What follows is a general guide and will not apply to everyone. Houses differ, insurers differ, floods differ. You should  investigate your own situation and take expert advice as necessary.

 

Flood resistance means keeping floodwater out of your house; for example by door barriers and air-brick covers. However, where water comes up through the floor, as is quite common, this is not enough. Flood resilience means having your house arranged so that if water does get in damage is kept to a minimum. For example - stone or tile floors; electrical sockets and wiring well above the floor; waterproof plaster on the bottom part of the walls; washing machine on a raised platform. The time to do this sort of work is when repairing after a flood.

 

Insurers will usually undertake to "replace like with like". This does not mean you have to put things back as they were before. What it does mean is that if, say, the damage is assessed at £10,000 the insurers will give you that much to do repairs. You can then spend that as you decide. If resilient repairs cost more you have to find the extra yourself.

 

The more resilient a property is the less the cost of repairs after flooding. Equally importantly, the clearing up is reduced and one is much more quickly back to normal - mopping a stone floor is better and quicker than throwing out ruined carpets and drying out or replacing wooden floors!

 

If you want to find out more have a look at the excellent Homeowners' Guide to Flood Protection, first published in 2011.

 

 

Two of us have written articles for the National Flood Forum Newsletter on making our homes flood resilient:

 

Peter Rawcliffe's article, April 2008   - see page 14

 

Nick Hills' article, May 2009   - see page 16.

 

 

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