Can I/Should I fill our cellar?

[jeffthecat]

The outdoor cellar to our listed Georgian gate lodge flooded with three feet of groundwater this year and we are considering options available to us to prevent this happening in the future. We have informal plans to build an extension around the back of the property where the cellar entrance steps are and I'm of a mind to have it filled rather than tanked to prevent it happening once the area is inside the house. Any advice?

Thanks
J

 

[LadyArowana]

It is my understanding that any sort of change such as you are suggesting would require listed building consent. The conservation officers where our house is do not usually give approval for tanking now and filling it in would probably also not be met with a favorable response. If you can look at other LBC applications for your area it might give you an idea about what other people have been allowed to do and whether that would be a good compromise for your house. Possibly some sort of membrane system together with a sump pump, I know of instances where that has been approved in our area.

 

[paulb33]

+1 m'lady. An automatic pump sorted this out for us in a previous house. The cellar rarely flooded but a simple pump (vented to outside) automatically kicked in when it did.

 

[88v8]

We also have a sump pump in our cellar, fed by a perimeter 'land drain', to deal with the two rainfall springs that emerge into the stairwell.
The installer has fitted systems to houses near the river which regularly were flooded, but no more.

They do need watching of course, occasionally the float sticks and I have to tinker with it.

Ivor

 

[paulb33]

occasionally the float sticks and I have to tinker with it.

:shock:

 

[philpjuk100]

Ah yes! that should do!

 

[jeffthecat]

We have the Conservation Architect coming out this Thursday, 01/05, so we'll see what his reaction is to the options available? My only concern with a sump pump is where the water is pumped to as the cellar is on the opposite side of the property from any drainage point or waste pipe access point. It looks like this may scupper any future plans we had of enclosing the cellar into an extension.
Many thanks for your comments.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I wouldn't fill it in!

 

[88v8]

Our sump is c20 gallons, like this but larger.
http://www.drainage-systems-online.co.uk/acatalog/Water_Sump_Pump.html?gclid=COHWp_Kchb4CFabLtAodDygAfw
In sustained wet weather it discharges every ten minutes or so.

We piped the outlet in 22mm, it rises about 3ft (the cellar is only partially underground at the front) and simply squirts onto the flowerbed. The discharge takes, I suppose, about 5-6 seconds. It's a big pump.
If the rise had been much greater we'd have had to use a larger diameter pipe so as not to subject the pump to excess back-pressure.

Make a water feature. A fountain, a waterspout, a waterfall, a bird bath, a pond, a rivulet, a canal, a duckhouse.

After all, it's not waste water, it's just rain water, you don't have to send it down a drain.

Ivor

 

[jeffthecat]

We piped the outlet in 22mm, it rises about 3ft (the cellar is only partially underground at the front) and simply squirts onto the flowerbed. The discharge takes, I suppose, about 5-6 seconds. It's a big pump.
If the rise had been much greater we'd have had to use a larger diameter pipe so as not to subject the pump to excess back-pressure.
Make a water feature. A fountain, a waterspout, a waterfall, a bird bath, a pond, a rivulet, a canal, a duckhouse.
After all, it's not waste water, it's just rain water, you don't have to send it down a drain.
Ivor

We bought a basic dirty water pump with a twenty metre hose and have filled four large waterbutts so as not to waste all of the water. We're also watering the lawn with it, but considering the amount the cellar flooded with this year below ground, it has come back up several times to find a natural level, in a 10x10ft cellar 6ft below ground and with its positioning (I'll add a picture when I can)its just not practical to have a hose running up to the back of the garden where only one of the oak trees could soak up that amount of water. I calculated something like 1600 Gallons(?) at its height.

 

[worms]

Make a water feature. A fountain, a waterspout, a waterfall, a bird bath, a pond, a rivulet, a canal, a duckhouse.

Or keep it in-situ as a basement swimming pool?

 

[Owain]

Make a water feature. A fountain, a waterspout, a waterfall, a bird bath, a pond, a rivulet, a canal, a duckhouse.

Or keep it in-situ as a basement swimming pool?

An organic hydrotherapy spa

 

[worms]

Make a water feature. A fountain, a waterspout, a waterfall, a bird bath, a pond, a rivulet, a canal, a duckhouse.

Or keep it in-situ as a basement swimming pool?

An organic hydrotherapy spa

...and spring water bottling plant?

 

[88v8]

We bought a basic dirty water pump with a twenty metre hose and have filled four large waterbutts so as not to waste all of the water. We're also watering the lawn with it, but considering the amount the cellar flooded with this year below ground, it has come back up several times to find a natural level, in a 10x10ft cellar 6ft below ground and with its positioning (I'll add a picture when I can)its just not practical to have a hose running up to the back of the garden where only one of the oak trees could soak up that amount of water. I calculated something like 1600 Gallons(?) at its height.

As I mentioned, our pump shifts 20 gal, well nearly, it doesn't empty quite to the bottom, every ten min or so at peak and continues after heavy rain so long as the groundwater is still running down the hill. That's over 2,000 gal/day that we just squirt onto the flowerbed and it vanishes.
One can't rely on trees to take up the water, given most of it falls in winter when trees are dormant, but if there's a low area of the garden where you can send it, unless you are on dense clay it will sink in. What soil type are you on?

Ivor

 

[Lime]

Every cellar is different.
Some will have regular flood problems other may only have them for a short while never to have flooding again.
The type of soil surrounding the cellar and it specific location topographically will dictate what natural floods you have.
Personally I'd never fill in a cellar because it is very much a part of the character of the house.

 

[CliffordPope]

Fill it with wine bottles.

 

[Keithj]

Fill it with wine bottles.

At last! That's what I've been thinking throughout this thread. What else would one do with a cellar?

 

[88v8]

But if it floods, all the labels will come off.. :shock:

 

[Lime]

But if it floods, all the labels will come off.. :shock:

Oh NO!
You'd have to drink the lot.

 

[worms]

But if it floods, all the labels will come off.. :shock:

Oh NO!
You'd have to drink the lot.

The wine, I hope, not the flood!