Flooding and stress

There has been so much on the television etc, about the floods which hit many parts of the UK last year

I confess that as someone who was hit by the floods of June 2012, I can understand the distress caused.

But it's not just the fact that you lose so many possessions, and belongings, it's the after care or lack of it in many cases

We had 90 cms of water coming  into the house with 20 minutes, so fast that there was little we could do about it.

We lost so much good furniture etc during this,  that it was very upsetting

It did not come from the obvious place, which is a  burn near to the house,  but from all of the blocked drains in the town centre.

At first the insurance assessors were brilliant and sorted out all of our costs for the lost belongings and possessions within the week, including our car which was a right off.

Then things went wrong because they brought in their own builders and clerk of works, who in my own mind, were not fit to do the job to my own standards.

I say that because the tradesmen could not even use hand tools, something which shocked me.

It was obvious from the start that because I was going to push to get the work done, that they were going to drag it out, and take as long as they wanted.

It took us a long time to get the house dried out properly, and then the builders did not come back for around 6 weeks, by which stage the house was becoming damp all over again.

After blasting they clerk if works, about the standard of work,  I was told that I expected too much, and my standards were far too high. That's something I was shocked to hear.
If you are trained to do a good job, you expect the same from others

Thankfully I don't remember a lot about this period, but my wife said the other day that I told the clerk of works, that I would not hire these builders to build a dog kennel

While the house was drying out, we had both set too, to clear the silt and rubbish out from under the floor joists, after which they tried to have us banned from entering the house again.

The trouble was that the floor was covered with 50mm of this wet silt, and until it was removed the concrete was not going to dry out.

The insurance companies always say that they will reinstate the house to its former condition, but I think that was a statement that was never going to be true.

Even though we moved back in again in the January 6 months after the flood, we were in for a rough ride, when the plaster and paint started to fall off and crack.

They had used adhesive to stick the skirting boards onto the walls,  which may be fine when the walls are dry, but when they are damp,  the adhesive fails to work, and the skirting boards simply fell off.

After several arguments I told the builders to  get out, and said that I would put things right myself

So these days when I see people complaining on television, about the state of their homes after flooding,  and the treatment they have received from builders etc, I can honestly say that I agree with them all if the way.

It really is time that insurance companies started to treat people with respect and use quality builders to do this work.

It's time that they respected other people's homes and possessions.