Wild weather -October /November 2018

Maybe you have a ‘source’ in or near the house Paul, our next door neighbour has the prob’.

Goodness Paul… still wet despite the dry…:thinking: What has your cellar been like after/during a wet winter??

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It’s actually completely bizarre with no rhyme or reason.

The first year it was basically dry, then last year a small patch of water (about 0.5cm over an area about 1m2) appeared under the heating pipework - cue much frantic checking of connections and worry that one of the pipes leading to the heat exchanger outside had fractured.

This year it was dry for all visits up to now and suddenly there is water basically filling the gutter in the area under the hall. This is odd because the wall by the water is actually “internal” to the footprint of the house (the cellar is under half of the house).

There is no logic to it as far as I can see.

It is possible it’s rainwater which has run into the gutter by the cellar outside door but it hasn’t happened before to that extent and the gutter there is merely damp.

The plot is “damp” - there is a gulley to take rainwater along the road on one edge and a soakaway (which I think is for the house guttering but I haven’t proven the connection) along another edge - beyond that is an area which was planted with trees 30 or so years ago by the community to stop it basically becomming a bog in the winter. That area does see standing water in the winter months but the lowest part of our plot is maybe 30cm above that so our land doesn’t get completely waterlogged - the house is a metre or so above that so it’s quite possible the cellar floor is just about where the water table is during wetter months. However we don’t seem to get much  water ingress, just odd damp spots.

There is a sump pump should things get more entertaining.

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Next door was a mystery Paul, 'til, our farmer and dowser friend, found the source (spring) and it was diverted. Cured the prob :grin:

If it was a spring I’d expect it to be more or less in the same place each time, I think it’s just a small amount of groundwater seepage - cellars aren’t meant to be watertight and it’s not as if I’m having to consider converting it into an indoor pool. It’s just that it appears at odd times compared with the rainfall.

Mind you I think I finally realised why many Breton houses seem to start on the 1st floor with a front door reached by steps - these Breton stone buildings were constructed by and large without damp-proof courses making the ground floor a bit prone to damp, so the living accomodation was placed nice and dry on the 1st floor.

ok

:wink:

It will be arriving in most of France over the next few days… so be prepared…

Arrived here last night, stopped at 1 in the morning. Cat demanded to be let out at 4 o’clock and then it started pi$$ing down again. 3 hrs sleep hasn’t put me in the best of moods this morning🤬

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Oh dear… but hopefully no damage… no flooding in the cellar etc… ???

I must lighten up…we needed the rain😃

We do Chris, really threw it down here :+1: :slightly_smiling_face:

Trouble is… if the rain is toooo strong, it just runs off the hard-baked earth, finally away into the storm drains.

The land really needs some gentle rain to soak in and do some good but, at a pinch, any rain is better than none… :thinking:

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Anyway… there is very thick cloud coming from the South-West… not black, but looking turbulent none the less.

I’m off to our little gîte to shut up all the windows and shutters. We are in the middle of DIY in there and it was a bit musty/dusty/ghastly inside…so I opened everything to let it breathe… I don’t want it to drown though… :wink::open_mouth:

If hailstones this big hit the cars… there will be lots of work for the “body-men”… it’s an ill wind…:wink::zipper_mouth_face:

Not a good sign, Bill can’t listen to his radio !

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56 and we have had a week around 30 degrees but accompanied by a breeze…tonight I’m sitting here listening to the rain on the conservatory and a distant rumble of thunder…,

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24: We have had storms here since midnight… thunder rolling around … brilliant flashes through the blackness… Suddenly the wind started up … sounded a bit like a train gathering speed… I was musing on this as I lay in bed… finally realising what it was, I leapt out to slam the windows shut… phew… just in time…down came the rain…

In no time at all, our bit of the village looked more like Niagara Falls, with water cascading from the roof tops as the gutters flooded… pavement/road awash and drains overflowing… .glad I don’t live at the bottom of the hill, I reckon that house has been flooded…

Anyway, I’ve been up and down like a Jack in a Box…opening and closing windows… got to catch the cool air while we can, but don’t want the place being blown apart… the storm/wind/rain keeps moving on, then coming back for another go… :open_mouth:

Hailstones hit us at around 5am… what a row… hope my geraniums have survived that lot…

Seems it’s moving up North… watch out all you up there… !!!

We have to keep a watch out for hailstones as they trash the lammes on the electric pool cover and replacements are very expensive.
We now leave the pool uncovered if there is a large storm coming as we have been caught out by the hailstones arriving and it being too dangerous to go and undo the pool cover.
We ate on the very southern edge of the wide belt of weather that crosses France so very often escape the worst of the weather.

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We had a few spots of rain about 6ish this morning, cloudy, warm and “close” now.