Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Jun 11, 2007 6:57 pm Ok so I have a good reason for posting this, I live in Newcastle NSW, in fact the suburb I live in was one of the hardest hit by the flood waters on Friday night (to make a long story short, we missed getting flooded out by the single width of the floor boards - we could hear the water hitting the underside of my loungeroom floor, our house was an island and it seems like just about every other house in our suburb was evaucated cause they are lower than we are. We did unfortunately lose my car to the flood waters but we were really lucky)
So anyway in the process of building our new home (in the coming year) I now need to think more about water proofing our house - I have already been thinking of land position etc but strangly enough we have never had a problem with flooding or water in the area we are currently in before so I wonder how much you can really predict these things... I can say that the new block of land will be at the top of a hill !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I'm after suggestions on how best to make sure we never have to live through this again.... Thanks in advance Fiona Re: Flood/Water Proofing your home 2Jun 11, 2007 8:50 pm Dont have any advice but thoughts are with you and those around you.
Sorry to hear you lost your car. Stay safe Re: Flood/Water Proofing your home 4Jun 12, 2007 6:51 am You are very lucky indeed! I have been thinking about this myself Sandbags, anyone?
What happens when you lose your car, is that fully covered by insurance? Our Adenbrook home was completed in September. Re: Flood/Water Proofing your home 5Jun 12, 2007 7:10 am as82 What kind of house do you have ? A wet one. Re: Flood/Water Proofing your home 6Jun 12, 2007 7:19 am Cookiemonster as82 What kind of house do you have ? A wet one. got to have a sense of humor at this time and naaa our house isn't that wet thankfully, outside is wet and there's a funky oil slick kind of stuff on the ground which washed down with the water - Oh our current house is a Californian Bungalo - art deco styled around 1937/39 built - so its tough as old boots and thankfully up on piers! The new house will be a 36 square single story, steel framed number (and as I said, will now be built right up on top of a hill ) I guess I'm thinking of making sure there are good seals on windows and lots of drainage in the yard re: Car - yes thankgoodness it will be fully covered, if the water went over the engine block apparently it is a write off, and we're pretty sure that it got that high - can't fault the insurance agency though, made the call at 2pm on Sat afternoon to lodge the claim and at 7pm they had a tow truck out the front (which had travelled from the Central Coast eg 1hr + away) picking it up .... Thanks for the well wishes everyone but as I said, we are the lucky ones in comparison to our neighbours Fiona Re: Flood/Water Proofing your home 7Jun 12, 2007 12:39 pm Look at the lay of tha land folks. Does it look like water might flow that way? Where would it come from, why how often when?
You can go to the land titles office and perhaps the council to get a copy of the 100 year flood levels in almost all areas of Australia. Plus lots of other stuff if you look around. My first house was in Brisbane near the brisbane river and the bank said, won't lend you the bucks unless you can get flood insurance. This was in 1981. In 1974 Brsibane was totally flooded and this area was well under by several metres (even the street gutters used to fill just on a king tide) but I thought the house would be OK as it was built up the back of the block and on tall stilts. And as I could prove that the flood level would not reach it, based on the flood level charts I obtained from the relevant authorities. the bank loan was approved and it was never an issue. Re living with flood, not a lot you can do, my parents house used to get 6 inches of water under the house every 6 or so years due to a local creek backing up on a high tide with lots of rain (Most Brisbanites would love that today) and the water would back up and run across the local parklands. The house was on stilts in inner Brisbane, and dad just built some stands to keep the washing machine up high enough, etc, and once the council really cleaned out and re-routed the creek we never had floods again. We used to watch at the new ground level flats that were allowed to be built over the road get 2 fot of water through them. So don't rely on the council not letting you build in "subject to flooding areas" So for me, I'd get the 100 year flood levels, plot them out on your block and go with that. As for sandbagging etc, too much effort for a very rare occurence. If it's not rare, then your building in the wrong place. Steve PS - My current house is 110m above sea level. Did I get the 100 year flood plans - NADA Re: Flood/Water Proofing your home 8Jun 12, 2007 12:56 pm If you really love the area/position and you can somehow justify living there, then I guess insurance is your only real insurance. There are some now that offer flood insurance (Shannons for example).
Glad to hear that you survived fairly unscathed aside from the car. Re: Flood/Water Proofing your home 9Jun 12, 2007 1:00 pm I used to live in a house that was in a 'natural water course'. Unfortunately I only found that out after it was completely flooded out. Lost a car and hundreds of books The council did offer some compensation since it was shown that their stormwater provisions were clearly inadequate - the natural water couse reasserted its ancient path.
The second time it was flooded out it was due to the main side drain (a large open rock drain) collapsing. So even though the stormwater provisions in the street were now OK, just the water falling on our property was enough to flood it out again. The lesson for me was very simple: NEVER live in a natural water course, valley, or low point of the street or area. Now that I'm looking to build or buy that's the first thing I look at. If it looks even slightly suspect I immediately reject it. It's truly devastating to have your home flooded out, everything ruined and saturated with water or stinking mud. Re: Flood/Water Proofing your home 10Jun 12, 2007 1:44 pm Build an ARK (or house-boat maybe)?
Actually, this doesn't cover flooding, but a reminder that probs can happen to all of us.... https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... ight=ready It really is important that we assess our risks of all kinds of disasters and insure ourselves by whatever means are available. My thought with everyone over that way. Its important too, that you all are careful of secondary risks (infection etc) Take care! Ash. Re: Flood/Water Proofing your home 11Jun 12, 2007 1:56 pm We are about 300m away from a waterway - Eastern Creek - but luckily the land is on pretty much the highest point of the estate - though I have no idea about the 1 in 100 yr flood level. Should get this checked out.
Is it expensive to request this info from Land Titles? 100 year flood history 12Feb 20, 2008 3:42 pm If its any help to anyone looking up information on plot flooding - when I spoke to our planning officer he said planning would not be granted if the 100 yr flood history had ever shown that a plot had been flooded. That said as our plot is close to a water course we have easements for neighbours to drain water accross our plot, and have to build above 14cm. C&G -------------------------------- A new building chapter begins.. Re: Flood/Water Proofing your home 14Feb 26, 2008 7:36 pm Further to this issue.
This the sort fo document I got for my house in Brisbane back in 81. And this link is for a Suburb in Adelaide http://www.charlessturt.sa.gov.au/Portals/0/A4%20Trimmer.pdf Any of this sort of information should be freely available - you just might have to ask the right person and maybe pay $10 or so for it. My advice - don't buy in flood prone areas, no matter how cheap it might be - with global warming issues and rain in gernal - Insurance companies are going not offer this sort of insurance in the long term future. Steve thanks Chippy, i hope they have applied sealer but i am doubt to be honest, so i am gonna do this job after handover. 8 16268 It worked for me in getting all non notified rain days removed from the builders claim, although the LDs was only $50/day 7 5940 Brass fly wire, you will need to cut it, shape it and jam it into brick slots 1 7464 |