Flooding is an increasing problem across the UK. With climate change causing extreme weather and the practice of building new houses on floodplains, the country has seen a sharp increase in properties being flooded over the last couple of decades.
It’s not just river water that can cause damage when flooding occurs. The sudden rush of liquid and debris can block sewers and cause excrement to come back up into the streets and inside dwellings. This foul, silt-like substance clings to your fixtures and fittings; even when the moisture dries, your belongings are unhygienic and unusable and will require replacing.
Flood defences in rivers can help, by pushing the excess water further downstream to places where it’s safe for it to overflow into adjacent floodplains or fields. However, river levels have been known to rise even higher than expected and/or overpower the defences in place.
If your property has suffered from flooding it may also make it more difficult to sell. If the geography of the local area has allowed it to happen once, it can, unless preventative measures are taken, easily happen again, and it’s perhaps not surprising if this aspect puts potential buyers off. Your insurance company may also put statutes in place if your property is prone to flooding—and you can bet these will favour the insurance company rather than the householder.
If all that sounds bleak, there is good news on the horizon…
Houses on stilts have outsold other properties on the market outside of the UK. Whilst this type of design isn’t common in this country, there’s no reason to think that they couldn’t be a feature in flood-prone areas of Britain. Before you imagine whole estates looking like Brighton Pier, one new design revealed recently involves hydraulic stilts/legs that can elevate the house whenever floods threaten. Once the property is lifted by these hydraulic shafts, the water passes underneath without issue and carries on its way downstream. When the danger has gone and the water has receded, the homeowner can retract the house’s pillars and place the property at floor level once again.
This seems a great idea, and a much easier solution than tackling the roots of climate change (not that we shouldn’t do this, but this issue will take a long time to get under control, and this solution could be a lifesaver to people in the meantime). House building isn’t just about creating estate after estate of cookie-cutter style buildings…though this increases the country’s housing stock, if all the available land is built upon, it stands to reason that any excess water will run into these properties if it can’t drain away naturally. Flooding will only worsen—a stilted house design will solve both problems.
The hydraulic element may cost more to produce than traditional homes; however, if the property remains flood-free, the homeowner will save money that may otherwise be spent replacing water- and silt-sodden furniture and personal items should Mother Nature wield her power.
In a flooded house, the electrics quickly become unsafe. As a company, therefore, we think any house design that offers a solution to such a disaster is one that should be championed.