How to Protect your Home from Flood Season

This is a guest post from Fabric Solutions, an All-Australian company with expertise in custom design, fabrication and installation of liquid containment systems and fabric products.

© Photographer: Alan Heartfield | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Australia is a country of strange weather patterns. Flooding one day and drought the next, this means that every eventuality has to be planned for. Whether we like it or not we have to have irrigation and water supplies for droughts, and preparatory measures for floods. This needs to be done for the sake of saving money, preventing damage to crops and the infrastructure of the house. Here are some possible steps.

Sealants

Houses are full of little cracks and problems. Doors, windows, cracks in the walls and floor and things of that nature can let damp and water through. With a quick purchase of waterproof sealant you can run it across the windows and doors, you can also seal the floors and any cracks in the walls. This will stop accidental seepage that can lead to mould and mildew.

Prepare your Property

Keep your TV at least a metre off floor level and keep valuable items on high shelves. Use water resistant skirting boards and lay the floor with tiles and rugs rather than carpet. Anything wooden close to the ground in a flooding area will be a real problem.

Drains and Pipes

Fit non return valves onto any and all drains and pipes on your property, this will allow waste water to flow out of your house without risking it flowing back in through the sewage and the drains. Any inlet and outlet pipes need to be fitted like this.

Pumps

If you have a large outdoor property at risk of flooding you will need top put in a pump. Methods like sandbags and dams will be inefficient if it comes up through the ground. Ideally you should have a pump with a diesel generator outside any enclosed property, so you don't risk fumes. A good quality pump should give you a good decade of flood free living.

Small Dams or Water Tanks

Dams and water tanks are a simple solution to a large problem. Have too much water landing on your house? Build something to take the water. On large properties you can quite easily set up a small dam with a spillway that can pour down into the nearest body of water, or simply out into a place that will do no harm. If you have a smaller property then you can simply pick up a rainwater tank and keep it in your backyard. These are a good way to deal with changing climates, saving it in the winter to use it in the summer, and all the maintenance it takes is a little lining and protection from fabric solutions and you've got a flood barrier you can count on.

If you take a few simple steps even a large property can be mostly protected from the dangers of the weather. Nothing can withstand nature entirely, but these and a few other things can keep it at bay.