no more big floods

England has been hard hit by floods this year, including a relatively close call for some of my in-laws. Turriff Show was even cancelled a couple of weeks back because of the downpours overnight. My garden even had a couple of huge puddles, and we practically live on a 1 in 10 slope.
I have a nice simple solution. Take a huge can of no-more-big-gaps, and squirt a 3 foot high barrier of solid expanding foam all round your house. Higher if need be.
floods.jpg
For comedy marketing purposes I’d call it nomorebigfloods or ‘no more big sewagey carpets’.
It might make a mess of the rosebeds, but they can be replanted more quickly than you can renovate your entire lower floor. If the foam could be made 100% starch based, I bet it could even be compostable - and eventually GOOD for the roses.
The ever present environmental problems raise their heads again. Spraying all that evil foam into the world can’t be a great idea. However, throwing out your home contents and buying afresh is pretty evil too. Lesser of two evils?
floods2.jpg

Excellent diagram of a house there, I’m sure you’ll agree.

August 16, 2007 | Filed Under ,

 

Comments

5 Responses to “no more big floods”

  1. Kendall on August 29th, 2007 9:05 pm

    good thinking…but it would foat. thats why they use sand bags, obnoxiously heavy, yet dense enough to resist both the forces of bouyancy and the lateral forces involved in containing raging floods.

  2. Steve on August 30th, 2007 12:54 am

    Good point Kendall. Unless we add 50% lead shot to the mix!

  3. Brad on August 30th, 2007 7:55 am

    I think you are on to something…. Maybe the waist high barrier could be a continuous strip of clear plastic wrap and you could use the foam to connect it water tight to the foundation along the bottom where the seam meets the house. Faster, no drying time, easily removable for sending to recycling. You definitely have a good idea going and lesser of evils for sure.

  4. amanda on August 30th, 2007 9:38 pm

    I was talking to someone about flooding the other day and said that they should just make houses waterproof (which you have a solution for!) and the guy looked at me like I was crazy.

    But it’s all so simple!

  5. Steve on August 31st, 2007 12:54 am

    amanda, you’ve made me realise, I missed an obvious solution! Inland Houseboats. Don’t just make them waterproof, make them float!

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