Flooded Homes

[Munroast]

Often in the stories surrounding these incidents we hear that contractors go in in the first week and strip everything out, (floor boards, plaster, plasterboard), then the homeowners are told they must wait about 6 months for their houses to dry out before they can repair them.

Why so long ? when you are building a new house everything can be totally saturated until the roof goes on, after that they are finished off as soon as pos, and folk move in.

 

[KenGMac]

I have seen several hundred flooded properties, for example the first time Carlisle flooded. I have been all over Yorkshire, Edinburgh, Et-All

There is a difference between a one hundred + year old masonry property, where the walls are at times over 1.0.m thick and a timber frame. likewise there is a vast difference in drying times for a solid brick wall that has been flooded to a depth above the DPC of [say] 1 / 2.m] for about a week. and a timber frame [modern] box?.

As for timber flooring? some old T& G can survive, some will start to cup and spring almost immediately, chip board will simply disintegrate.

Most older properties tend to have plaster, that has to be hacked of and then re-applied. even plasterboard will have to be removed and replaced.

Insurance Companies are all hide bound and have long standing "agreements" with firms who will undertake the repairs, but more especially firms who are paid to facilitate [so called] drying. Air blowers, De-hums, Etc. it is these firms that "dictate" when they [these companies] say the property is [so called] Dry, these firms then issue a so called "drying certificate"

The "certificate" above is important in Insurance terms, because no work other than strip out can commence until this "certificate" has been obtained.

Ken

 

[conny]

A lot of homes will also need deep cleansing to remove traces of sewage before work can begin to restore.
What the TV pictures can't show is the after smell when a flood has receded. People laugh as they walk through/ride bikes through flood water but if they saw the results of a water analysis they would be horrified. It can be like literally walking through an open sewer. One of the reasons why a lot of garden produce is so much better the season after heavy flooding.