Classicamiga Forum Retro Edition
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Thread: House flooded!
Demon Cleaner 04:41 3rd July 2012
Originally Posted by Harrison:
The fridge/freezer is also in a silly location behind the door and it's door opens out into the room, rather than towards the wall, so if you have the fridge door open and are stood there when someone opens the kitchen door you get trapped in the fridge!
Could be funny, if there's something interesting inside

Anyway, glad to hear you found something to stay.
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Kin Hell 22:08 15th July 2012
Any more news on the restoration search Dave?
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Harrison 22:50 15th July 2012
The restoration company have been coming once a week to take damp readings and some other stuff. They drilled down and looked at the foundations last Tuesday and discovered it is a membrane at the bottom, then a void filled with insulation, then the suspended block and beam concrete floor, and finally a top concrete scree. And the reason the water came up through the floor is because of the membrane at the very bottom. The water came in through the air bricks and had nowhere to drain because the membrane was stopping it, so it filled up under the house until the only place to go was up.

They are coming next a week tomorrow and bring some equipment to start drying the foundations out. Injection drying I think they said? Don't know what that is though.

Other than that, at the moment there is no change. Living in the rented town house and waiting to see what happens.

Oh, there is an issue with our leather sofas. Since moving the leather on both sofas has started to really badly crack up and the top patent leather surface is just falling off. We think it has been damaged by the dehumidifiers before they moved the furniture so are going to be fighting to get them replaced. We also haven't heard any more about the contents claims as the shed is water damaged, along with quite a lot of electrical and other stuff in it... plus they PAT tested the washing machine and tumble dryer and both failed. And we are waiting for someone else to be arranged to PAT test the fitted items in the kitchen (dish washer, cooker and fridge freezer). We also don't know how, when or if they will be claimed for and if they will be replaced yet as we haven't had anything from the lose adjuster. Was very quick to sort out the repairing of the building, but not the contents.
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Kin Hell 12:47 18th July 2012
I dare say they will drag their heels as long as possible with settlement. Just be firm & insist the de-humidifiers are responsible for spoiling the sofa.

RE your Injection drying, have a read here:

http://www.richfords.com/services/ca...gCaseStudy.php

and here:

http://www.richfords.com/services/flood/innovation.php
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Harrison 00:20 19th July 2012
Interesting reading. I wonder why they didn't do that with the walls then, rather than ripping the plaster board and skirting out as they did?

At least if they do the injection drying in the foundations it seems from reading those links that the process is quite fast compared to other methods.

We still haven't been given any time scales though.
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Harrison 07:59 17th August 2012
We still haven't got them to agree to replace the sofas yet. They are however finally sending a cheque to replace the washing machine, dryer and stuff in shed. No mention of the shed itself though.

Also just got a letter saying they have authorised building repairs once the house is dry. But have put down budget for cheapest laminate you can buy, whereas ours was expensive. We have kept a piece of the old flooring to prove it. They also have put down to replace our wallpaper with cheap vinyl. Our existing wallpaper is from Laura Ashley, so we are mad about that.
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Demon Cleaner 11:02 18th August 2012
That's really annoying, problem is that it will never be exactly like before, and if so, it really takes time.

And like you know, I'm also kind of pissed off at the moment, with the NFL starting on September 9th, and still no beamer and receiver in sight, they're even still at my place, guy didn't come to pick them up and send back yet. Very annoying
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Kin Hell 14:28 28th August 2012
Originally Posted by Harrison:
We still haven't got them to agree to replace the sofas yet. They are however finally sending a cheque to replace the washing machine, dryer and stuff in shed. No mention of the shed itself though.

Also just got a letter saying they have authorised building repairs once the house is dry. But have put down budget for cheapest laminate you can buy, whereas ours was expensive. We have kept a piece of the old flooring to prove it. They also have put down to replace our wallpaper with cheap vinyl. Our existing wallpaper is from Laura Ashley, so we are mad about that.
Not always best to go with Cheaper Insurance alternatives or cheaper brokers. Not all Insurance contracts cover like for like, but it still might be worth checking yours out in finer detail, if only to save yourself further frustrations.
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Harrison 17:42 28th August 2012
We have good insurance via the Teachers union. They are just dragging their feet as insurance companies do. They were very fast to act to start fixing the house though, and that is more important than contents.
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Harrison 10:43 8th November 2012
Finally to update you all.

House is finished and we are moving back in tomorrow!!!

Took them over 3 months to dry the walls and foundations out fully. And then waiting a bit for the builders to get their act together, but once they got into the house it only took them 1 week and 3 days to restore the house, and they have done a pretty nice job. We are not too convinced by some of the decorating, but that is superfiscial and I can always touch up any little bits. The actual building restoration was done nicely, which is the main thing.

The insurance/builders are also paying for professional cleaners to clean the whole house now it is complete, and they should be there now doing that. Will be popping over later to see.

We also managed to get some better items in the house. Much nicer floor tiles in the Kitchen than were originally put in when the house was new. Italian solid porcelain. Plus much nicer kitchen worktops. We decided to go for the same wood flooring throughout as we liked what we had, and they have done a good job. And new Laura Ashley wallpaper in the living room.

When I get chance I will go through all the pictures I took and post them up, showing the flood, damage, drying, restoration etc...

We also got new seating from the insurance. My wife managed to get a really expensive leather sofa for a really good price, meaning we saved a lot on the insurance payout to use for other stuff.

We also eventually got a new shed out of the insurance too, so got a much better one than we had before. Larger 6x8 with 22mm shiplap tongue and groove cladding. I'm currently in the process of insulating and internally cladding it, to make it more like a proper garden room. A friend is installing electric into the shed with a light and sone plug sockets, then we are going to be putting the tumble dryer and freezer out there to give more room in the kitchen. I'm also going to be making a workbench out of old kitchen worktop, then I will have somewhere to keep things like soldering station setup all the time.
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