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September 24, 2017

Ask Your Builder about Stormwater Runoff Engineering

After Hurricane Harvey, many home owners are facing the overwhelming recovery process while others are coping with the loss of their entire homes.

Thankfully, the neighborhoods that Steve Klein Custom Builder serves avoided much of the damages seen throughout the area. But this devastating hurricane has started to make home buyers aware of the importance of code requirements for stormwater runoff management when it comes to constructing homes in Victoria TX.

Understanding Stormwater Runoff        

Stormwater runoff consists of the water that runs off of parking lots, roads, driveways, and rooftops. Paved surfaces increase the amount of runoff, and this water must be properly routed in order to prevent common issues.

Paved surfaces don’t allow this water to be absorbed by the ground. This increases the amount of water routed towards streams, rivers, bayous, and lakes.

High amounts of runoff contribute to erosion and flooding issues. The presence of construction areas, automobiles, and animal waste causes stormwater runoff to transport pollutants, creating additional risks.

Water quality and the health of local streams may be severely affected without the proper stormwater runoff engineering solutions in place.

Asking Your Builder about Stormwater Runoff Engineering

When looking at new homes in Victoria, buyers should ask builders to provide information related to stormwater runoff management.

Many communities have regulations in place that require builders to include stormwater management systems in their development plans. This is a result of the expanded Clean Water Act of 1987, which required municipalities to obtain permits for discharges of stormwater runoff. The resulting regulations have helped to remove pollutants that are seen after heavy rainfalls on development sites.

Stormwater Runoff Engineering Solutions

The approaches for stormwater management include Environmental Site Design (ESD) and Low-Impact Development (LID).

ESD solutions attempt to mimic naturally occurring systems along the flow path of stormwater runoff. The techniques used in ESD are applied during the early stages of a home’s design and construction.

ESD strategies include reducing the level of disturbance to the natural land, minimizing paved surfaces that contribute to runoff, and reducing parking ratios through the use of bicycle, shared parking, and transit facilities.

LID systems use micro-scale controls to evaporate, filter, and infiltrate stormwater runoff. This helps to maintain existing patterns and features that support runoff drainage.

LID strategies include the preservation of features within the surrounding landscape and their natural drainage processes.

Steve Klein Custom Builder designs and constructs “True Custom” homes in Victoria TX. Our homes meet the code requirements needed to manage stormwater runoff and keep families and homes safe.

Our team works closely with Ray Bridges and the entire staff at Urban Engineering & Surveying to ensure that the homes we build have systems in place to effectively manage stormwater runoff.

“When planning a new residential community, I rely on Ray to tell us how to design and engineer stormwater runoff. Ray always does the math to a higher standard than required to deal with non-typical high rainfall event storms such as hurricanes,” said Steve Klein.

This approach has made Steve Klein Custom Builder the leading provider of high-quality, durable, and secure homes in The Village at Colony Creek, DeerChase, WaterStone, TerraVista, and other communities in Victoria TX.

If you’d like to learn more about how to choose a home that meets the code requirements that protect home owners from stormwater runoff issues, contact Steve Klein Custom Builder today at 361-572-4101.

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