After flooding
Cleaning up your house
- Starting out
- Loss assessing
- Cleaning up your house
- Drying out
- Repairs
- Restoration of services
- In the garden
What youll need
Before you begin to clean up your property make sure you have
the equipment you will need. This includes:
- A camera to record the flood damage.
- A basic tool kit with a hammer, nails, screwdriver and spanners.
- Brooms, mops, scrubbing brushes and buckets.
- Domestic detergent and disinfectant.
- Rubber boots, gloves and protective clothing.
- Shovels.
- Heaters, fans and a dehumidifier if available.
- Heavy duty refuse bags.
Remove standing water.
- The
fire service may supply a pump out service, for which there could be a
fee, or you could hire a pump from a DIY store. Alternatively you can
hire a specialist water damage company to pump the water out for you.
- Drain
water away in stages to avoid problems with the water pressure on the
structure of your property. Removing about one-third of the water per
day is recommended.
- Do not heat your home to more than 4°C until all standing water is removed.
Removing mud
- Shovel out as much mud as possible and use a hose to clean out the rest.
- If there is mud on the inside and outside of your walls, remove in stages so that the loading remains even.
- A high-pressure hose should not be used to remove mud from your property.
Cleaning and disinfecting
- Scrub surfaces with hot soapy water and a heavy duty detergent. Do not forget the difficult-to-reach areas such as under kitchen units.
- Items such as soft furnishings, clothes and foodstuffs that have come into contact with floodwater should be placed in rubbish sacks (tied securely) and disposed.
- You will probably need to hire a skip to deal with all the refuse from your house. If you are making an insurance claim, do not throw anything out until you are told to do so by the insurance company.
- All food preparation surfaces need to be cleaned thoroughly and disinfected.
- Allow all cleaned surfaces to dry completely as there are germs that can thrive in wet conditions.