Dam.

There is a 40% chance I'm going to get woken up by rain tonight.  My basement is still wet and the ground is saturated. There is no need for more rain.

It was suggested that I get myself sandbags and I block off the basement steps. Good Idea. I went to my neighborhood home improvement store and girded myself for the buying of sand bags. Many sandbags. Insurance, self protection. Happiness.  They don't sell sandbags.  Hurricane season starts June 1. and they aren't in the sandbag business?  This doesn't make much sense to me, we get hurricanes here, we get a lot of rain here and flooding is a year round concern and they don't keep sandbags on their shelves. I could buy play sand, but that isn't the right kind. Its "soft sand" and you need "sharp sand" for proper sandbag construction. The sand they had was also in plastic bags. Proper, useful sandbags are filled with sharp sand in burlap bags or some other permeable fabric!

It was suggested that I run down to another hardware store and buy sandbag bags and then fill the bags with sand my own self. This is difficult to by ones self, it is suggested that this be a two person job. I've done some research on this.

I left empty handed and frustrated. Even more frustrated than when I came in. Insecure, and unhappy.

Here is my dam.

There are four plastic! covered bags of dirt, two very heavy plastic bins and two concrete blocks.

Here is why I need a dam

In a heavy rain, or any rain really, all the rain from the roof comes spilling down from there and comes crashing down onto the pad at the top of the stairs ( where it pools) and then goes rushing down the stairs to the drain at the bottom - I assume this was a design decision made lo many years ago and was a good idea in theory, if not in actual practice. Maybe weather was not as harsh back then.  During a heavy rain, it does not go obediently into the rain gutters as you would imagine, it jumps that little fence and crashes down. I have watched it do it.


My research has shown me this marvel, which I think I am going to get for myself :Quick Dams, Sandless Sand Bags  . Have a dry week end.