[texastoy4her]

Hi All,

My home was built in the early 1970's.

The problem I have is that over time the rouads around my house have been built up. So now my home kinda sits in a "bowl".

The only protection we have against it flooding is we have built a levee around the house and also have to sump pumps in the ground. All though this does work fairly well, if it rains to much then it doesn't stop the house from flooding.

The house sits on a cement slab and the plumping is ran through the slab.

We don't have that much money to spend thousands of dollars so was just curious if any one had any suggestions?

Thanks

[wacor]

my first thought would be to raise the house and put it on top of a crawl space but you dont want to spend money.

you wont like this answer but i would move. you are dealing with an inevitable catastrophe.

if you want to stay then buy flood insurance and keep stuff that is important up high. i do not think there is much of a preventative measure that would give you a solution and even at that you would need a generator that would come on automatically as when it storms you lose power sometimes

[texastoy4her]

It's not that I don't want to spend money, it's that we don't have the money to spend lol.

Out of curiousity, could any one give a "rough" estimate as to what it might cost to do as suggested? "putting the house on a crawl space"

Yea we have flood insurance, which really isn't that bad. Cost a little over 500 a year.

The house has flooded at least 7 times that I know of since it was built lol.

[wacor]

when was the house built and how big is it?

i assumed it was not a matter of want versus not having the money to do it.

$500 sounds about right for the insurance but check and confirm what the coverage is

[texastoy4her]

The house was built in the early 70's. I would say around 72. Don't remember exactly. My wifes' parents built it themselves.

As far as square footage I don't remember. Its a 3 beedroom 1 bath with attacthed 2 car gaage.

Really not as big as it sounds lol.

What do you mean by " check and confirm what the coverage is"?

Do you mean make sure that it is in fact flood or do you mean to cheak and make sure what is covered on the policy?

As far as whats covered I'm not entirely sure but I do know that 2 years ago it flooded and the insurance paid us right at 40k

[wacor]

sounds like you had decent coverage. i was just cautioning to make sure what is covered as i dont know if all flood coverage is the same even though i think it is the FEDS that provide it?

so how much is the house worth? I am thinking that it would not be worth putting it on a crawl space unless you are so in love with the home you would never move. I am not a builder so I would be guessing which i would not want to do. so it might be easier for you indicate what is the amount you would be willing to pay.

I would think you might want to look into what the consequences of having more than one claim in a time period. if this place flooded 7 times already and you had a claim 2 years ago i am suprised you would get renewed coverage for only $500

[texastoy4her]

It surprised me as well that we got renewed coverage at that price lol.

Yes, all flood insurance is mandated by the gov'.

We haven't had realitor or apprasier look at the home so I really can't say what it is worth.

Persoanlly, i would have to say around 60k. But then again, I have never looked into buying a home or anything else. Have always lived in apartments lol.

I would almost be willing to pay whatever if there was a way to stop the flooding. Provided of course we have the money to do that.

I wouldn't rule out moving but at this point no. I love the area we are in. Private community with dirt roads, 6 miles from the nearest town and 17 miles from nearest town with beer (thats the draw back lol).

[wacor]

I am afraid it may cost about one third to half the value of your home to put it on a crawl space.

unless you have friends or there is a creative way to raise it. but that is based on things around where i live.

around where i live the little 900 Sq. ft. house i bought in 1977 for $32,000 is now worth about $175,000 so it is hard for me to judge values elsewhere. And that was not in the expensive area around here either.

i was going to put an addition on the house back around 1983 and the cost would have been about $32,000 which i could not justify at the time. I never thought i would get the money back out of it if i sold it but there have been some improvements on other homes and values did not plateau

it just depends upon what you have going on around you

[texastoy4her]

Thanks for the info.

Another than raising the house onto a crawl space though there really isn't much else that could be done huh?

ya we really need to have it appraised and all. Right now we are finishing paying off the mortgage and when we get that done in about another 2 years then we will have he home put into our names so will probably have it done then.

[wacor]

Originally Posted by texastoy4her

Thanks for the info.

Another than raising the house onto a crawl space though there really isn't much else that could be done huh?

I doubt there is much that can be done but if you take some pictures of around the house i can always take a look and give you my thoughts.

I am a contractor but this is not my expertise but i am guessing that berms and sump pumps which have already been done are about it beyond raising the house

[texastoy4her]

K. I'll take them tomorrow and post then as it is already dark here lol

[wacor]

get your square footage while you are at it too.

[texastoy4her]

hmmmm ok...how would I go about doing this? lol.

We might have some insurance papers around..somewhere. But will have to look and see.

Or we you saying to get it another way? Such as measuring myself?

[wacor]

just measure the length of the house and multiply it by the depth. assuming it is a square or a rectangle and that gives total square footage.

or you could measure lineal footage and tell that to a contractor to get a rough idea

[kilowatt1]

The most economical thing is probably a french drain system. The price will vary depending on the contractor. It is not a hard thing to do technically, but it is somewhat labor intensive. I don't think you are going to find a contactor that would even attempt to change a house built using "slab on grade" to a crawl space arrangement. The engineering cost alone would be out of sight.