Building a flood-proof house in the City

After the big storm that Buenos Aires suffered in April, it seems that the storms will continue to come unless something is done. Since this is not only a matter of structure but a matter of great amounts of water falling in little time, the idea of building a flood-proof house is good and logical.

For those who are thinking of building a house, here are some tips and pieces of advice that may help you build a flood-proof house, or at least they will prevent from tons of waters entering your house.

The first thing to have in mind when building a flood-proof house is to build it as high as possible. Elevating your house can be a good start to prevent it from flooding. The higher the house, the less likely it will inundate.

Even though it may be a good idea to build your house on a second floor and put a garage on the first, the garage should also be high. During this last great storm many garages that were at the level of the street got flooded. Of course, that a subterranean garage goes against any idea of having a flood-proof house!

Another idea that may help to make your house flood-proof is to have the floor that surrounds your house in decline, so that water doesn’t accumulate. This would mean having your house raised from the level of the street, as we have mentioned at the beginning. Still, before doing anything, you should check if the municipality allows this type of constructions (having the land in decline), since it could affect your neighbours.

One tip to have in mind when building a flood-proof house is that you should have a gabled roof. This way, the water can’t accumulate in the roof, so water shouldn’t start coming down from the ceiling.

Likewise, it is recommended that besides having your house a bit higher than at the level of the street, you should put all the electrical appliances and systems a bit higher too, just in case some water enters into the house. This way they don’t get ruined (in case water does enter into the house, of course).

To conclude, if you want to have a flood-proof house first you need to think of building it a bit higher. Surely, the higher it is the land where you build the house, the better. Once you have that, you can close your doors and windows hermetically to avoid any filtration, and there, now you can be a bit more relaxed when it starts raining.