PROTECTING YOUR PROPERTY

You can never eliminate the risk of flooding entirely, but you can reduce the risk of water getting in to your home or business and reduce its impact if it does get in. The techniques come under many different names, including Property Level Resilience (PLR), Property Flood Resilience (PFR) and Property Level Protection (PLP).

WHAT IS RESILIENCE AND RESISTANCE?

Resilience is about reducing the impact of flooding, should water get inside your property. The aim is to ensure that damage is minimised and you can get back in to your home or business as quickly as possible.

Measures should be tailored to each property, such as using porous plaster, fitting solid floors or tiled floor coverings, raising electrics and taking simple steps in a flood event to move furniture and valuable possessions upstairs. Structural measures need to take account of the building type and its fabric.

CAUTION
Older properties (listed & non-listed) often need different approaches to ensure the integrity of the build. Many everyday practices can be damaging and create historic problems for the futures of such buildings.

Resistance is about reducing the risk of water getting into a property. These measures can allow you time to move possessions from ground level as well as to get people to a place of safety if a flood is expected.

Resistance measures often involve preventing water entering the property in the first place and they use a combination of products (flood boards and doors, air brick covers, non-return valves, pumps, toilet bungs, etc.).

When considering resistance it is important to ensure the fabric of the property is sound (pointing is well maintained below ground, cable entries are sealed, etc.).

CAUTION
Not all buildings are suitable for resistance measures. It is important that measures are designed for the flood risk, the building and the lifestyle of the people using it.

ABOUT RESILIENCE...

Resilience is about reducing the impact of flooding, should water get inside your property. The aim is to ensure that damage is minimised and you can get back in to your home or business as quickly as possible.

Measures should be tailored to each property, such as using porous plaster, fitting solid floors or tiled floor coverings, raising electrics and taking simple steps in a flood event to move furniture and valuable possessions upstairs. Structural measures need to take account of the building type and its fabric.

CAUTION
Older properties (listed & non-listed) often need different approaches to ensure the integrity of the build. Many everyday practices can be damaging and create historic problems for the futures of such buildings.

ABOUT RESISTANCE...

Resistance is about reducing the risk of water getting into a property. These measures can allow you time to move possessions from ground level as well as to get people to a place of safety if a flood is expected.

Resistance measures often involve preventing water entering the property in the first place and they use a combination of products (flood boards and doors, air brick covers, non-return valves, pumps, toilet bungs, etc.).

When considering resistance it is important to ensure the fabric of the property is sound (pointing is well maintained below ground, cable entries are sealed, etc.).

CAUTION
Not all buildings are suitable for resistance measures. It is important that measures are designed for the flood risk, the building and the lifestyle of the people using it.

SIX STEPS

The Six Steps to Flood Protection offers a step by step approach to ensure that you reduce the risk most effectively and are able to respond if there is a flood.

Step 1

UNDERSTAND THE RISK

Step 2

PLANNING A SCHEME

Step 3

PROPERTY SURVEYING

Step 4

DESIGN & SPECIFICATION

Step 5

PRODUCT INSTALLATION

Step 6

MAINTENANCE & OPERATION

SIX STEP GUIDANCE LEAFLETS

Here are a couple of leaflets to help you learn more about flood resilience.

I am thinking of using resistance measures

Why do I need an independent flood risk survey?

Why do I need an independent flood risk survey?

Flood water can come into a building in many different ways – through doors and windows, up through the floors, through walls, via air bricks, fire places, drainage pipes and many more.

It is important to take account of your flood risk, the building and its construction, as well as your lifestyle in order to make sure that the right measures are specified for you.

Always seek professional advice from an independent flood risk surveyor before purchasing products. They will survey your property, specify what work needs to be done and identify options that are suitable for you, the property and the flood risk. After the work has been done they can provide an independent post installation sign-off.

Please note that product manufacturers and installers will wish to undertake their own, separate installation survey to ensure that the products specified fit your property exactly.

Property Protection Advisor

The Property Protection Advisor is a simple ‘ready reckoner’ tool that helps raise awareness of the options available and provides an initial estimate of the costs of resistance measures for different types of properties. Designed and developed by leading flood management consultants JBA Consulting, it was funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) as part of their work to reduce the impact of flooding.

Use the Property Protection Advisor to generate a report for your individual property or community. The report will identify the indicative cost of measures and provide useful links to further information and advice.

Please note that any information that you provide will only be used to inform your report and will not be passed on to third party organisations.

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Having been flooded several times we’ve implemented various flood resilience measures such as moving the electrics higher up, relocating the boiler, building a simple kitchen upstairs, having concrete floors and tiles downstairs. Although the last flood was bad enough and the water was over 2ft, it wasn’t as devastating because of the resilience measures.

– Sylvia, Cumbria

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Practicalities and considerations

BLUE PAGES

The Blue Pages is a directory of property flood products and services put together to advise and inform you of what’s available to help reduce the risk of flooding to your home or business.  Each category in the directory describes what the different products of services should do.

STANDARDS

For many people, flooding and flood products are unknown territory, so deciding what is right for their property and lifestyle is a big decision.  The Blue Pages, has details of the different standards and accreditation to be aware of in relation to flood products and services.

MAINTENANCE

When purchasing products be clear what maintenance is required to keep the products working properly. How often do seals need to be checked and replaced, etc? It may be useful to enter in to a maintenance contract to ensure that the products remain effective.

TESTING

It is important to regularly test that your systems (resilience and resistance) are working properly, so that if a flood occurs you can be sure that everything will work properly. Doing this as part of a community exercise, such as with a flood action group, can help to make sure it’s not forgotten.

STORAGE

When buying products and equipment for flood resistance, consider how and where you are going to keep them. Some products are big and bulky so you will need to have adequate storage space. Importantly whatever flood products you buy, you must make sure you can easily access them should a flood event threaten. Be clear when purchasing products what the storage requirements are. Many products will warp if not kept flat, rendering them useless in the event of a flood.

If you have a disability, medical condition, bad back or arthritis you will need to consider what you can store, move, lift, easily fit and install. Some products may have small parts that could be awkward or fiddly, or they may be heavy to lift; others might have lots of parts to assemble. These are all points to bear in mind when researching what might best suit you and your needs.

If your flooding comes quickly, with little warning, think about choosing a product that can be deployed very rapidly.

Please remember that even though you have done your best to prevent water entering your property there is still a risk of flooding. People tell us that the most devastating loss is their memorabilia – things that can’t be replaced. It is so important that you keep these precious items upstairs, in a loft or in high, safe place in your home.
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We lost our white goods and heavy furniture, the stuff that can’t be easily lifted to a higher level, but we were able to save a lot of our personal things.

– Robert, Calderdale

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