New builds on a floodplain and socket heights

[ARW]

The socket would probably be ruined due to the filthy water, however the copper cable should be OK. I am thinking more of the grit and stuff that would enter the socket effecting the plug pins contact and the switches. Clean water would not be a problem.

You could probably put them through the dishwasher and clean them if it was not for the fact that the dishwasher was ruined along with the kitchen units and as you said, the floor coverings.

I did a rewire in Cockermouth due to flood damage (2009 floods), the insurance company were paying. TBH a new CU, new sockets, switches and pendants [1] on the ground floor and the place would have been electrically sound. Before I fitted the temporary CU for the workmen I powered back up and nothing tripped.

[1]That was the flood level, 4 inches from the ceiling. A baton holder would not have got wet.

[Dave Liquorice]

Timber floors? You'll be telling us next that the cables for the sockets 600 mm up the wall come from below...

[newshound]

Not for about 80% of the population, I would have thought.

[Steve Walker]

Ah, yes. My sister was flooded out of her house in Cockermouth. She now lives in Carlisle ... half-way up a hill!

SteveW

[Dave Liquorice]

Not if the end got wet, capillary action will draw water into the cable and, overtime, corrode the copper. I went to an electrical wholesaler a couple of days after the last Hexham floods. They where busy loading up a couple of half size containers with all the stock that had got wet. Many reels of cable, at least 1/2 a dozen 10 mm T&E. They only had about 15" of water in as well.

Flood water is anything but clean. It's not so much the silt load but the bacterial one from the sewers that have also been flooded. AIUI this is why a traditional joist and floorboard (rather than chipboard) floor is all ripped out and replaced after a flood. Decent bit of timber doesn't mind getting wet and dried out but who knows what bugs or spores have come along...

[Dave Liquorice]

Just stupid...

You reckon Joe Public would have a clue about soil type and flood plains? I suspect a significant proportion would only consider a property to be at risk of flooding if you can see the river. See a little babling stream? Naw... River a mile away across the plain, naw...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

If the repair work is being done by a pro, then labour versus parts cost is the equation. I was more thinking of DIY - removing the fittings and giving them a good clean. However, if the building has dry lined walls, sockets will be the least of your problems.

[Dave Liquorice]

If the place is swiming pool class water proof to above the flood level a a couple of buckets of disinfectant and a hot pressure wash will clean it up dry for a day or two and back in. If it's built to that standard anything that shouldn't get wet will be above the "swiming pool".

If the place is "normal" construction they end up compleletly gutted to a couple a feet above the flood level. That's *everything* stripped out/off, all timber, plaster etc right back to the bare brick. Then you have driers running for a month or two before first fix...

I'd not trust the cabling, or fittings. you'd have to completly disassemble them to clean, not worth it even at full MK prices. B-)

[ARW]

There is some brickwork - the outer skin. But these are classed as timber framed houses.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 14:20:57 on Sat, 10 Jun

2017, tim... remarked:

And then the occupants store all their valuable possessions in the garage (like everyone else does), and moan when they get wet.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 12:18:28 on Sat, 10 Jun

2017, Harry Bloomfield remarked:

Mr Kline called and wants his bottle back.

[Vir Campestris]

What were you riding?

[Harry Bloomfield]

on 10/06/2017, Dave Liquorice supposed :

Where I live, much of the UK would be under water if we flooded. The worst we suffer is water unable to get away fast enough from the garden in really exceptional conditions.

[Dave Liquorice]

Probably a lot more if we got flooded, at 1,400'. B-)

If it really really hammers it down as in 4"/hour for 10 minutes or longer the backed up run off on the road will just about get to our gate. If it does reach the gate that's the high point and down is away from the house. And that down is 300' down to the river in not much over 1/2 a mile.