 I'm your host Kevin Murray and on this show we're going to look at steps you can use to reduce flood damage to an existing home. That's the topic today on this edition of Best Build. Flooding causes more property damage in the United States than any other type of natural disaster. Over the last decade flood related damage averaged well over three billion dollars annually. After a flood many homeowners will rebuild their house just as it was. Only to have the next flood do its damage all over again. There is an alternative to this cycle of flood rebuild flood again. If the house is damaged more than 50% the community will probably require that the house be elevated above flood levels. But even if it's not steps can be followed where the homeowner can repair their house in a way that can reduce or even eliminate the risk of future flood damage. We'll be taking a closer look at these retrofitting techniques but first we need to look at what possible flood site and building characteristics may exist. This is the first thing that any homeowner who is considering protecting their home should do. The reason is simple. A thorough understanding of the flood site and building characteristics is critical when selecting the right technique for retrofitting your home. And believe me selecting the right method upfront will save you time and money in the long run. In fact it's a good idea to consult with a design professional to help you make this decision. The important thing to remember is to consider how each characteristic affects your home and then use this information to put together a realistic plan for permanently protecting your home against future flood damage. To review consider the flood characteristics. The depth, the base flood elevation, the velocity, the debris potential, the flood duration and the warning time. Next review the site characteristics, its location within the flood plain including the firm zone and the floodway, the general soil conditions and the potential for erosion. And finally know about the type and the condition of the house you're dealing with, the type of foundation it's sitting on, how it's constructed with what materials and its overall condition. Well I think that's enough in the way of a refresher course. Why don't we take a look at some houses that have been successfully retrofitted, case studies if you will. Our tour will take us all across the country and I've asked some local experts to help us out where available and hopefully the weather will hold out. The first technique we're going to examine is relocation. Simply put this is where a flood prone house is actually picked up and moved to a new location out of the flood plain. Relocation is probably the most effective way to avoid flood damage. After all the final result is a house out of harm's way. But this method is also one of the most expensive and will require considerable planning. In Middletown, Pennsylvania I had a chance to talk to Lou Otardo, a former project manager in Dauphin County about their few Avenue relocation project. So Lou which flood then finally prompted the relocation? Well the decision was actually made as a result of Hurricane Agnes in 1972 and then Hurricane Eloise hitting again in 1975. The river backed up and it caused the Swadera Creek to overflow its banks and it was causing the damage along with few Avenue area. The decision was made something how to be done about the properties in that area. A few avenues right up the road here isn't it? Right over here. How many homes were originally on these lots? Well actually four of the houses were in this location and there was another one up on the corner. Creek is back the side of the trees there and as a result of the flooding in 72 and 75 they had anywhere from six to eight feet of water in this location. Well give me a description of the move itself. The first thing that had to be done was the foundations were knocked out underneath the houses. The house mover then moved in a series of dollies, jacked the houses up and set them on the dollies in order to prepare them to pull off the old foundations. House mover had walked this site the location a couple of times before the move so we knew which wires had to be moved out of the way, which trees had to be trimmed back and it was a real logistical problem in some locations which he handled very well. Once the houses reached the site up on North Union Street they were put in place the foundations were built up from underneath them and as you can see here this is the final result of the four homes on North Union Street. Lou how economically feasible was it to relocate a house as opposed to say buying or building a new one? Well it was certainly a lot cheaper than building a new house and as you can see the houses aren't all that old the damage wasn't that extensive so the decision was if the homeowners wanted to go along with it we just move the houses out. Hi Irene. Hello, how are you? Good, this is Kevin. Hi, good to meet you. Hi Glenn, good to see you. Hi Kevin Murray. Kevin, how are you? It's fine, thanks. Kevin was just asking about the project and the background on it and why we moved the houses up here from Few Avenue and I thought maybe you could give them a little bit of information about the flooding and the damage and the reason why. Okay in 72 and 75 the home was in a flood. In 72 the water literally came up over the kitchen cabinets everything was lost the furniture the keepsakes the valuables. In 75 there was about four feet of water in the basement. That's bad enough though I guess you're happy with the relocation though. Yeah it's worked out you know pretty well we have a nice piece of property with woods and you know being outside of town and also the peace of mind of being away from a body of water you know it's enough to worry about it overflowing again. I've noticed you've done a lot of improvements to the property since the last time I was up here. Yeah because of this the size of the property we now have we're able to bring my mother from town and you know build an addition on our house and now she's living out with us and it's worked out equally well. That's great can we take a look at some of the addition work. The Few Avenue project was unique in that four homes were moved at once but whether it's four or one the key to success is the house mover and having always wanted to meet one I finally had that opportunity and the person of Dick Knapp down in Tampa Florida. I'm just amazed that you can cut a house like this in half and move it and put it back together again. What's the hardest part of that process? Probably the hardest part is on a job like this is tunneling under it because of the close clearance of the ground it takes a little more time. I see. That's the hardest part. Cutting? That's easy. I see. Listen I'd like to take you up on your offer of a tour of that project you just finished up. Sure anytime I'm ready. Give me a few more minutes I'm ready. You got it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. This channel feeds right into Tampa Bay. Right straight west of us is the bay. How badly can this area flood? We can get high tide here as much as four or five feet over a high sea level here. Is this Doug's house? Here we are right there. This is Mason reconstruction. Any special challenges in moving this house? A couple three you got cutting the building in two is one and of course moving it down moving a two story down the road is another challenge we always have all the cables and power lines to get under and over and then of course the one of the challenges always an all-building moving is getting it lined up on the property and then building from the ground up to the building putting a new foundation under it after the building's in place. This is a good-sized house that you've moved here. Yeah we moved this one in a two-piece a two-story section and a single story. Now this new deck work here this is at the same height as the new floor level. Yeah this is the height we had to maintain we had to raise the building four feet here to meet the flood zone in this area. Now where was the cut made? Right up there at the gutter you can still see where the gutter is still cutting to there where it was sawed in half right there and it went down right alongside the window there's nothing showing there it's all been repaired. Yeah if you hadn't told me this house had been cut in half I don't think there's any way I could have guessed. It's pretty hard. How do you generally estimate the cost? We work on a square footage figure and masonry homes cost $12 a square foot plus or minus. What's this going to run Doug when all said and done? Well he's got 20,000 in the moving and he'll have additional 2,000 in the elevated foundation. From this angle you can really see the elevation compared to the neighbor's house looks like Doug's going to be in better shape next time it floods. Oh definitely they'll have a problem when the water comes up one of these days. Listen you've done a great job on this house it really make it look easy. Relocating out of the floodplain is the surest way of eliminating damage from flood waters but sometimes this option isn't possible or necessary. If you can't get out of the floodplain the next best alternative is to raise your house above flood levels. Elevation is probably the most common and feasible method of protecting a home in the floodplain. Like relocation elevation requires considerable time and planning. The house must be prepared for elevating and an appropriate foundation must be chosen. To make the right decisions all of the flood site and building characteristics we talked about earlier need to be closely examined. For instance take where I'm standing right now. It looks tranquil but this entire Peach Tree Creek area is in the floodplain and as residents found out on St. Patrick's Day 1990 heavy rains can quickly raise waters to record flood levels. It rained all day and by evening I knew we were in trouble because the mailbox was under water. The water had risen halfway up the house and at four o'clock in the morning it got past the fifth step and I gave up and went to bed. Well how long did the water stick around before it started to recede? To seven o'clock the next evening it took that long and at that point people could get out move about some. I guess you were counting your blessings that you'd elevated back in 76. Indeed I was. Listen it was nice talking with you. Thank you. The Rutgers house was elevated one full story on solid concrete block foundation walls. A number of other homes on the street were also lucky enough to escape serious damage because they had been elevated. One of those houses is just down the street. After being flooded several times in the 1970s the owners there finally decided to elevate. Lifting beams were used to raise the house one full story above its original foundation. Utilities were elevated. A new foundation and stairway were built and the house was lowered onto its new foundation. Probably one of the most distinctive aspects of the house are the stairs. As you can see they're split come down on both sides and this is a simple way of breaking up the look of the house once it's been elevated. The Curtis house has been built up on concrete columns. All of the columns like this one have been covered with stucco which looks a lot nicer than the bare concrete. In addition the area between the columns has been filled in with a wood lattice work and this allows water to flow in and out without causing any additional damage. Why don't we take a look around the corner of the house and get a slightly different angle on things. Ernie thanks for letting us wander around. Kevin good to see you. Good to see you too. I was talking to your neighbor Mrs. Rucker about the March flood. I was curious as to how well your house held up. No problems. The water was deeper than it's ever been about five feet where we are but the house was dry and no problems at all. That's great Mrs. Rucker said pretty much the same thing. Yeah I was curious the last time I was here. What exactly is this? This is the central heating and air conditioning. It was raised about six feet above ground level at the time the rest of the house was raised. So elevated and enclosed all at the same time. I imagine during the recent flooding you had no problems with your utilities none at all. They continued as usual. That's great. Now Ernie I know that back in 76 your house was elevated. The Ruckers elevated their house that same year. Your neighbors have obviously elevated. I'm told there's an elevation project actually in progress right around the corner here. Is that right? Yes Michael White bought a house recently. Decided to have his raised before he moved in. But that's going on now. That's a smart move. Listen I'll let you get back to your gardening. Thanks so much for your time. Now Paul Gertler a contractor who's worked on most of the homes on this street is probably working on Michael White's house right now. Well you know I haven't had a chance yet to examine a house at this stage. Do you mind showing me around? No come on appreciate that. I see you've gotten a lot of work done over here already. So what was the first step? The installation of the beams I imagine? That's right we had to put the beams out of the house. Which ones went in first? The main beams are running beams which are these long beams here. And then the cross beams were added? They go on top of those beams. I see. Now what happened here with the old foundation? Why is that broken away? Well we have to destroy part of the foundation wall to get the beams out of the house. Oh I see. And then the lifting took place. That's right. And how is that done? If you notice we have cribbing here and that supports the house and the steel and this is where we raise the house. Okay use any kind of hydraulic jack system? We put hydraulic jacks in the cribbing and raise the house up. Now the lift itself is that done all at one time? Is it done in smaller increments? Well it's done in 12 inch lifts. Oh I see. And how long does that take? Well this particular house took a day to lift. Now Paul from start to finish how long does this process take? It worked in two to three months. Well what about cost? Is there an average? Well there's an average house, there's an average cost. Okay well what about this house specifically then? 10,000 to raise this house. Does that include the cost of the new foundation? No foundation costs in addition to that. Another how much? 10,000. So in other words homeowners need to realize there are a lot of variables involved in estimating the cost of elevating. There's a lot of variables. Listen thanks for your time. Okay we'll see. Cost is clearly a factor when elevating your home. Now before we take a look at some other ways of protecting your home from flood damage let's take a quick trip to Libertyville, Illinois where last week I had a chance to speak to the stock family about their recently elevated home. The house was built in about 1955. And when did you and your husband move in? We moved in in 84. You elevated not long after that didn't you? A couple months after we moved in we called the contractor and he came in and raised the house and he put three rows of concrete block along the edge of the foundation. And your husband mentioned that you did some of the work yourself? We did. We wanted to save money so we did the plumbing work ourselves. That must have saved you a small fortune. It did. When you elevated did you elevate to the same height as the next door neighbor? We used this home as an example as a matter of fact. We raised at three levels of block just as you see there. In 86 this whole area flooded. How badly did that affect your house? Well the water came up about three feet about to here which is just above the concrete block. So did any water get inside at all? No not at all. It missed the floor by about eight or nine inches. So you were very lucky. We saved a lot of money. If you don't mind my asking this question what was the final cost of the entire elevation project? Final cost was about five thousand dollars. That's not bad. No it isn't really. You got a little bit more renovation work to do I see. We're looking on some siding and we're also doing some windows. This is the little Calumet River just outside of Chicago. Only last month heavy rains brought water levels here to just below the top of this old bridge abutment. Now when it does flood in this area floodwaters tend to be shallow and slow moving. But don't forget even a foot of water can cause extensive damage to an unprotected home. In these areas where flood conditions are not as severe an alternative to relocation or elevation may be to protect the building by using berms and flood walls. With these techniques the house remains structurally unchanged. What changes is the surrounding topography. A structure of some kind. A wall or an embankment now protects the home from floodwaters. To help us understand more about these techniques and when it's best to use them I've asked Molly O'Toole an engineer with the Illinois Division of Water Resources to lend us a hand. I presume this is a berm we're walking on right now. Yeah this is a typical berm that was built by the local community to protect the homes that are located over here from the low level flooding that they receive from the Calumet River which is located over on this side. Molly when does it make the most sense to use this kind of flood protection? Probably the most important thing is that you're only expecting to receive that low level, low velocity flooding that will only last for about two to three days. If that's the case then berms prove to be relatively inexpensive yet very effective ways of protecting properties from flooding. And do the soil conditions have that much to do with a berm's feasibility? Definitely. Most all berms are constructed of a compacted clay soil and clay is a very impervious soil and it prevents seepage that comes through the berm. What if a community has the wrong kind of soil? Well then it can be very expensive to truck in or haul in the right kind of soil. And Molly from up here it's a little difficult to tell exactly what a berm is made of. Can you walk us through the steps of creating a berm? Sure. The first step in constructing a berm is clearing away the area of any topsoil or vegetation. Then the berm itself is constructed by building up individually compacted layers of soil and these are called lifts. And a core of impervious soil can help prevent seepage. Then properly sloping the berm will help reduce the potential for erosion. And typical side slopes are one to three. And that's part of why berms tend to take up so much space. Again if the proposed construction is located within a floodway, a permit won't be issued. That's because activities within floodways will increase flood heights. Another thing to remember that maintenance of a berm like this is a year-round activity and it's very important to schedule regular inspections for both seepage and erosion. And you want to be sure that you don't have any unwanted trees or other vegetation growing on the berm. Now we wanted to take a look at some examples of flood walls. Are there any in this area? I know some good examples up in Lincoln Shire if you're interested in the drive up there. Lead the way. Okay. How far a trip is it to Lincoln Shire? They've landscaped nicely right up to the wall. It really disguises how high the wall really is. This is an attractive example of one. I thought you'd like it. They did a good job. It's about three feet high and they built it of reinforced concrete but then they covered it with this decorative stone. And then they surrounded the entire house, the front, the back, the sides with the flood wall. And that protects them against the low level flooding that they received from the Dest Plains River. Is reinforced concrete the recommended construction material? Or you could use reinforced masonry block as long as material has a lot of strength and impermeability or resistance to leakage. They have built themselves a strong wall. I don't think the owner will mind if we look at the wall out back, do you? I was just showing Kevin your flood wall on the back here. We noticed that it's just the reinforced concrete without the decorative stone that you have in front. Yeah, that surrounds the entire house and I just decorated back here a little differently on your landscaped. I used everybody's as opposed to the stone in the front. I'll compliment you on your work. Thank you. During last month's flooding, did that adversely affect your property at all? Not really, Kevin. It came up to the horseshoe court and we didn't have the amount of water as we did in 86. And how far back into the woods is the river? About 150 yards. Come on back and I'll show you. Okay. After you, Molly. Flood walls are versatile enough to be used in many different ways and as I learned recently in Minnesota, they can be tailored to the needs of just about any kind of home. This is Bassett Creek outside of St. Paul, Minnesota and behind me is an example of a flood wall that was completed in 1982. Now flood walls do require skilled labor and are often more expensive than berms, but the basic approach to building them remains the same. First, the soil is excavated and a footing put in place. Then a foundation is laid along with proper reinforcement to tie into the wall. Then the wall itself is properly reinforced to withstand flood forces. All of this requires the assistance of a professional engineer. Dean Scalman was in on the original design of this flood wall. Dean, thanks for joining us. Hello, Kevin. What's distinctive about this flood wall? We tied this flood wall into the corners of the house around the existing patio to prevent the waters from entering the walkout basement. When the Bassett Creek overflows its banks, those waters tend to be somewhat shallow and slow moving, don't they? That's correct. Dean, what prompted this particular height for the flood wall? The 100-year flood elevation that we use for the design is that approximately this elevation as an additional factor of safety we added a foot to the wall. I noticed a drain system of some kind down on the patio. Why don't we go down the steps over there and see. So the sump pump is here for the interior drainage. Well, the sump serves two purposes. The rain that falls directly on the patio is collected and drains, it drains to the sump and is pumped out. We've also got drain tile lines that run around the corners of the house. This lowers the groundwater table and relieves the pressure on the foundation walls. That should keep the patio dry during storm conditions. At the top of this slab here is the same level as the house floor inside, which means we're dealing with a sunken patio. What's the advantage to that? Well, typically during a severe rainfall event you have power outages. We've lowered the patio so that we can store the 10-year rainfall event with no water entering the basement. Now how about explaining for us how the concrete block is tied into the footing? We've got reinforcing bars that run down through the voids in the concrete block. It's tied to a reinforced concrete footing and all the voids are filled with drought. Well, they've got a nice usable patio area here. They've enhanced it with landscaping. They've added this flower box here. This looks like a flood protection plan that's probably increased the value of the house. We're now going to take a look at a number of diverse techniques that we've grouped under the heading other measures. These techniques will rarely offer the same level of protection you'll find with relocation, elevation, berms and flood walls. And they're only appropriate for homes that are subject to low flood levels or storm water damage. And of course they must adhere to your community's flood plain regulations. But overall these are low-cost simple measures that can be easily added to an existing home. Most of these techniques still require a professional contractor, but some of them, as you'll see, can be done by the homeowner. Sealing a house is where the exterior walls are improved to keep out the flood waters. And this is the home of Mr. Darrow, who's going to show us that ceiling techniques need not be an expensive or elaborate process. A slab foundation house is often subject to seepage during flooding. And you've added some sealant down here. How about taking us through the steps of what you did? Yeah, I sealed it 14 inches above ground and 12 inches below ground. And then I first stepped was I cemented it all the way. And then I tarred it. Then I put a plastic paper over that. Then I tarred it again. Now back in 86, you had flood levels coming up about 12 inches or so. Did it hold? Sure it did. And what about the cost of this job? Well roughly speaking about $40 and then of course the labor is free. On Ann-Marie Lane, homeowners have used several ceiling techniques due to heavy stormwater runoff. For instance here they've used a combination of driveway elevation and a mini flood wall to protect their lower level garage space. Here's another example of lower level garage protection. When flooding threatens, you simply step outside, remove this plank from its hooks. And where do you place this Tom? You put it in the two slots here, making sure it's sealed on both ends and on the bottom. How often does it flood in this area? Approximately three to four times a year. And now that it's in place, how well does it work? It works like a charm. If there's one kind of flooding that many of us have experienced firsthand, it's basement flooding. Basements are particularly vulnerable to seepage and sewer backup. The secret to protecting basements is simply knowing whether or not your home is in the flood plain. If it's not, you can probably go ahead and use some of the techniques we're about to show you. However, if your home is in the flood plain where it can be surrounded by water, water pressure stands a good chance of collapsing your basement walls. In these cases, when flooding threatens, your best protection is to turn off your utilities, block off your floor drain, and either allow floodwaters in through a window or fill your basement with cold tap water. Doing this will counteract the outside pressure and hopefully keep your walls intact. Our first example of protecting basements from storm water and sewer backup is this raised ranch in Cook County, Illinois. What steps have you taken to protect your basement entryway? I'll show you down here. This brick wall area originally was an open area. By bricking it in, eliminate sandbagging at this point, likewise with this brick wall, eliminate sandbagging. This wooden enclosure is removable. It has six bolts and a rubber gasket on the inside. I see. Now with houses such as your sewer backup is often a problem. Can you show us how you solved that? Sure, follow me downstairs. Okay. Well, Mr. Rosetto, what exactly are we looking at here? Well, we're looking at over head sewer system. And what's the advantage to this? Eliminate the water from the outside, entering the inside structure. Is that because this pipe is above ground level? That's true. Now, how about explaining exactly how this thing works? Okay. The water is collected in the sump pump well below us. A certain height will activate the sump pump. The water rises through these pipes, is eliminated and meets a sewage pipe on the outside. I see. While Mr. Rosetto used an overhead sewer system, another form of protection is the use of a backflow valve. As I learned when I talked to Pat Regan. You mind giving us a brief description of how this system works? Oh, sure. This system is installed in the sewer line so that when heavy pressure from the city sewer comes back towards a home, it will close the flood control valve and stop the pressure from coming to the home. Then any water coming from the house will come out the overflow opening, down to the pump and the pump will turn on and force the water back out to the city sewer system in front of the closed valve. I got a few more questions for you. Do you mind coming out of the home? Oh, sure. You need a hand? No. What are some of the advantages to using this kind of system? Well, one of the major advantages in this type of system is that it stops the pressure and keeps the pressure away from the house during the heavy rainstorm. Now what about cost? What's the estimated cost for installing one of these in a residential home? Average Chicago residential home is approximately four thousand dollars, but this will vary depending on the depth of your sewer line, the amount of electrical work needed on the inside of the home to make the proper connections and your own local building codes. The final grouping of other measures we'll take a quick look at is what we call partial protection measures, also known as wet flood proofing. This is where water is allowed to enter the house, often because it simply cannot be prevented, and steps are taken to reduce the damage. And here the homeowner has used a tile floor instead of carpeting to make clean up easier. They've also used a waterproof paint on their concrete walls instead of wall board. And one final thing they've done is to elevate their electrical outlets above flood level. We've seen the cost of protecting your house can range anywhere from 40 dollars to thousands of dollars depending on the chosen technique. What then is the best way of choosing that right method for protecting your house? Well a good place to start is with a basic spreadsheet tool that has listed on the one side the flood site and building characteristics and on the other the different flood protection techniques. Obviously you have to know some basics such as the flood depth, velocity, whether your site is in the floodway, and the overall condition of your building. Once you have this information walk through your available options by comparing these characteristics with the feasibility of each technique. For a more detailed example of this as well as additional information on all the techniques we've talked about today you can refer to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's retrofitting manual. And finally if you're considering hiring a contractor make sure you review credentials. Find out if the individual or firm has done similar flood protection work. And ask for a recent listing of projects similar to the one you're contemplating. We've covered a lot of material as well as a lot of ground on this program. From all over the country we've seen flood protection techniques ranging from moving an entire house to simply preventing water from collecting at the bottom of a driveway. While a world of cost and planning separates the simplest from the most sophisticated technique there is one common denominator that follows through all of these examples that we've seen today. And that's the knowledge that homeowners can apply these techniques successfully to protect their homes from flood damage. You can break the cycle of flood rebuild flood again. As long as you know your flood site and building characteristics do the proper planning. And always remember that flood protection techniques are meant to protect your house not your life. I'm Kevin Murray and I'll see you next time on another edition of Best Build.