a hill??
It is seriously worrying watching what has happened to peoples homes - Would your build engineer,architect make you aware of these problems before you build?

surely thats a planning issue... the locations and predictions of floods wouldnt be part of an architects job description. If there is a possibility of a risk, then hydrogeologists should be engaged to assess the risks and make recommendations.

Surveyor11

Would have thought a well spec'd perimeter wall and some thing like this http://www.**********.com/ should do the trick

edit: no advertising

syd