The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Mon Sep 08, 2008 12:33 pm**

During recent torrential rain, part of my house (semi-detached cottage) was flooded by water coming off the public road adjacent to my house, which in turn was flooded from an agricultural field (I live in the country) on the opposite side of the road. Although the water wasn't too deep by the time it reached my house, a couple of inches above ground level, there was a great deal of it, as it was flowing past my house to go downhill. It came in through an airbrick, which I have since partially blocked up by about half, well above the level of the water. Maybe it came in elsewhere below ground level, part of my house is old and the lime mortar in the walls is pretty porous - I've no way of knowing. There are also drains running out below ground level where water may come in round the pipes. The floor of the newer part of my house sits slightly below ground level, and the water ran under the joists of the old part and filled up the new part like a paddling pool. I'm looking at waterproofing the porous sections of wall, probably using Thoroseal or similar, but the main questions in my mind revolve around preventing the water coming near my house. The ground around the house is a mixture of clay and whinstone, and is hard and not very porous at all, so I reckon if I can keep the water away from the house I shouldn't have a problem.
I wondering a) what methods can I use to divert this kind of water, given that I can potentially give it an alternate route downhill and b) who, if anyone, has any libaility to prevent this, given that the water came from an inadequately drained field via a public road. I'm also aware that I need to be careful in the way I divert water so I don't cause damage to anyone elses property.
To be fair, the farmer who owns the field has already extended and deepened a ditch to help drain the field, but I've no idea if what he has done will do the job, don't want to wait and see, so I'm keen to look at what I can do myself. I want to do the right thing though - it's easy to panic about this kind of thing and do a lot of work and achieve nothing, so I'm looking for expert advice.
I know I probably haven't provided enough information to go on, but I don't know where to start.

R.

Posted: **Mon Sep 08, 2008 6:23 pm**

its a bummer for sure when this happens to you reuben but from our pc screens its very difficult to give expert advice
I would say you need a competent builder or drainage engineer to construct some kind of gully to take the surface water away or to stop it coming your way in the first place
you are probably covered to some extent by your insurance,i dont know who would be liable. but the farmer didn't make it rain 50 mm in 2 hours or whatever so I don't know that one
a picture would be handy but really you need a site visit by someone competent
LLL

Posted: **Mon Sep 08, 2008 8:56 pm**

When the flood happened I had someone from the council come out - he was pretty clear that, from their point of view, he thought it was the farmers responsibility to make sure water did not come onto the road (it was a foot deep at one point). From reading other posts I think it may be the local authority's responsibility to prevent flooding from the road onto private property, but I'm not 100%. I've asked the council to come out and make a formal assessment of some kind, with no response as yet. I take the point about the farmer not making it rain - but I think in this case the problem, on his side or the councils, could be solved by two guys and a JCB in a day, maybe two - I don't think it would involve major engineering. The problem for me is that those two days could be in 2012. I'll post a picture if I can figure out how.

Posted: **Mon Sep 08, 2008 9:06 pm**

for advice on how to post pictures look here

Posted: **Mon Sep 08, 2008 10:45 pm**

its why builders never buy houses in dips,i have always bought houses in elevated positions with the ground dropping away.
For me to flood the poor buggers 1/2 a mile down the bottom of the road will be under 40 M of water.
cant see the farmer being held liable,this type of rain might by a once in 10 years event,last summer my mates house in oxford flooded for the first time in 50 years!
this global warming is not all its cracked up to be

more heavy rain is due ,so personally i would get someone professional out
LLL

Posted: **Tue Sep 09, 2008 9:18 pm**

lutonlagerlout wrote:cant see the farmer being held liable,this type of rain might by a once in 10 years event,

I was once involved with a job where water ran off a farmers field and flooded a few properties and a pond.

The farm produced turf and the process of both growing, rolling and lifting the turf had compacted the ground to the point that water was no longer filtering through to the sub-soil drainage.

Anyhow the farmer was held responsible in the end, i think there was also an issue with not maintaning ditches along the boundary lines

The Brew Cabin

Flooding prevention/liability