How to Build a Flood Wall Around Your House

Whether you’re a prepper by nature or not, you should always be prepared in the instance a flood should occur and threaten to damage your home. While you can certainly purchase the right insurance and stock up on necessary supplies, the post-flood cleanup and having to replace your treasured family belongings are not worth the energy.

Flooding is considered to be the number one natural disaster in America, necessitating that you should be looking at implementing a flood wall to keep your home safe. In general, you should never ignore the evacuation orders when a flood is approaching.

However, with a little bit of time and the proper materials, you can construct a successful flood wall that will keep your home safe from rising floodwaters. These practices include building your very own earthen levee or coming prepared with various types of pre-constructed, self-rising flood walls that involve very quick installation.

If you live in an area of the world that is susceptible to flooding, it’s essential that you are fully equipped to defend your home. Let’s examine all the actions you can take to build a flood wall around your house and effectively keep your property dry.

For this project, all the basic materials you’ll need are shovels, sand bags, gloves, and a wheelbarrow. There are other items that may be helpful but will likely be hard to acquire in a time crunch.

While we understand most often the reason for building a flood wall with the dirt from your property typically means it’s a severe emergency, if you have the time for choices, try to opt for a soil that is finer-grain. Sand or clay are better options that the larger alternative. Coarser materials like gravel have gaps between the particles that can allow water to seep through.

The route of your flood wall will depend on your property’s terrain topography and overall expanse. Whichever way you decide to lay out your earthen levee, make sure that you leave a sufficient amount of space between your home and the barrier.

If needed, this will give you the opportunity to build the barrier wall wider and higher. In order to properly prep the area, clear the topsoil and, if time permits, bushes and other material.

Instead of just piling up dirt onto a barren area of land, you’ll want to build a trench firs t. Dig a one- or two-foot trench in the planned location of your levee. Fill up this hole with the most impermeable material you have, such as clay or sand, to establish a foundation.

A small foundation helps to reduce the likelihood of water seeping under the levee and causing a collapse. Another way to limit underseepage is to install a “cutoff wall” several feet below ground. Concrete walls are always the best option but when you’re under a time constraint, you can try burying particle board and compacting soil around it.

Once your foundation has been established, begin shoveling sand, clay, soil or whatever material is available onto the line where your barrier wall will stand. For this step, sufficient compaction is essential. If you do not possess heavy machinery for the job, use your hands or feet.

Press down on the levee in sections of 6 inches as you build, instead of compacting a mound that is several feet high at the end. Construct a levee that is relatively flat, as steep slopes will offer an additional buffer for water penetration.

Your barrier wall is recommended to be roughly three times as wide as it is tall. If you have the space, the top of the levee should be several feet wide. Factor in the floodwater crest estimates and aim to build a level that is a few feet higher.

If you have the materials, cover the side of your levee that will face the water with plastic tarping. When in place, plastic tarps will provide an extra layer of imperviousness, increasing the wall’s lifespan and slowing down erosion.

We recommend anchoring the tarps in the front of the flood wall and securing on the top using sandbags. However, if you do not have enough sandbags readily available to cover the size of your property, you can run rope between two of them on either side of the all wall to secure the tarps.

If you’re still on property as the flood waters are rising, you can perform some maintenance to ensure that the levee stays resilient. The main concern for this earthen levee will be sand boils, that appear like bubbling springs on the home side of your barrier.

Significantly high floodwater levels put pressure on groundwater and can force it underneath the barrier wall. This can cause the levee’s foundation to be weakened and if the flowing water is sandy, instead of clear, this means the water is carrying away the foundation material.

When you have sand boils present, your best course of action is to surround it with sandbags or build a mini barrier wall around it. The small levee will create a pooling effect and once it’s full, the flow of the sand boil will halt.