Can anyone give me a 30 seconds education on tanking?
Is the tanking of an underground room required under Building Regulations, and if so - from what date was that a requirement?
My home is currently suffering from a sudden inundation of water that I presume is leaking from a water pipe owned by the local water company or from a neighbouring property. Would an absence of tanking affect the liability of the water company or the benefits under a home insurance policy?
Thanks.
The insurers have seen a copy of your home survey report (from when you bought the property)? What does this say about the basement room?
I don't think it would help the water company, or your neighbour, as they have to take you as they find you. Ofc, you still have to prove negligence on their part, don't you?
I don't recall what was in the inspection report, and I don't even recall being asked to supply a copy of it to my insurer, but I assume there was never was any tanking installed. For the past 11 years we never has so much as damp let alone water ingress, so any ordinary need for tanking is unclear.
As far as just the water company is concerned, I believe they have strict liability.
I think even Victorians tanked all basements. It was done on the outside, and can (and does) fail eventually, resulting in inside retanking being applied later on.
No. However, I'd be much more concerned about it causing subsidance than the water ingress, so you need to get the cause fixed ASAP.
If there has been any major structural work in the area since the last heavy rainfall, it could be that the local water table has risen. If so, that will probably be affecting your neighbours too
The water table around my property has certainly risen significantly and that is causing me severe problems, but the water in the table is both hard and contains chlorine.
If you are constructing a dwelling with a basement, changing the use of the building to residential or 'extending' into the basement by excavating, then you are required to submit an application. If it was a space ancillary to the building before the work started, then it could be argued (either way) whether an application is required.
Any such application will include, amongst other requirements, reasonable measures to prevent damp affecting the occupants of the dwelling. Such a requirement has been in the Building Regulations from the beginning of living memory, i.e., 1985.
I'm astonished. You do live in the UK, don't you, not some desert somewhere? How would you know whether it's tanked or not, anyway, until today?
Let's hope they are to blame then.
Do you mean the water in the basement?
What astonishes you?
The subject property is in London W8.
All I know about this is that any tanking that is present is inadequate to deal with the current situation. I have no knowledge of whether there is any tanking, whether any was constructed below normal standards or whether any has subsequently failed. The property had been bone dry since its purchase over a decade ago and until the onset of this inundation in late April. Thames Water continues to look for faults in their local infrastructure.
Only that the water is escaping from their pipework and regardless of blame.
If any room that is at least partly below grade is a "basement", then yes.
Can you not french drain the outside (trench, perf pipe, suitable gravel) or put some suitable sink holes in with float operated pumps? They are about =A339 from Screwfix. You do not want to pump out the area below original water table height of course or you will cause more problems rather than resolve them.
If the water company has agreed it is their water, it provides a useful short term protection.
Proper internal tanking is a plastic sheet with raised bobbles to stand its surface off the substrate. It is fixed with special pegs comprising o-ring. There is a low-level sink hole with float operated pump. Basically a plastic tank, do not even try to use bitumen coatings with any hydrostatic pressure - water is quite an insistent brute even at slight depth as you have probably found. Do a quick google at the solutions, someone here can probably recommend the proper ones (they are not hugely expensive, it is only stuff on a roll and diligence with installation workmanship).
I would dig outside and put a float operated pump at a suitable depth re water table (may need some trial, wait, adjust). If that is a public right of way, get the water company to sort something out if possible - it only needs 1-2 narrow trenches. What you do not want is persistent water saturation of foundations, nor a whacking great big trench to undermine the foundations.
Ebay does rubber ducks in various sizes BTW :-)
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