Hello,
I need a quick temporary solution to help my parents with a flooding
problem. They are both disabled and basically depend on others when
things go wrong and right now they are.

Houses in the area are all built on a hill. Our house is about halfway
on the hill. Flooding has never been a real problem until the last
couple of years. Now it doesnt really have rain that hard for it to
flood. Water comes down the hill right to their backdoor and comes
right in.
They have had several landscapers attempt to fix the problem and if
anything they made things much worse (like making concrete paths on the
hill that only makes it easier for the water to come down even faster).
My dad has also had 3 sump pumps installed but they just dont have the
flow rated needed. They had a concrete step put in front of the door so
the water has to rise to about 1 inch or so before it floods
I put up a small damm a few feet from the door and that improved
things but still not good enough for heavy downfall like we had last
night. Wet dry vac just was a waste of time it was coming in so fast.
Within a couple of minutes the whole house had flooded with the one
exception being the bathroom. Out of desperation I grabbed some plywood
and put it in front of the door. At first it did not work because the
concrete is porous and leaked like crazy. The concrete step has a pvc
pipe embeded for added strenght and placing the plywood on this surface
and then sitting on the board for 30 min for the rain to die down
worked pretty good. Water came up about 2 inches on the board (probably
3 + inches total because the wood was on top of the step as well.

Anyway they have some help coming but they are backed up and I want to
use this board as a shield into this other company does thier thing. I
am wonderig if there is some sort of rubber seal I could glue on the
pvc and then up along the door frame to get a water tight seal. Doesnt
need to be pernament but just good enough to work for a few weeks till
they get something better (a drainage ditch from what I understand).
Any ideas if some sort of rubber seal is availble or any suggestions?

Thanks, Fletch

It's hard to give advice on this without actually seeing it or knowing
more. In general, it's futile to try to deal with the water when it's
reached the house. The real solution is to intecept the water well
away from the house and channel it around the house and on to a lower
point. How easy or hard it is to do that depends on the terrain you
have to work with. I'd probably use perforated pipe layed in a shallow
trench and covered with crush stone about 1-2" in size on the uphill
side to intercept the water. Or you could use one ot the grate type
trough devices available for this too. If it's apparent the water is
pouring down the hill from the next property, I'd install this near the
property line. On the downhill side you need to make sure the water
has somewhere to go. If it needs to be dumped on turf, you need to
disperse it over a wide enough area so that erosion doesn't occur. A
similar arrangement to what you have on the uphill side, using grate
type devices is probably the best option, unless a drainage ditch or
similar is available. You may need a second similar system about 5 -10
ft from the house to intercept the rest of the water. I'd also make
sure there is plenty of heavy turf growing and mow it long.

This isn's a difficult project once you figure out how to do it, nor
does it need to take very long or cost a lot. You can rent a small
backhoe or similar and rental companies will deliver it. One day
rental, with two people, you could have the major portion that requires
the backhoe done.

I'd get going with that approach, or getting someone else over to fix
it faster, rather than trying short term fixes that may take a lot of
time and not work. What is the solution that is on the way? I'd be
real careful that it's a well thought out plan that will work. Also,
why did this problem start now? Did someone change something on a lot
uphill? If they did, you may have a case against them.

Trader4 is on-the-money; divert the water away from the house from as far
uphill as you can then - if additional assurance is needed - add a second
and third barrier of defense. To avoid making it obvious, consider a
"privacy barrier" at the property line; a mound 2 - 3 feet tall on which
shrubs or hedges are grown. Curve the mound (half crescent or some
variation) to make it look as though the objective were decorative as
opposed to critical for flood control. Then consider the trench Trader4
mention. That may be able to be disguised as well with a little forethought;
make it look like a two foot wide footpath with flagstones (or any flat
stones that can be used as stepping stones). The 2 - 3 foot trench holds a 4
to 6" perforated flexible pipe sloped to move water in the desired
direction, covered with gravel, then topped with stepping stones. No one
would be the wiser if they never saw it under construction and the ends
terminate discreetly. I've had lots of personal experience with this
"little" heartbreaking problem at my house. When it rains now a deep sucking
sound can be heard throughout my village as my French drains move water
through 6" pipes leaving my property the driest on the block. If you were in
the Summit/Medina/Wayne county area of Ohio... I'd gladly help ya'. I grew
to love beating Mother Nature! My neighbor had a slight problem and asked
for help but she didn't want to terminate the drain as an open pipe between
her and her other neighbor and didn't want to run between the homes and tie
into the village storm sewers as I did. So I built her a system that
terminates in ... a bird bath. The 4" drain perf pipe moves the water across
the property to the swale between the homes - covered with gravel where
water collection occurs ... topped with stepping stones... then on under the
grass - and terminates into a 4 foot deep by 3 foot wide pit filled with
gravel and topped with ... a bird bath. The gravel looks like it merely
serves as a weedless base for the bath ... until it rains hard. Then the
base of the birdbath weeps; it oozes out from the grave and flows into the
swale. I don't think her neighbor even knows there's a water transport
system moving water their way ... safely and unthreateningly toward their
home.

Get it fixed as quickly as you can. After you've got the water diverted,
examine the foundation to make sure all earth slopes away. Use clay, then
top it with enough topsoil to handle the foliage.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello,
I need a quick temporary solution to help my parents with a flooding
problem. They are both disabled and basically depend on others when
things go wrong and right now they are.

Houses in the area are all built on a hill. Our house is about halfway
on the hill. Flooding has never been a real problem until the last
couple of years. Now it doesnt really have rain that hard for it to
flood. Water comes down the hill right to their backdoor and comes
right in.
They have had several landscapers attempt to fix the problem and if
anything they made things much worse (like making concrete paths on the
hill that only makes it easier for the water to come down even faster).
My dad has also had 3 sump pumps installed but they just dont have the
flow rated needed. They had a concrete step put in front of the door so
the water has to rise to about 1 inch or so before it floods
I put up a small damm a few feet from the door and that improved
things but still not good enough for heavy downfall like we had last
night. Wet dry vac just was a waste of time it was coming in so fast.
Within a couple of minutes the whole house had flooded with the one
exception being the bathroom. Out of desperation I grabbed some plywood
and put it in front of the door. At first it did not work because the
concrete is porous and leaked like crazy. The concrete step has a pvc
pipe embeded for added strenght and placing the plywood on this surface
and then sitting on the board for 30 min for the rain to die down
worked pretty good. Water came up about 2 inches on the board (probably
3 + inches total because the wood was on top of the step as well.

Anyway they have some help coming but they are backed up and I want to
use this board as a shield into this other company does thier thing. I
am wonderig if there is some sort of rubber seal I could glue on the
pvc and then up along the door frame to get a water tight seal. Doesnt
need to be pernament but just good enough to work for a few weeks till
they get something better (a drainage ditch from what I understand).
Any ideas if some sort of rubber seal is availble or any suggestions?

Thanks, Fletch

Hey thanks guys. Wanted to let you know my parents ended up going with
almost exacty to what you described. They had a company install a
grated drain (probably 4 to 4 1/2 long, 5 or so inches wide. This is
connected to about a 5 inch plastic pipe that travels from the back
door along the back of the house then to the side, then down the hill
about half way down our front yard. It wasn't cheap but will hopefully
do the job as they removed all the pumps. It has not rained since then
so not sure as of yet, but I will say it looks better than anything
else they have tried. Still will come up with some sort of backup just
in case:Plastic tarp in front of the door held down with weights.

Why did the problem start: Not sure but next door guy told my mother a
few days ago he is having some problems too and belives the ditch that
runs along the property line in our backyards is full of trash. While I
know that is true, I am not sure if that is the problem as that ditch
is very shallow and has not been cleared since early to mid 80's.
I need to be home when a bad storm hits and I will see if that's true
or not. I have a small shed in the very back yard near that ditch and
although it's elevated, I have not noticed any waterlines in the past.

Thanks for all the help and sorry for the delay in repying,
Fletch