Flood!

[Opcom]

went into the shack/lab today, I know that smell.. 80% humidity.. There was 1/4" of water standing in a few places, and evidence of where there had been 3/4" in others. Fortunately, all the "good" iron and gear was up off the floor on steel shelves, 2x4's or what have you, a practice I have had since whenever, and don't recall why. The A/C is now running and set to 55 degrees to dry the place out.

Got out the shop vac and removed about 8 gallons of water from the 1200 sq. ft. building. Set a few tings at angles to let them dry, and whatnot. I don't think anything was ruined, except maybe a pair of nice old speakers with veneer cabinets that were sitting on a piece of cardboard, and an old 12" NTSC color video monitor.

The storm was the day before yesterday here in Dallas and was a real downpour of 5.5 inches in 18 hours. The water came in through the back wall of the building as the grade is only 2" below the slab there. Behind the building there is a walkway of 24x24 pavestones, and behind them, away from the building, a row of cinder blocks with tops about 4" above the pave stones. The dirt on the other side of the blocks is almost level with the tops of the blocks, and it is obvious the neighbors' yard drains into mine, and the water seems to collect at the back of the building. Progressing to the front of the building towards my house and towards my street, the grade goes downhill further. So all I really need is a way for the water to flow around the building before it piles up enough to rise 2" above the pavestones and get in. I think I need a contractor to come out and install a drainage system for that area. Maybe lift the stones and dig it out and lay a drain pipe with holes or something, then go back with gravel and the pavestones? It's too big a job for me.

Anyone know what kind of contractor would that be? a landscaper or someone else? I don't know who to trust for such a job, and don't want to get cheated on account of my ignorance of this kind of work.

[k4kyv]

I had trouble with water collecting under the crawl space of my house.  We don't have a cellar, because here, any kind of basement or cellar automatically becomes a cistern whenever it rains, because the clay soil here is almost impermeable and does not "percolate" well.  It is very difficult to keep a septic system working at this QTH.

I built a "French Drain" in front of the foundation of the house.  It consists of a ditch, which I lined with the kind of porous membrane designed for septic field lines, partially filled it with limestone gravel, installed the same kind of PVC pipe  with holes in it used for septic lines (holes facing down), covered the pipe with more gravel, then placed a layer of the membrane on top, and covered the membrane up to grade with "pea gravel" landscaping stones which are small reddish looking stones taken from creek beds and which looks much better than limestone.  I have basically the same thing as a septic field line, but it works in reverse.  I connected that to a 6" drain pipe that I buried in the ground and ran downhill to empty into the ditch beside the road that runs by the house.  Now, it stays dry as a powder horn under the house even during extended rainy periods.

One note of caution:  this type of drain could undermine the foundation if you dig too close.  I would stay at least 2" away from the footing.  In addition, if the house has been treated for termites, digging the ditch right next to the foundation could cause the toxic chemicals in the soil to leech away, and according to our exterminator, would void their contract.

For construction details, do a Google search under "French Drain".  There are numerous  sites that give construction details.  You could DIY or hire someone to do it per the instructions.

To be extra cautious, I dug a hole and lined it with concrete, where the French drain connects to the drain pipe out to the road, to make a silt trap to avoid the possibility of the drain pipe clogging up.  But after 5 years or so, there is maybe 1/8" of silt on the bottom, so that may have  been overkill.  At that rate, it might need cleaning out a couple of centuries from now.

I dug the French drain ditch and the silt trap by hand, but rented a backhoe to dig the ditch for the drain pipe, which is buried 4' in the ground at one point.

[WQ9E]

Patrick,

I am glad that nothing too much got damaged, that was quite a rain you had in Dallas.  I spent 2.5 years in Lubbock in the Ph.D. program and although it didn't rain much in Lubbock when it did rain it was often in very large amounts with resulting flash flooding.

Don gave you some very good advice on the French Drain.  In this area of the Midwest, the farm tiling companies are the best at doing this sort of work but even in rural Texas I doubt that there is too much field tile installed given the weather and soil conditions.  I imagine if you can find a company that installs rural septic tank systems they would have the knowledge, experience, and equipment to quickly lay out your drainage system.  Having seen the results of some commercial landscape artists and architects in this area they would not be my first choice.  You might check with your city code/permit office for contractor recommendations and also requirements for this type of project.

I was lucky when I chose my house here in Illinois as it is on a hill so water in the basement is never a problem; coming from the MS gulf coast I had no experience or knowledge of basements as any hole deeper than about 5 feet there will get you into the water table.  Apparently water in basements has been such a problem in general in this area that county code now requires the installation of a sump system in any basement and when we added a ground floor master suite a couple of years ago code required the new basement underneath to have this system.  So far it has been used once when I hosed off the concrete floor before building tables and shelves for the equipment and hopefully it never gets used again!

Rodger WQ9E

[Opcom]

Ahh the French Drain - that would do it.. I'ff find some companies with references and let them bid it.

[WA1GFZ]

I know a yuppie who told me a septic system costs $30K (nothing special)
My brother is having a new system put in for $11K, he has a lot of rock and they need to bring in fill. I had my sewer connected $100 feet of 4 inch pipe and fresh water connected 40 feet of copper pipe. All for under $2K. Some contractorsare crazy.....But then I think they size you up when they see the job to see how yuppie you look. I know the guys I used thought I was oK because I wanted to help.

[W3SLK]

I know this isn't much comfort or practical to Opcomm nor to anyone else that got tagged by the flood waters out in the mid-west but, my father always told me to live on a hill. That fact wasn't reinforced until hurricane Agnes blew through here back in '72. Later, Eloise in '75 reminded everybody of that fact. I learned my lesson well. I live on top of a hill and built on top of a hill on that hill. From Mt. Rushtown, I hope everyone stays dry. BTW: More people are killed by flooding than any other natural disaster! Remember, it only takes 18" of water to float a car.

[KB2WIG]

      "  Remember, it only takes 18" of water to float a car.  "