Help! Bedroom below ground level is flooding because of the rain

Hi all,

I have an IP in QLD, Logan area. It's a highset and one of the bedrooms dowstairs is below the ground level. The problem is that the current heavy rain is flooding the bedroom coming from underneaht the retaining wall.
On the other side of the retaining wall there is a trench to allow the water go towards the backyard but something is really wrong with it causing this issue.
The water keeps coming through and I'm not sure how to temporarly stop this to getting worse so once the rain stop we can properly solve this issue.
Any recommendation will be welcome.

thanks
picture showing the issue when it started, I already removed the carpet tiles from the area.

 

Sandbags? Please provide a photo of the other side of the wall.

(You need to raise that furniture a bit if water is touching the bottom as water will get sucked up by the mdf and swell the wood permanently.)

Have you called your insurance company yet?

The long term solution may be a combination of waterproofing the wall and drainage.

 

Is the ground floor bedroom council approved?
Hard to see how a room below ground level would be considered habitable.
Unless approved insurance won’t help.
Not much you can do in the short term, Logan expecting heavy rain fir the next 24 hours or so.
To fix the problem you will need serious drainage improvements.

 

That was my thoughts as well.

 

Even if your retaining wall is perfectly waterproofed and drained, you may possibly be getting ground water seeping up from under the concrete floor. The chances of your house being built to withstand this amount of rain are next to zero. You can PM me if you want further info once it's all dried out.

 

That was very considerate of the water, in most cases it will stay where it feels comfortable and lies low.

 

Sounds like the design is right(ish). Does the drain sit lower than the room & how does it drain away?

There's plenty of detailing available for how it can be done:

Upgrade Below Grade: How to Build Dry, Livable Basements That Customers Demand - HiBEX



https://www.capiphon.com.au/wp-cont...iphon-behind-a-retaining-or-basement-wall.pdf

Even with the above as a guide, a further internal lined wall sitting in the infill flooring would keep the wet wall away from the room and the back of the retaining wall should have been waterproofed & protected with fibro.

 

We have water coming up from a joint between two sections of concrete floor. Third time in a few months here in Brisbane. Our water pools and then we sweep it straight out the back door. Yes, you can still be affected when you live on top of a freakin* hill.

 

Thank you all for your answers, appreciate the different recommendations. Unfortunately the water started coming in from almost every external wall a few days after that picture was taken. Waiting for the builder to go there and give me their view on how to prevent this to happen again.

 

Inundation of water is hard to address when drains cant cope with the volume of water. Or the surrounding creek rises and pushes water out of the drain. ie reverse flow. It may be impossible to "fix". Many old queenslanders were build high and during renovations have been built underneath. Typically why its not approved and why insurer may not even cover it.

 

Our downstairs verandah is well below ground level and is fitted with an automatic pump in a small pit to get rid of excess water. Didn't know what is was when first moved in but realised what a blessing when it rains heavily ...