Raised floor over flowing water in old stone barn
Posted: Fri May 07, 2021 2:13 pm
Hi folks. Looking for some advice on the following.
I have a small old stone-walled barn which is attached to my neighbour's cottage. I'm at the bottom of a hill. When there's heavy rain, water pours into the workshop through the base of the wall facing the hill, then travels across the solid concrete floor and down a drain at the other end. I've seen it as deep as 2 inches at times. This means I can't use the space - which I call my "workshop" - when it's raining.
I can't simply waterproof the wall in question as I believe that will just pass the issue onto my neighbour; the water would hit the now waterproofed wall, flow past my barn and create a problem for her.
So I'm thinking about building a raised floor and just letting the water do it's thing. My idea is to cut a couple of channels / chases in the floor around the base of the walls where the water comes in, directing the flow of water to the drain. This will stop the water spreading out across the floor. I'd then build a raised floor of wood atop an aluminium box frame, with an appropriate waterproof layer between the wood and the floor. The end game would be that any running water, the channels, the drain etc would be a few inches below my feet and you'd never know the issue even existed. That's the plan.
While I'll turn my hand to most DIY, it's normally stuff there's a book or YouTube video or forum post about. I've not come across anything like this, and I've spent a lot of time searching. So I have no idea about the feasibility of this. So what I'd appreciate is either reassurance that in theory this is an okay idea, or warnings telling me that I'm completely insane and it'll never work.
Many thanks in advance folks!
Kev
I have a small old stone-walled barn which is attached to my neighbour's cottage. I'm at the bottom of a hill. When there's heavy rain, water pours into the workshop through the base of the wall facing the hill, then travels across the solid concrete floor and down a drain at the other end. I've seen it as deep as 2 inches at times. This means I can't use the space - which I call my "workshop" - when it's raining.
I can't simply waterproof the wall in question as I believe that will just pass the issue onto my neighbour; the water would hit the now waterproofed wall, flow past my barn and create a problem for her.
So I'm thinking about building a raised floor and just letting the water do it's thing. My idea is to cut a couple of channels / chases in the floor around the base of the walls where the water comes in, directing the flow of water to the drain. This will stop the water spreading out across the floor. I'd then build a raised floor of wood atop an aluminium box frame, with an appropriate waterproof layer between the wood and the floor. The end game would be that any running water, the channels, the drain etc would be a few inches below my feet and you'd never know the issue even existed. That's the plan.
While I'll turn my hand to most DIY, it's normally stuff there's a book or YouTube video or forum post about. I've not come across anything like this, and I've spent a lot of time searching. So I have no idea about the feasibility of this. So what I'd appreciate is either reassurance that in theory this is an okay idea, or warnings telling me that I'm completely insane and it'll never work.
Many thanks in advance folks!
Kev