Building A Flood Safe Home - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Building A Flood Safe Home

While thousands of homes along the Missouri River fell victim to the historic flooding last summer, many people are now hesitant to build along the river.

One homebuilder has a way to keep water out of basements and keep them protected from flood water.

As you drive around the Fox Island neighborhood in Bismarck, last summer's flood is still evident.

While many lawns are destroyed, many homes have been fixed from the damage, except for a select few.

"This house the basement was five foot below the water elevation and they did not even pull carpets out of their basements," Roger Kjonaas said.

The reason why they weren't forced to pull their carpet out.

"We put in a flood safe basement system back then which was a total drain field under the floor that would accommodate if ground water did come up to create a problem," Kjonaas said.

But this system doesn't just protect against flooding like last summer.

"It's vapor sealed so it's very tight for moisture transfer from area, soils that you know conditions that have higher moisture content that migrate and do create mold issues in basements," Kjonaas said.

How it's installed is all underneath the concrete of the home's foundation.

NAT "So it's a total floor system that is a total drain field then we put a vapor, water barrier on top of the pea gravel and we're in the process right now of sealing it once that's complete we put foam over the vapor barrier," Kjonaas said.

While many in this neighborhood hope a flood like last summer won't rush in again --- those who build out here in the future have an option to keep their basements dry.

Kjonaas says the system costs around $3,000 to $4,000 to be installed in the foundation.