Flood prevention methods for home owners
Home owners and businesses can use protection methods that will help to minimise flood damage and speed up repair time. Flood resistance means protecting a property by using special products or building materials to try to prevent floodwater from entering a property and damaging its fabric and contents. Or if a flood is unavoidable they will at least give homeowners time to move their possessions to a safer place. There are many different flood prevention methods for home owners.
One way of avoiding being flooded is to check if your home is at risk of flooding before you decide to move. Floodwater will enter a home via the doorway sometimes flowing through the front door and leaving via the back door. This type of flooding can often be prevented by fitting doorway flood protection which can be easily fitted.
Many people use sandbags to prevent flood water from coming in through the doors. Sandbags can keep seeping water out for short periods and flood protection can be improved by using them in conjunction with plastic sheeting, which can filter out some of the muddy sediments found in flood waters. They are cheap and easy to obtain. A supply of sandless ‘sandbags’ are very useful - they are a bit like giant disposable nappies and can each soak up to about 20 litres of water.
If your home is of high value you could also protect your home by fitting it with a type of ‘flood skirt’ which is pulled up to wrap around the house. Floodwater can enter a property in many ways, and not only through the front door and airbricks. Many people report that the first thing that alerted them to the fact that they were flooding is when their carpets became saturated. In this situation using a pump in a sump under the floor could help to keep the water level down. Expert advice is needed before buying more expensive flood defence products.
Electrical sockets, fuse boxes, controls and wiring can be raised to at least 1.5 metres above floor level. Rewiring should bring cables down the wall from ceilings above to sockets so that wiring is not affected by water damage. This also means that expensive rewiring is not always needed after a flood. Airbrick covers can also help.
Anti-backflow valves can stop sewage entering a home via the toilet. A ‘toilet bung’ can be easily fitted to stop the floodwater overflowing in the toilet. Floodwater can also enter via a washing machine or similar plumbed in appliances. Anti-backflow valves can also be used for these items. Repairing any suspect mortar and cracked bricks on the outside of a property will also help, along with sealants which will make the brickwork more resilient to leaking but will still allow the bricks to breathe.
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