Hey Everyone, this is my first ever post!
I just gotta say that I have been lurking around here the past few months (especially the
cob section), and I simply love it.
SO, I am in the stages of trying to start building myself a small cob house here in Northern Colorado hopefully this spring! I am entertaining different options right now for the building site, but there is one property that is a pretty good situation. The only this is.... It is in a potential floodplain (probably for only MAJOR floods). Northern Colorado got hit pretty hard this year with the floods, and the owners of the property told me the area where i may build was under about a foot of
water. Their property has an agricultural ditch on the far south side of the property, and I would like to build my house on the far north side of their property. (Property only about 100-150 ft. wide) The property runs east-west from the road (maybe 300 yards long?), and gently slopes downhill to the east from the road. I would be building about 2/3 down the property (200 yards), which keep sloping gently downhill.
I have read a couple cob
books, and I hear it stressed pretty hard to not build in a floodplain. If this piece of
land turns out to be my only option, what precautionary steps can i take to make sure my house doesn't flood when the next big flood comes through the area? Logic tells me to just raise the land where i want to set my house, maybe 3 feet or so, but that makes me wonder about how much work that is to make it solid ground to build on. I'm not sure if this is an option, but if i am going to do an earthen floor, can I just add a crazy amount of drain rock first? (to pretty much raise the entire interior floor as high as i want). Or since the land gently slopes to the east with the ag ditch,
should i just take steps to divert water away and downhill from my house with earth
berms or something? Any input would be greatly appreciated.