Anyone with experience of Flood proofing a property on a flood plain!

[SpecsAndSlippers]

Hi, I’ve seen a property I really like. It’s about 60years old and lies very close to a river flood plain. It has flooded at least once (about 15 years ago). It’s in a terrace of house on the edge of town. If you have experience of flood proofing a property or live in a home which you have had to renovate after flooding, could you let me have your insights/advice? Thank you!!

Flooding is extremely disruptive. Worth understanding what the cause was last time and risk of happening again.

this is a good site for flood resilience and recovery.

https://floodmary.com/

Nationalfloodforum.org.uk

Can you actually flood proof a property?? If the water gets high enough, I doubt anything will stop it. Our property floods pretty seriously on a semi regular basis. There's no way to keep the water out, just ways to make it easier to clean and get back to normal afterwards. I wouldn't but a house at risk of flooding, it's horrible to have to deal with.

I've been looking into this as I'm in a similar situation.. there are certainly many products on the market but do they work?

As the daughter of a flood defence engineer, do not buy that house.

There are ways to mitigate the effects of flooding. Some houses in the somerset levels, for example, have all their electrical sockets half way up their walls [so the supply doesnt fuse]. They have drains in the middle of their floors, hidden under sofas, so floodwater can escape more easily, and hard flooring throughout. They have flood boards to put across their doors to ward off rising waters. The EA has good advice on its website. But honestly- when you have sewage, tampons and dead sheep floating past your [nailed_down] sofa, along with your TV and fridge freezer, it's so much easier not to go there in the first place.

Our house flooded in 2014 due to the rising water table. It came up from underneath the ground. Our insurance premiums were extortionate and hardly anyone would insure our postcode. We now live on a nice hill. I would never buy on a flood plain again, do not even consider buying that house.

Agree, floods are devastating, dirty contaminated water, and in reality you can mitigate but you cant really stop it coming in if the levels are high enough. I'd avoid.

We can't get insurance for flooding at all. Sweeping out sewage every time, wondering if this is the one that will wreck the house foundations. Can't move, nobody will touch it. Don't do it.

Funnily enough, we've always lived on a hill too

A friend had a house which was flooded suddenly and they had to move out for months whilst it was repaired.

He has a flood monitor in the drain now that alerts him when the water is rising. Is that something that would work for you?

Personally I wouldn't even consider it. I'm curious as to why you think it's worth the risk?

My partner works in climate science and energy management; the top criteria he had when buying the house we now live in was lowest possible risk of flooding.

As it’s a river flood plain and it’s a terraced home you can’t really flood proof it.
An option is to get planning permission for loft conversion and convert ground floor to a reinforced garage with good drainage…raise the floor up a bit and have down slope to the street, move living areas to first floor and bedrooms to loft. So any flood would not really damage your possessions per se except your car if really bad flood and then take out really good insurance.

Oh, put a balcony on the first floor too and an egress on the loft conversion in case you need to hop into an inflatable kayak from first floor or higher during a flood. Buy an inflatable kayak.

But yeah, who can afford all that? I’d not buy the house in the first place.

I’ve had a family members house flood and seen what happens. It’s devastating, upsetting, damages irreplaceable things, costs a fortune even if insured and takes months to get back sorted

id never buy a house where that’s a known risk

I used to work at the Environment Agency and having seen the devastation that flooding causes I would never buy a house at significant risk of it. Even if you did manage to flood proof the house itself, you can’t get in or out if the roads are flooded, it messes with the sewers, electricity supply etc.

It might not happen for years and years, but when it does it is devastating.

Everyone, thank you very much. A lot of very persuasive opinions and experiences. I think it’s very, very unlikely I’ll proceed with it (I haven’t put in an offer even).

You'd have to be mad to buy this house. Why would you even consider it? Do you know what happens when a house is flooded? Do you understand climate change? Do you know about how insurance becomes insanely expensive after flooding?