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HOUSE MIGHT FLOOD - need tips and advice please!

52 replies

FlowerTomb · 13/03/2022 19:08

I'm in France, loads of rain for the past few days and now the village is flooding with water getting closer and closer to our house. Canals and rivers have overflowed. We are 10 mins from the beach so all water is passing through here. Garage is starting to flood as there's a drain in there and water is coming up from it.

Things we've done:

  • Put a wooden barrier at the front door (everyone in our area has these, they're the norm) and plastered it into place, although the plaster hasn't dried due to the rain.
  • Put a large plastic sheet over the top of the barrier and secured it against the wall with cement blocks.
  • Stuffed the area between the barrier and the front door with towels and sheets.
  • Also stuffed sheets and towels along the floor on the inside of the front door in the house. Will do the same for any other doors.
  • Moved important possessions upstairs.

What else can we do? Any and all tips welcome, we've just finished renovating (did everything ourselves) and I'll be damned if any water gets in.

OP posts:
SickAndTiredAgain · 13/03/2022 20:02

I would move more than just important possessions upstairs - move everything you can. Even if it’s not important, it’s still time/effort/money to clean/replace.
Charge whatever you can.

BalladOfBarryAndFreda · 13/03/2022 20:02

Have you any pets? Move them upstairs/keep them indoors or with you if poss.

tothemoonandbackbuses · 13/03/2022 20:03

Move as much as possible upstairs as it doesn’t take that much water for quite large items to start floating round.
It’s much easier to move stuff now whilst it’s dry than when it’s all wet and muddy.
Have you got silicone sealant or similar to stick the wood barriers to your door.
Don’t forget to put plugs in all sinks and basins and weigh them down. If you haven’t got non return valves on the loos stuff a sand bag or earth bag down and weight the lid down
Hope you are lucky and don’t flood.

PeekabooAtTheZoo · 13/03/2022 20:03

If you're still getting post you can buy sandbags on amazon then fill with soil (I've just done this).

Needcoffeecoffeecoffee · 13/03/2022 20:04

@PeekabooAtTheZoo

If you're still getting post you can buy sandbags on amazon then fill with soil (I've just done this).
You can also use pillow cases and fill with soil. Or if you said you were by the beach use pillowcases or sacks with sand
Gladioli23 · 13/03/2022 20:04

Agree re taking photos and probably considering switching off utilities so they can't make it worse/start a fire etc but I wouldn't do that until you had an ingress of water I don't think.

Lilboots · 13/03/2022 20:05

@FlowerTomb

Oh wow hadn't even thought of that *@viques* What do you mean by be careful? As in I shouldn't touch anything and then rub my eye for example?
Yes, and try to make sure flood water doesn't get into any open cuts.

I'm from Australia and I'd also be on the look out for snakes in flood water, but maybe not such an issue for you in France!

It sounds like you've done all you can. When my place flooded in 2011 I prepared all night and planned to leave before the river was predicted to break its banks. Woke at 4am to the sound of water sloshing around downstairs... I hadn't realised that stormwater systems would fail before the river reached me. It might be too late/dark for you to safely leave now, but if you're going to evacuate I'd recommend planning to leave much earlier than you think you need to.

Good luck, it's a pig. Stay safe x

Appin · 13/03/2022 20:08

We live in a flood risk area. This is what we do:

Get box of important documents from the cupboard (have this all prepared ready to go)

Put up flood barriers and airbrick covers

Take up rugs. We have no fitted carpet downstairs for this reason.

Put sofas on blocks of wood (we have these ready)

Take electricals upstairs where possible.

Pack overnight bag with essentials for us all.

Move cars to higher ground.

Stand in the street with neighbours up to our knees with our wellies on, shaking our heads in despair and willing the water to go down.

Good luck!

44PumpLane · 13/03/2022 20:10

I live somewhere where we had two "once in x hundred years" floods within a 10 year period.

I didn't personally flood but we saw a lot of what happened in the aftermath- a prior poster is right that if your home floods the flood waters would most likely be considered to be contaminated. Sewer and drain systems would be backed up and raw sewage would be in the water. The house would most likely need to be professionally cleaned, not by a standard cleaner though, round here the council sent round teams in hazmat suits and entire streets of people had to move out for extended periods.

Do not worry about it, assuming you're not on a flood plain and have insurance that covers this you'll be able to get it sorted out!

If you aren't insured against flood you will still be fine......you'll just have a bit more legwork to sort it yourselves. The important thing is keeping safe.

Another poster mentioned a dehumidifier- I would advise renting an industrial fan and dehumidifier for more efficient drying out of the garage. Good luck!!

Burnername101 · 13/03/2022 20:18

I’ve had my house flooded before, and have been on the scene of a flood event in a work capacity. Based on my experiences, We now have a kayaking style drybag on a peg by the door with phone chargers, powerbank, torch, foil blankets, first aid kit etc. just in case.

Sort a flood plan, and especially make sure you have a bag ready to go and have some warm clothes,and sturdy boots sorted. Move the car to high ground. Decide what you will do with pets.

The big one is Be very very wary of any floodwater. it is contaminated with raw sewage. If you have to evacuate or move around in flooded areas, be aware The water pressure will displace manholes, leaving them open but hidden so don’t attempt to walk in floodwater without using a pole to test the ground in front of you. There will also be hidden debris that might trap or trip you, and a few inches of fast flowing water can sweep you off your feet.

If you think you may be trapped for a while, fill the bath with clean drinking water whilst it is still safe to drink.

Summerfun54321 · 13/03/2022 20:18

Move everything upstairs that can’t be bleached clean after the flood water leaves. Like others say, it isn’t clean water.

LightingCandles · 13/03/2022 20:26

Move things like tvs etc too, even if on tables. Literally if it can move, move it!

Other than that, stay safe and good luck!

100problems · 13/03/2022 20:29

Don’t suppose your kids have a sand pit you could fill carrier bags with?

FantasticFebruary · 13/03/2022 20:34

I'm so sorry, it's awful. We didn't have the awful waiting period though, but obviously no preparation time either!!

Unfortunately the water was contaminated - and it went through everything downstairs, but we didn't know at the time. We 'lived' there for a week until they decided we shouldn't be in the house🙄🙄 .

As soon as it started we moved as much as we could higher up (onto tables etc) and upstairs.

Fortunately (if any thing is 'fortunate' it started early in the day & it was 'seeping' rather than gushing by bedtime.

Best wishes for it not being too bad!!!

It's gutting when you've renovated it!!

SeaToSki · 13/03/2022 20:48

Make sure you know where the main shut off for the house is for electric, gas, water oil tank etc

Then shut them off if the water is close to coming in. The electric is particularly important as you can electrocute yourself with water and electricity

BeePeeGee · 13/03/2022 20:48

Best of luck

crosstalk · 13/03/2022 21:04

OP The very best of luck. Charge your torches and phones if not too late and then turn the utilities off. Make sure you have some fresh water and food upstairs and that you can open upstairs windows if need be. Carpets and mats and furniture upstairs. And vital documents. And any fridge etc you can move.

Yes if it floods there will be sewage or at least stuff from drains.

Yes to fans and dehumidifiers. If you do have to rebuild, put plugs and utilities above flood water level where possible, don't have downstairs carpets or wood - stone is better. Some people argue for lime rather than cement.

Bon courage.

FlowerTomb · 13/03/2022 21:33

I can't reply to everyone but I've read all of your posts and am applying the advice. No kids nor pets thankfully, just my boyfriend and I. He'll head outside in a few minutes to check the level of the water that's been creeping towards us all day so fingers crossed it's not risen too much, but I suspect it has judging by the giant puddle that the drain in the garage has created.

It's so deceiving because the rain stopped a while ago and everything is dry in our garden, but out front it's a different story.

I'll update once I know the state of it outside, thank you all for your help and support!

OP posts:
Leftbutcameback · 13/03/2022 21:59

Sorry - just thought of one more thing. Do you have downstairs bathroom / loo? If so it's possible that water gets in the pipes and pushes up through the loo / plugholes. Recommend weighing down the loo seat and if you have something like a half inflated football you can put it down the loo and inflate it (I learnt that from someone who flooded frequently). Obviously depends on your infrastructure.

Leftbutcameback · 15/03/2022 12:56

@FlowerTomb how is everything? Am hoping you escaped the worst

littlegingerone · 15/03/2022 13:50

I think all of the possible tips and advice have already been covered and / or you've already done it. The only other thing I tohught of was sealing your flood barrier with expanding foam or bathroom sealant, when I lived in a flood area that's what people used to do)

I was flooded a few years ago, water up to 6 feet through our downstairs. I had moved things upstairs or onto our kitchen worktop but the water went well over that so, definitely go for upstairs for everything. If it gets to the point that water is going to come in, just let it come in. When we researched all the flood prevention stuff after our flood, the advice seemed to be not to go down the route of floodproof doors etc. because it could cause strutctural damage to the property if the pressure builds too much so, accept it's coming in once it gets to a certain point.
I would say definitely have a plan of somewhere to go and go there if you can, even if your house doesn't flood, if the whole area is flooded you could be out of power, water (so no toilet etc.) and unable to go out your front door and it's a miserable situation to be in. We were evacuated from our street but some people chose to stay and then got stuck, with no electric or heating, or access to food and it was absolutely miserable for them.

The water emptied our kitchen cupboards a bit, and tipped our bin over so there was the rubbish from our bin all over the place so might be worth bearing that in mind. Also your fridge, washing machine etc. could you put those up somewhere so they don't get ruined? Ours got lifted up and tipped over despite being in a tucked in spot under the worktop!

Drying out wise, we weren't insured so although obviously that was bad, a silver lining was that we could get straight in once the water subsided, and clear out. We were told remove anything that holds water and we got bags of sawdust free from our local timberyard which we put all over our floors (once carpet up) to soak up the mousiture, we then shovelled it all back up into bags and got rid.

Dehumidifiers - if you need them better to hire industrial ones from a local plant hire type place than a usual domestic one. We had 2 huge ones downstairs going constantly and had to drop in twice a day to empty them.

The water is dirty obviously because it will have whatever is in the drains etc. in it however, you don't have to throw away absolutely everything it has touched - stuff can be cleaned - we threw away things that in hindsight we should have cleaned and kept.

Most of all, best of luck, hope you don't need most of this advice and hope you're all ok xx

FlowerTomb · 15/03/2022 15:06

Hi! Sorry for no update, I'm absolutely exhausted. I can't remember what the last thing I said here was, but everything took a turn around 6pm I'd say when water started coming out of the drains that we've got in our garage. We spent a couple of hours moving things, then went in for dinner. When we came back out after an hour it was like a giant swimming pool had formed, flooding our neighbours garden, both our driveways and our garage with the water rising really quickly. We did what we could until about midnight when it became apparent that we were pretty much screwed. I called our mayor (who had posted on facebook people would be around all night to help!) and he basically said "you're on your own", so I called my step dad who unsafely drove over to us with a pool pump. Spent the whole night pumping away but the water came inside through the tiles - only an inch or so and we got it away pretty much immediately, but it kept coming back so it was many hours of hard work. The poor neighbours didn't do as well and they had about 3-4 inches and gave up at 5am.

Now in the cleanup phase. Thank you to everyone who gave me tips, it really helped and also helped not to panic too much! Will now know how to better prepare for next time - there will be a next time, we live in a flood zone!

OP posts:
littlegingerone · 15/03/2022 15:26

Ah sorry to hear it got to you in the end but yes you will have picked up lots of info for the future. We were able to get a flood prevention grant which we used to get our downstairs tanked, we replaced our windowsills (they were quite low down) with slate and tiled right through rather than carpet. I looked into (but didn't actually end up doing) treating our skirting boards and wooden internal doors with tung oil which is what they use on boats if I remember right, to waterproof the wood.

I hope that's the end of it for you for now!

TheSpottedZebra · 15/03/2022 15:30

Oh no, sorry that the flood did come, but glad tgat you felt at least a bit prepared. It sounds horrid, almost like your home turning on you Sad

Hope the clear up is swift and easy.