Sandbags

Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
zoomzoom

zoomzoom

Awesome Friend
Neighbor
HCL Supporter
Joined
Dec 4, 2017
Messages
7,276
I live in the bottom of a pretty deep valley. There's a creek at the edge of the yard.
When we get torrential rains, the creek goes over its banks and gets pretty close to or sometimes into 2 of my buildings. (The house isn't threatened).
It's been overdue but I broke down and started filling sandbags. I have 1000 bags and 20-tons of sand.

I have about 400 filled already. Here's a pic.
20201114_135136.jpg
 
I'm not moving any buildings. ;)

Haertig said:
I have never seen sandbags stacked in that manner - a tall, single layer wall, without a tarp.
Click to expand...
That's just where I'm storing them for now. That is NOT intended to be actual usage for flooding. They're being stored in an easy access location for access. I'm going to let the town know I have them so if others are about to get flooded, they can bring the town trucks in, load them with bags and take to whomever may need them.
 
I figure it is better to build on high ground. That way you don't have to move them. It would be hard to move a building that is secured to the foundation with bolts anyway. My buildings are secured with 5/8" hurricane anchors that go 22" into the foundation and bolt the walls to the foundation on 32" centers. The bolts go through the sill plates, the sub-floor and the two bottom plates of the walls. I use connecting nuts and a steel rod that goes through the top plates of the walls and bolts them to the foundation as well. This provides protection from earthquakes and wind to about 140 mph. Here is the detail drawing:
Drawing added:
 

Attachments

  • ExtWallDetail.pdf
    3.9 MB · Views: 92
Last edited:
zoomzoom said:
It's been overdue but I broke down and started filling sandbags. I have 1000 bags and 20-tons of sand.

I have about 400 filled already. Here's a pic.
View attachment 53386
Click to expand...
Welcome to our party, pal!!!
High-five.gif


I really liked the post that said 'build on high ground'.
Wish we hadda thought of that, oh wait, there is no high-ground here. :rolleyes:
 
When buying property... Location, location, location! :)
 
Where to purchase "Sandbags"........prudently......???
 
Funny, I used a lot of sandbags when dredging for gold. I ordered 500 bags from a website years ago with this in mind.

I can create a small or large pool in a creek almost anywhere I choose. Once the water is 20 inches deep I could set up my dredge and run gravels and sands for hours. My sandbag damn is mobile. Just move them up or down stream and dredge again. This was especially useful in late summer/early fall when water levels were low, too low for normal dredging.

I actually left filled sandbags on creek banks at particular "hot spots" when fresh gold would wash in and collect during spring rains. When conditions were right I'd show up in late summer with my dredge, toss my filled bags in the creek and spend the afternoon dredging.

Edit to add... here is where I got my sandbags... Don't know if the company is still around. I purchased at least a decade ago, maybe more.

Sandbags sm.JPG
 
Last edited:
I added the detail of my exterior wall construction above in post #5.
 
Neb said:
Sportsmans guide

https://www.sportsmansguide.com/product/index/swiss-military-surplus-sand-bags-10-pack-new?a=2205080Ben
Click to expand...
$26.99 for 10 bags?!?!?! Way too high for my blood.
Although there's no name brand on the ones I have, these appear identical to what I have. $299 for 1000 bags.
www.amazon.com/dp/B01N9YKXWE

As @Spikedriver mentioned, you need to be careful of sunlight. Although these are UV protected, I don't want to store in any sunlight. That was one of the factors on where I'm storing them. I have them on the north side of the building, under a 2' overhang so that area never gets sun. I'll probably tarp them as well.
 
I would caution that if you are planning to do this as an individual you better start early, work long hours, and have a warehouse to store what you fill. It is backbreaking work, and you need an army to amass something like what Zoomzoom has. I'm guessing but it looks like there are around a thousand sand bags there. Just curious. How long did it take to fill those? How many people worked on the project?

Where do you get the bags? Where do you get the sand? We were flooded twice in 2015, and 2016. We probably had 30 people filling bags and hauling them in wheelbarrows to try to save one home. The city delivered the bags and the sand. We just had to fill and move them. All for naught. They still ended up with 4 feet of water in the basement.

The rest of that story was the house that was flooded was where my wife wanted to build. I told her there was no way on God's green earth I was building on a lot that had a creek running through it. We are across the street, and flood water never reached our property.

I'm not saying it is a bad idea. You do what you have to do. Just understand the enormous enterprise you are undertaking.
 
Sandbags deteriorate in the sun. It takes a bit of time. Another layer will protect the first and a tarp will help a lot. The tarp will degrade in the sun but it is easier to add another tarp than to fill more bags.
 
Morgan101 said:
I would caution that if you are planning to do this as an individual you better start early, work long hours, and have a warehouse to store what you fill. It is backbreaking work, and you need an army to amass something like what Zoomzoom has. I'm guessing but it looks like there are around a thousand sand bags there. Just curious. How long did it take to fill those? How many people worked on the project?

Where do you get the bags? Where do you get the sand?
Click to expand...
Yes, it's going to take a lot of space. I have almost 70 linear feet of northern wall cleared to store the bags and I'm doubting that'll be enough for 1000 bags. I'll probably clear out some space in a rarely used building for the remainder.

What's pictured is about 400 bags. I have 600 more to go.

It is backbreaking so I only work until my back hurts. I work by myself. I can fill a bag & tie it off in about 1 minute. I take a couple minute break after each 10-15 bags. After 30-40 bags are filled, I drive to the storage location and stack. In all and counting breaks, I can do 30-40 bags per hour so I only work 2-3 hours per day.

I don't recall where I got the bags as I bought them years ago. This is almost identical to what I have in terms of materials, size, quantity... www.amazon.com/dp/B01N9YKXWE

I had a tri-axle dump truck drop off 20-tons of sand. $300.
 
Caribou said:
Sandbags deteriorate in the sun. It takes a bit of time. Another layer will protect the first and a tarp will help a lot. The tarp will degrade in the sun but it is easier to add another tarp than to fill more bags.
Click to expand...
Where I'm storing gets zero direct sunlight. I will be covering them with a tarp once I'm done stacking them.
 
Zoomzoom: That is pretty much what I expected. The bags in your picture look the same as the ones the city delivered to us. Do they have a ribbon/string attached to tie the bag off? It is a blessing that you can do it at your leisure, or at least at your pace. When you are racing the clock, and watching the water rise it is a very sinking feeling; no pun intended.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top