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Jay Angler wrote:If you can find a topographic map with enough detail (our Municipal Hall has electronic ones), that would be helpful to post.
It would give us a better idea of the slopes, the high and low water levels, which may give us ideas of how to slow the water down.
They say no planting - but consider what nature plants, and consider if it's possible to "help that along". Definitely California seems to have a wet/dry boom/bust cycle, but that's what Beaver analogue dams are supposed to help. But fire risk is a serious concern and one that needs a lot of thought - the greatest risk is when water is in the shortest supply. I'd be tempted to splurge on a *really* big rainwater tank!
John C Daley wrote:I had a similar problem at my place last year.
I am a Civil Engineer so I am creating some water diversion walls to keep the moving water away from where is is going now.
Part of the system is an earthen levy system 3M wide and 1.2M high to obstruct the initial flow
then I am building a sheet metal fence with 6 inch posts set 600mm into the soil at 1M intervals to guide the water
past my buildings for 150 ft.
I have use it before elsewhere effectively.
Water can leak through the metal wall, but it is stationary water and will not erode.
I would not use concrete since it can be undermined.
Some better photos to show things more clearly will help me see exactly what is happening.
A few questions;
- was the water actually moving past the slab edge?
- how deep was the water?
- Has a tree fallen and pushed the water towards the house?
- how high is the small embankment?
- the vegetation looks old, has any erosion actually taken place?
Michael Cox wrote:Ok, I have one potentially useful observation...
Erosion during flood events happens due to water velocity. You can - and probably should - be looking into hard landscaping to protect that bank, like a concrete retaining wall. BUT you can also mitigate velocity by directing flows such that your house and the bank area sits in an area of lower velocity water. I'd need to see much more of the landscape upstream, downstream, and around the house to suggest how - and have a much better sense of how the stream floods.
Looking at the picture it looks like it's not just the bank eroding, but also sheeting floodwater over the upper bank level.
If you can slow the water downstream of you, such that the water depth actually increases a little where you are, then the water velocity could be much slower. I've see a layout for a property on stilts on a floodplain. They realised they had no control over water entering their land, and that the water velocity was what would damage their house. They build a retaining bank in a horseshoe shape. Horseshoe was open to the direction of flow and the house was located within the horseshoe. The water depth increases in the horseshoe - slightly - but the water moves much more slowly than on the surrounding floodplane, so the actual damage around the house was reduced. The counterintuitive aspect was that the wall was downstream of the house, not upstream. The bank was planted with shrubs and other plants that had root systems able to anchor the bank effectively and the ends were protected from erosion with large rocks to make a rockery.
Elsewhere on the property, within the area, they had rows of food crops - berry bushes etc...- planted in dense hedges across the flow of water, again, aiming to slow the flow around the vulnerable areas of the property.
Rusty Ford wrote:I'm no engineer and I don't play one in the movies, but If it were mine, I'd call someone to drive telephone poles in the ground about ten to twenty feet out into the washout, leaving the top of them at the height of the ground at your porch. They probably should be no more than 4 feet apart, but closer will be better. Then I'd start filling in behind them with large logs, concrete chunks and dirt, packing as I went along with a excavator. After completion, I would build a retaining wall on the creek side of the telephone poles, tying them back into the newly created bank of logs and dirt. It's not gonna be cheap, but neither is losing your house.
Ulla Bisgaard wrote:That doesn’t look good. I can see why you are worried. I hope you can use one of the solutions, people here have suggested. Hang in there, I am rooting for you, and sending virtual hugs.
Jeremy VanGelder wrote:If high water is eroding the bank, you can try to build a temporary dam with sandbags. Then you can build some sort of retaining wall.
It's possible that building terraces with fill dirt and landscape wall blocks, supplemented by plantings later in the season, will do what you need.
Emmett Ray wrote:Great fluffy muffins! I'm not an expert and wouldn't dare advise how to fix this but I'm definitely concerned for you now. I'm really sorry you have to deal with that and I really hope you'll keep us updated. A creek is one of my nonnegotiables for the property I buy but I wouldn't want the house that close to it.
John F Dean wrote:OMG! Like others have said … retaining wall. Can the house be moved? I had an experience protecting a driveway. This was protection from a drainage ditch. I used many loads of concrete. It only slowed the process. 15 years later the retaining wall washed out even though it had a 4 foot footing.