UK floods: Home-made flood defences protect home

[cronus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35196347

UK floods: Home-made flood defences protect home

A toolmaker who built his own flood defences, including pumps and a flood gate, has demonstrated how they are protecting his house.

Carl Canty from Bubwith, just outside Selby, spent around £20,000 on the project.

He showed the BBC's Jeremy Cooke how the system works.

(continued)

[laklak]

Clever. I've considered something similar to his flood gates for the 4 doors that would be a problem in a flood. The garage would flood, but the house wouldn't. I was thinking of aluminum sheets, maybe 1/2 inch thick and 3 feet tall, with rubber gaskets around the perimeter. They'd bolt across the bottom of the doors, sealing them against the water. No point in going higher than 3 feet, the house is about 27 feet above sea level and if we get a hurricane storm surge higher than 30 feet then we're well and truly fucked anyway, plus there's no way to seal the numerous windows.

[NineBerry]

And what about the canalisation? With a flood around your house, will the shit/water not enter the house through the toilet, etc? Or do these systems have some kind of mechanism to prevent such a disaster?

[cronus]

And what about the canalisation? With a flood around your house, will the shit/water not enter the house through the toilet, etc? Or do these systems have some kind of mechanism to prevent such a disaster?

Someone that smart isn't gonna give away eclectic knowledge like that is they, Nineberry?

[Jason]

Had to spend 20 thousand quid of his own personal money to protect his home from his neighbour's shit. That's socialism at work for ya.

[Strontium Dog]

This is Britain, so the council will probably demand he knocks the wall down.

[mistermack]

And what about the canalisation? With a flood around your house, will the shit/water not enter the house through the toilet, etc? Or do these systems have some kind of mechanism to prevent such a disaster?

It's easy to block a toilet.

I've done it myself on many occasions.

[laklak]

Toilets, interesting. Hadn't thought of that. We're on a septic tank and drain field, would there be sufficient back pressure to force liquid back through the toilet? Possible, I guess. The toilets certainly wouldn't flush, that happened a few years back when tropical storm Debbie dumped about 20 inches of rain on us. The back yard was so saturated that the drain field wouldn't drain and the tank filled up, so the toilet water had no place to go. Question is would putting a couple of feet of water on top of that increase the hydrostatic pressure enough to force water back through the toilet?

[pErvinalia]

I doubt it.

[laklak]

I don't think it would either, but I've been wrong before. Once, mind you. In all other situations it was a misunderstanding.

[cronus]

Bucket over the wall and a commode. No need to use rocket science and become over-engineered.

[pErvinalia]

Yeah, block the shitter up with post hole concrete, and then use a bucket. For the rest of your life (or until you install a new shitter... )

[laklak]

Given the rather unprecedented flooding here and in the UK (the only places that count, flooded brown people don't really matter), I think selling land-based assets is the way forward. We just need a bigger boat but try telling that to Mrs. Lak. She's all "we have too many boats" like 5 boats is too many.

[pErvinalia]

What's her bloody problem?!?

[laklak]

Femaleness. They just don't get it.