Flooded

[dmahon]

I was very pleased with my waterproofing - managed to get a lovely bead of sealant around the edges and it had been very dry, until last night. Looks like I made a mistake.

We had more storms yesterday evening. When I got home from work my UPS was beeping and the power was out. The family were lighting candles. I decided to put the clamps onto my observatory dome, after what I'd seen happen here to some other peoples roofs, and put the lens cover on the scope. Fortunately I noticed that the internal conduits were full of water. I guessed there must be a leak and it was pooling there as it was the lowest point - just in case, I made sure that all electrical connections were well above the floor and left it until today.

When I got in at lunch time I decided to take another peek to find the whole thing under 2 inches of water with the rubber tiles "floating"!     The dehumidifier was running and keeping things nicely at 60% humidity!

Yes, I'd made the whole thing too watertight - except the ducting bringing in the electrical supply at the far end, which is higher than the observatory. Water was syphoning into my observatory! Anyway, I've got (virtually) everything out of there, taped all the loose cables to the observatory walls and dug outside the observatory to find where the external conduit joins the internal conduit. As soon as I found it, the observatory started to drain! It's raining, so I left it at that. I suspect some of my weekend will be taken up digging a big hole under the join and filing it with shingle to make a soakaway. I'll remove all the duct tape as well and maybe even drill some holes in the bottom of the ducting at the lowest point - as well as sealing the other end with silicone rubber.

[dmahon]

One blessing is that the water is crystal clear.

[leelee970]

Poor you, I know the feeling.

My observatory (roll of roof) is also letting in water through the walls.

I've now sorted it but will need to modify the floor and put in a vent/drain just in case.

Lee

[JamesF]

I see they recorded an inch of rain at Dunkeswell.  The rain here has been astonishing.  I was driving home from Wellington last night and water was pouring off the fields into the road.  And there's precious little sign of it letting up, either

James

[leelee970]

This was my front garden the other week - it has only just "dried out".

The back garden opens out on fields, so all the water runs down through my property.

[emadmoussa]

I don't remember this much rain with such  persistence before...or as far I can remember. Let alone the ridiculous wind...

[wxsatuser]

So far this year my weather station has recorded 246mm of rain.

Ground is nice and squishy underfoot.

[emadmoussa]

The United Kingdom of swamps it's becoming

[leelee970]

Don't worry there will be a hose pipe ban from March onwards.

[Wolfgangwand]

I put a soak away in last week from a paved area to the rear of my garden , could not believe just how deep I had to go to get through the clay level , stoned up and it's now draining like a good un. Best of luck with the dig , I'm only just starting to stand upright again

[Stargazer33]

Sorry to hear about your flooding!  Glad you managed to work out how the water was getting in.

So far this year my weather station has recorded 246mm of rain.

Ground is nice and squishy underfoot.

My rain gauge has recorded over 140mm of rain since the start of the year and I know that it doesn't record every mm as some times it pours down and the gauge only goes up by 0.5mm.  The weather station has also recorded the highest wind since it was installed about 5 years ago.

This is supposed to be the year of solar maximum too. What is solar minimum going to be like in 5 years time?!?

[dmahon]

Well, the water has all gone now and, other than a damp floor, you wouldn't know it had filled up like a bath! Looks like all I needed to do was untape the join between the internal ducting and the internal ducting - but I'm going to completely disconnect them and leave a 1cm gap so that there's definitely no issue in future. I'll probably seal the entrance to the internal ducting too with some silicone, just to make sure, as well as put a small soakaway off from both ends of the ducting too. I've put the dehumidifier back inside the observatory and taken up some of the flooring tiles, so I'm hoping for bone dry again soon.

Now I've got the excuse I needed to tidy up the last bit of wiring.

[tony]

I don't remember this much rain with such  persistence before...or as far I can remember. Let alone the ridiculous wind...

same here, its been pretty much consistent since November.

i'm on a hill so taking a bit of a battering from the wind, so far obsy is holding, it didn't budge with the November storm so hoping it'll be fine now.

[Astrobug]

I made some holes in the ducting to drain the water.

But when doing this you have to take good quality of wiring.

A good part of the year the wiring is under water but the water level never rise until it gets in the house.