Major Flooding Incident- Housing Association
Major Flooding Incident- Housing Association
Customer: Castle Morpeth Housing Association
Instructing Parties: GAB Robins UK Ltd/Zurich Insurance
Service Illustration:
Flood damage to 160 houses Damage Severity Assessment Strip-Out Scope Preparation Drying Methods Recommendations Building Drying Supervision
Location:
Morpeth, Northumberland
Background:
After days of torrential rain the River Wansbeck broke its banks on 6th September 2008 inundating 800 houses and many shops and public buildings. 160 properties belonging to Castle Morpeth Housing Association (CMHA) were flooded to depths ranging from 6” to 5’.
Issues:
Being a newly formed housing association CMHA were very keen to be seen as proactive in how it dealt with its flood affected tenants and innovative in how quickly the properties could be dried out and refurbished.
DFA Activity:
DFA carried out a rapid assessment of the severity of the damage and the effects of the flood water on the various types of property owned by CMHA. DFA made recommendations to CMHA, GAB Robins & Zurich to minimise the building strip-out and dry the houses with the plaster in place using high energy hydrothermic drying that would dry properties in days instead of months. After initial uncertainty from CMHA, their Project Managers and builders they agreed to adopt the suggested approach once drying tests were undertaken on 8 affected bungalows. Post drying tests included core sampling walls to check plaster adhesion and salt content. All the tests proved the strip-out philosophy and drying method was successful. DFA subsequently monitored the strip-out and drying of all of the affected properties.
Benefits of using DFA:
By persuading CMHA to allow drying of the houses with the plaster in place very little strip-out work was required, e.g. floor boards, wiring, plumbing etc were all left in place. Hydrothermic drying meant refurbishment work started within 1 week of drying starting and because of the minimal strip-out work was completed in 3 weeks per property. Overall the strip-out/drying/refurbishment methods adopted were up to 40% cheaper than ‘traditional’ methods but more importantly very significantly reduced from months to weeks the time tenants were out of their homes.
