WaterWorld


It is 7am and I just came in from carrying the last 10 buckets of soil
from the flowerbed by our front door across the street to pour into
the empty space that is a swamp, but soon to be a greenspace
for dogs to poop in.

When it rains, our front walk floods, deep.  Over my ankles. 20 cm.
And it stays flooded all the way from our front door to the sidewalk
by the street.  Too far to jump and too close to swim.

Why?  Because the flowerbeds on both sides of the walkway are
higher than the walkway itself and there is no place for the water to go.
Water always runs downhill, and so water runs from our flowerbeds
and front garden onto the walkway. And there is no lower place for it
to go, and with the tightly-joined tiles the water cannot seep down.

Suggestions from our neighbors and friends are to raise up the walkway
so that water from the flowerbeds that runs onto the walkway, and then
will run along the walkway out onto the sidewalk and then onto the street.

Problem:  Raising the walkway takes a lot of resources:  sand to put under
the paving tiles, and time to move all the tiles and build up the base with
sand and pack the sand to the perfect slope and then lay the tiles back.
I estimate about 50 euros worth of sand and about 25 man-hours of work.
Each tile weighs about 50 pounds and there are about 40 of them. The neighbor
is not interested in working on it himself and talks about us sharing the cost
of hiring an expert to do the work.  800 euros?  I don't think so.


The problem is how to keep off and move off water from the walkway, and I don't
care if the flowerbeds and garden stand under water while the water percolates
down through the mostly-sandy soil in the non-tiled areas.

So, the kids and I have hauled 50 mop buckets in the past weeks,
moving soil out from the flowerbeds and edges of the garden to across the street. 
This puts all areas adjacent to the walkway lower than the walkway,
on my side of the walkway.

Based on a heavy storm the other day, this system works.  Very heavy downpour
and no water at all stood on the walkway.  And within a few hours, all water had
moved down through the soil and there was no standing water anywhere in my
terrain. Success!

Lessons learned.
1.  Walkway tiles are heavy and it hurts to move them alone.
2.  Water always flows downhill, and it does not care if it flows onto a walkway
or a flowerbed.
3.  Moving dirt is easier than moving walkway tiles (as in point 1 above).
4.  Keeping walkways dry makes neighbors happy and keeps water from being
tracked onto our living room carpet.
5.  Water on dirt seeps down faster than water on walkways, therefore, keep
water moving from walkways onto dirt.
6.  Keeping my house and walkway dry is my problem, not the government's
and not my landlord's and not my neighbor's.
7.  Moving dirt is free, but building up walkways is expensive.
8.  Kids can move dirt, and more kids means more dirt moved faster.
9.  Kids tracking dirt onto the carpet is not as bad as adults tracking mud
onto the carpet.

safe mode