Yay flooding

[rosemarythyme]

Your pictures absolutely break my heart. And I know you are tremendously torn, wanting to take care of your chickens, but needing to take care of your home.

Regardless of what you wind up doing later, it would be very beneficial to drive a couple of tposts, cane poles, etc. along the river’s edge of your yard and place a mark showing the actual level of the water at that point.

I'm sure there are a few things that can be done to stop the overflow of the river onto your land, but I’m certain all of them will not be cheap. Less permanent, but more cost effective would be the redirection of the overflow. And even better still is finding another home of your dreams to move you and your chickens to.

Well the house won't melt so I'm going to wait until after the flooding recedes before having a remediation company come take a look at the foundation. Hopefully that's all they'll have to look at and hopefully there won't be much damage.

For the time being, If I need to I'll move the chickens to the garage, but the coop is still sitting well above water, so for now I feel that's the best place for them.

I do currently have a post out in the walkway to assess how much the water is rising/receding as the rain comes and goes.

Not sure how much we'll able to do to prevent a similar situation in the future as the county is pretty adamant about not having permanent stuff done around the creeks (for what it's worth, this is the first season we've had such an issue, past floods never crept past the back corner of the lot, just a couple feet in, and our home inspection didn't turn up any flood damage to foundation). The house only sits so close because it was grandfathered in, nowadays neither the house nor the hardscaping would be permitted. That's what I get for wanting a nice waterfront view!

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

for what it's worth, this is the first season we've had such an issue, past floods never crept past the back corner of the lot, just a couple feet in

FWIW, things may be changing. We are supposedly entering a new Grand Solar Minimum; past GSMs disrupted weather across the northern hemisphere in a bad way, so that's something you might want to consider instead of assuming that everything will be returning to normal. Sandbagging your house would be an option if worse comes to worse. And then there are things like this:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Quick-Dam-17-ft-Flood-Barrier-QD617-1/203556392
And this:

https://www.aquadam.net/

 

[aart]

So you probably don't have a basement.....crawlspace?

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Quick-Dam-17-ft-Flood-Barrier-QD617-1/203556392

This Quick Dam thing looks pretty neat. Lightweight, cheap, reusable. I used to work with the kind of long chain polymers that this thing is filled with. If I remember correctly, each molecule would expand something like a hundred thousand times in length when in contact with water. When I got it on my hands it would take forever to wash off, and after I thought it was all gone, a while later my hands would feel slick again because the molecules were still expanding. The only way to remove it completely was with bleach.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Only good news for today is rain is starting to die down (though will continue off and on... before this it was going 24/7) and that the septic levels are back down to normal so we're no longer in danger of backing up, though we're going to stay on low water usage until this weekend.

So you probably don't have a basement.....crawlspace?

Crawlspace, no basement. I have a good remediation company that worked on everything from a bad shower install to roof leaks and mold issues in attic (this house has it all!) before so I'll have them come out and take a look once water subsides. Mainly want to make sure that any sump pump is working properly and that there's nothing we need to do to the foundation other than drying it out - better to take care of possible issues now rather than later.

The important thing right now is the house itself (and the coop) are not in imminent danger of flooding, which would turn this into a whole different mess.

Sandbagging your house would be an option if worse comes to worse. And then there are things like this:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Quick-Dam-17-ft-Flood-Barrier-QD617-1/203556392
And this:

https://www.aquadam.net/

❤ Thanks so much for the links! Those options look amazing, though the Aquadam looks like you'd need to have the company ready to go when the dam is needed, which might not be very practical. That Quick Dam looks like a good product to just have on hand so you can break it out when needed - plus its super lightweight until used (as likely I alone would be the one installing it). Not feasible to keep water completely off the lot which is fine, but it could at least help protect the foundation and even the chicken area.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

That Quick Dam looks like a good product to just have on hand so you can break it out when needed - plus its super lightweight until used

Wholly crimoly, the 17 footers only weigh about 3 lbs apiece. The instructions say you can dry them out and use them again.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Wholly crimoly, those things only weigh about 3 lbs apiece. The instructions say you can dry them out and use them again.

I know, right? Even if I can't reuse them, that's fine - an entire box of these things dry wouldn't even weigh as much as a single sandbag!

 

[Butterscotchbitesfinger]

Wow, I can’t say I have ever seen a flash flood at my house. They get most of the flash floods up north not here, I hope you can find something that is a solution to the problem soon, sorry I couldn’t help. This is definitely not my area of expertise, we only see rain occasionally

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

I know, right? Even if I can't reuse them, that's fine - an entire box of these things dry wouldn't even weigh as much as a single sandbag!

I had no idea those things existed. Last year I saw a video of a guy who used a dam system that you fill with water to protect his house during last spring's flood in the midwest. He spent thousands of dollars, but saved his house. I was looking for that and ran across the Home Depot version.

 

[aart]

Mainly want to make sure that any sump pump is working properly

Where does it pump to?
I would think you could hear it running?
Maybe not tho,
friend this year had hers die and she didn't know it until it killed the water heater.