I dread the sound of the rocks!

[Globalti]

There's a brook about 5' deep by 5' wide that flows right under our house. When it rains really heavily as this morning you can hear boulders rumbling along the bed of the brook, the sound comes right through the structure of the house. I hate it. Just as the brook flows from under us and under the neighbour's garden the bottom is beautifully lined with granite cobbles, which don't grab the rocks so the worst noise comes when they bounce along that section.

Rocks must lose about a half or a third of their weight under water and fast flowing deep water has a huge amount of power. This is of course why river boulders are always rounded in shape.

 

[summerdays]

Wow your house is on top of the river!! That must be scary when the river levels are high!! I'm the sort of person who loves looking at rivers in full spate but not when it is too close to homes. (Also pebbles/ sand etc are rounded by the same action).

 

[calibanzwei]

Reminds me of Lovecrafts' The Rats in the Walls

 

[Headgardener]

Can you not have the brook redirected on structural grounds? Does it cause problems with damp?

 

[Theseus]

If I had that going on under my living room I would be tempted to fit a transparent floor covering and put underwater lights in the brook.

It would provide a similar navel gazing focus as an open fire does.

 

[Arch]

If I had that going on under my living room I would be tempted to fit a transparent floor covering and put underwater lights in the brook.

It would provide a similar navel gazing focus as an open fire does.

And a fishing hole?

I agree, I'd be watching it all day.

 

[Globalti]

Not possible to redirect it as we're in the bottom of a valley; the bloke who built the house (V. fit roadie, second in National Hillclimb champs in the late 70s and winner of our local Rawson's Raike climb) lived in the house next door and one day realised he could build a new house in the garden, which had the brook running through in a culvert. He got a structural engineer to design a massive structure bridging over the brook with four huge RSJs encased in concrete and a concrete platform, on which he built his house. 165 tons of concrete went into the footings alone so I have no concerns about the stream washing us away. The brook overflowed twice within two months of us moving in eight years ago; the water just spreads out and runs around the house then carries on down the street, the DPC and floor level are about 18" above the surrounding ground level so if we got wet it would be a major disaster for the neighbourhood.

No amount of rationalising can distract you though when you hear that thump thump thump from under the house, it's not pleasant.

One neighbour has suggested a small Pelton wheel type generator but we would need a weir and blocking the brook wouldn't be a very good idea. In any case for most of the year it's only an inch deep because the brook is only a couple of miles long.

 

[perplexed]

If I had that going on under my living room I would be tempted to fit a transparent floor covering and put underwater lights in the brook.

It would provide a similar navel gazing focus as an open fire does.

I saw that on one of the property programmes on tv, it did look great I have to say...

Years ago I lived in a house which had a very small stream underneath it. If you went into the cellar and lifted a paving slab, you could see it!

 

[ColinJ]

Hmm - I don't think that I would enjoy that sound either! I'd always be thinking "What if ...?"

I knew a couple who had a cottage adjacent to the river Calder at Lydgate near Todmorden. The river there is normally little more than a brook but the valley is very steep-sided and there is a large area of moorland either side above them so when it rains heavily, an awful lot of water can get funnelled down into that river very quickly.

I went to visit my friends once after a thunderstorm and the river had risen from a few inches to nearly 10 feet deep in a couple of hours! It had flooded their cellar which was about 8 feet above the normal river level.

Hebden Bridge still gets flooded from time to time in certain places, despite a lot of money being spent on flood defences up-river.

I abandoned the Season of Mists audax last year because of torrential rain and only just made it back along the valley before the river flooded the road. I was with Alun and a mate of his back at event HQ which is an old mill building close to the river. We watched the river rise and rise. Suddenly whole trees started rushing past, some of them snapped like twigs. It was an impressive display of the power of water! Some residents in Todmorden lost the retaining wall at the end of their gardens and half their gardens too - scary stuff.

I reckon my house is about 6 feet above areas that I've seen flooded in Hebden Bridge and about 300 yards away so it would take a stupendous flood to reach it but I reckon it might have happened some time in the 120 year old history of the house.

 

[Archie_tect]

One neighbour has suggested a small Pelton wheel type generator but we would need a weir and blocking the brook wouldn't be a very good idea. In any case for most of the year it's only an inch deep because the brook is only a couple of miles long.

You could use a small turbine generator instead, just gather the regular 1" flow in with boards and direct it into a turbine generator, shouldn't disturb the flow much and wouldn't get affected by flood water which would flow over it.

http://www.absak.com/library/hydro-power

 

[Beebo]

Your insurance premiums must be interesting.

 

[Archie_tect]

Is your house in a flood plain? Yes/No... er ....well, its above one.

 

[Globalti]

No effect on the premium; it is not a flood area because it's a valley with a good fall so water just runs on past. We have told the insurance co about the stream and they are not bothered.

 

[Night Train]

Reminds me Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water.

 

[Globalti]

Now THAT is a cool house with stream! It almost reminds me of those old Yes album covers by Roger Dean.