Do you live on a flood plane?

[cupola]

Sumas Washington was once a lake. But the November 15 atmospheric river dropped a massive amount of water ..it was a RECORD amount of water across the border in British Columbia Canada. Have you though about and can code allow it, to replace the foundation with a floating Styrofoam block that would allow your house to float during floods? I dont see why it would not work after all homes float one water in floating home communities all the time. Here is the record flood in abbotsford. The Loss of many bridges across highway one was a all time record for Flooding damage.

 

[1911]

... replace the foundation with a floating Styrofoam block that would allow your house to float during floods? I dont see why it would not work after all homes float one water in floating home communities all the time.

How would you handle all the drain, water, gas, electrical, and sewer connections that would have to move with the house? What would stop your house from floating away with the current, and crashing into other buildings or obstacles?

 

[Rugy]

Yes we received a lot of water back in November. The Abbotsford / Sumas area was hit hard with the floods.
Back in the 80s I was involved with a project named "Canoe Pass Village" in Ladner which was the first floating community where you owned boat moorage.

For our Island project we I build a floating concrete dock. It measures 40ft x 14ft x 3.5ft.
The foam is encased in concrete with epoxy coated rebar. The dock has 18" freeboard /out of the water.
Same system could be used for a larger footprint for a house.

The connections for serviced could be overcome no issues, sewers a little bit more involved but doable.
Anchors could be lock blocks with chains buried at the corners of the building. Leave enough slack on the chains to allow height of building to go up and down.
We have a two daily tide change up to 16ft with our dock, so no issue.

Was talking to one of my West Vancouver building official who had to go to Abbotsford to help asses the condition of buildings for the city of Abbotsford as the don't have the manpower for such an event.

This area is a lake that was diked and drained over 100 years ago. Not the first time that mother nature reclaimed the lake.

Build on stilts/piles above the highest water level when new buildings are build. Requires building code change.

But after the floods a lot of discussion has been is the this preventable. Yes , but the inaction of our governments over the last 30 years has led to this.
Government reports on the dikes and the systems in place dated 2015 stated that 91% of the dykes in BC were inadequate.
2021 proved the systems failed.........

 

[cupola]

How would you handle all the drain, water, gas, electrical, and sewer connections that would have to move with the house? What would stop your house from floating away with the current, and crashing into other buildings or obstacles?

simple, four post the size of telephone poles are ancored to the foam sides and they are held in place by very tight Tubes that are sunk into the ground. There would be a skirt that could pull up with the rising house and it would prevent mud, branches and debrit from forming under the house before it settles back down. The hoses "sewer" and water would be quick release by tension and pop off and water shuts off or could be a coil that is like a slinky. I think it would work.

 

[cupola]

Yes we received a lot of water back in November. The Abbotsford / Sumas area was hit hard with the floods.
Back in the 80s I was involved with a project named "Canoe Pass Village" in Ladner which was the first floating community where you owned boat moorage.

For our Island project we I build a floating concrete dock. It measures 40ft x 14ft x 3.5ft.
The foam is encased in concrete with epoxy coated rebar. The dock has 18" freeboard /out of the water.
Same system could be used for a larger footprint for a house.

The connections for serviced could be overcome no issues, sewers a little bit more involved but doable.
Anchors could be lock blocks with chains buried at the corners of the building. Leave enough slack on the chains to allow height of building to go up and down.
We have a two daily tide change up to 16ft with our dock, so no issue.

Was talking to one of my West Vancouver building official who had to go to Abbotsford to help asses the condition of buildings for the city of Abbotsford as the don't have the manpower for such an event.

This area is a lake that was diked and drained over 100 years ago. Not the first time that mother nature reclaimed the lake.

Build on stilts/piles above the highest water level when new buildings are build. Requires building code change.

But after the floods a lot of discussion has been is the this preventable. Yes , but the inaction of our governments over the last 30 years has led to this.
Government reports on the dikes and the systems in place dated 2015 stated that 91% of the dykes in BC were inadequate.
2021 proved the systems failed.........

The chains wont work because it would allow latteral movment of the house/bocks. It would have to be bolted to pilings or ..expensive pistons and it would rise out of the cyclinder cavity in the ground. A debit screen would unrool and prevent any debit from getting under the foam blocks so..when the house settles down, it wont land on those items..perhaps it may lay on a thin layer of mud. No reason why it would not work.

 

[pb4ugo]

I live about a mile from the Ohio River along a creek that flows in to it. It rises falls all the time and floods quite often. Flood stage is about 30 plus feet from pool stage. When I bought my property, on the uphill side. I had a lawyer do a title search and found the Army Corp of Engineers had easements thru out the property and valley, which allowed them to flood the backwaters of the Ohio. This constitutes as the flood plane. The Army Corp are the ones that built the dams on the Ohio. You can build there but you will pay a premium for insurance if you can find an insurance company to offer coverage. Across the street from me there is a newer house that has 2 garage doors in the basement, so water could flow thru the basement. The pics are houses in a burg called Neville, which is on the Ohio. The backyards of the brick ranch and the wooden house boarders the Ohio River. The double wide is on the otherwise of the street.

 

[cupola]

onother way to see if the land has flooded in the past is to do a core withdraw ..look for silt/sand layers. This same teqniqe is also used to discover past tsunamis on the east or west coast in north america. Flooding is increasing across the earth due to the face that co2 is preventing heat from earth from escaping into space. Co2 is a green house gas but also, it regulates the tempature of the planet and without it, earth would turn into a permanent ice age. I think the concept of a floating home would be a better idea. This property is okay for young and middle age but not seniors who would have difficulty walking up and down the stairs. Climate change is causing more distructive flooding and damaging flash floods. Hope BC is at the 47th parallel and it recieved enough rain to wash out entire sections of highway and take out several bridges and flood abbotsford and this has NEVER happened in this part of BC Canada history.

 

[thatcabledude]

The chains wont work because it would allow latteral movment of the house/bocks. It would have to be bolted to pilings or ..expensive pistons and it would rise out of the cyclinder cavity in the ground. A debit screen would unrool and prevent any debit from getting under the foam blocks so..when the house settles down, it wont land on those items..perhaps it may lay on a thin layer of mud. No reason why it would not work.

There are ways to secure a boat or house in the same spot in varying levels of water using rope or chain.