Top tips to help reduce flooding in your property

Written by Nick Grant

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Published on 14th March 2018

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Last Updated on 23rd February 2024

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Read time: 2 minutes

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Predicting how the weather will behave over the next year is almost impossible, but being aware of the risks and taking some precautions may help you protect your home and be on the alert against possible flooding threats, especially after the Beast from the East.

Flooding is not always related with extreme rainfalls or melting snow and can sometimes be the result of poor home maintenance – or just very bad luck–, so we have gathered some top tips to help reduce flooding in your holiday home, residential home or business.

Flooding Top Tips:

  • Keep your house in good order, especially before the winter period: Keep gutters clear, drains well-aligned, and your roof in good repair. Repair any dripping taps.

  • Prevent burst pipes: Make sure to keep your heating on a constant low level (55 degrees F or 15 degrees C). The water in the pipes will remain at a constant low temperature, so it shouldn’t get cold enough to freeze and burst. To avoid the pipes bursting in the roof space, you could leave the loft hatch open so the warm air can circulate through the house with ease.

  • Move your valuable items or important paperwork (keep in plastic folders) upstairs or in a higher position from the floor.

  • Switch off your gas, electricity or water supplies if the flood is imminent of avoid a fire.

These tips require home improvements but can reduce expensive escapes of water. Prevention is better, and indeed more effective and cheaper, than cure.

Flooding Top Tips:

  •  The easiest: Include some steps made of concrete with removable carpet. If the water appears and touch the carpet, you won’t need to change the whole piece.

  • In general: Consider the acquisition of flood-resistant products such as airbrick covers or barriers, and waterproofs adhesive floors. You might also consider water-resistant doors and window frames, so these items won’t need to be replaced in the event of a flood.

  •  In the kitchen: Install removable kitchen units on legs and put the fridge on a higher level away from the floor.

  • Plumbing, heating and electrical: Moving the boiler to the upper floor, and keep electrical items (e.g. TV, sockets, Hi-fi systems, computers, etc.) raised and mounted.

  • Other tips: Install a non-return valve in a sewer pipe, include a sump, or add a pump to remove excess water.

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Just with the easy tips your home’s flood risk will be greatly reduced. Have you ever applied any of these home improvements to your home?

*The opinions and views expressed in the above articles are those of the author only and are for guidance purposes only. The authors disclaim any liability for reliance upon those opinions and would encourage readers to rely upon more than one source before making a decision based on the information.

Written by Nick Grant

Nick Grant is a Business Development Manager at Intasure with 10 years of insurance experience.