Downstairs flooded - What can I do?

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Huntakillaz

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Topic # 198222 30-Jun-2016 21:39

So with the Auckland rain yesterday a torrent of water came down our property from the school behind us.
Our downstairs bedroom got flooded.

My question is regarding what can i do about it?

The water from the school is a big problem and our entire backyard is just soaked. Becoming mudpie.
Can we complain to the City Council/School and get them to do some fixing on thier end???
It affects not only us but the neighbors too.

With regards to damage is it something that can be claimed under insurance??
Our policy is written under ASB (https://www.asb.co.nz/story_images/2713_ASBInsurancePoli_s7349.pdf)

What would be possible it fix/claim if so?
Floor/carpet? Walls re-gibbed? Closet rebuilt? Damages to clothing and goods? Power used for running heater and dehumidifier.

This is after the heaviest part has fallen, multiples this amount of water by a factor for 2-4 for when it is heavy rain

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Murray River
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Reply # 1583715 30-Jun-2016 21:44

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I'd be ringing the insurance company ASAP, and then the council re the school. Most councils have rules about run-off and drainage.

dusty42

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Reply # 1583731 30-Jun-2016 22:08

I made a claim last year for some minor water damage - probably just a few hundred litres, so nothing compared to yours. Started with the carpets being cleaned, before being replaced. Curtains dry cleaned. Two weeks of decorators redoing half the paint in the house, and some kitchen cupboards replaced. Maybe $15k worth? Amazing how much this all costs.

Give your insurer a call, and talk it over. Doesn't commit you to making a claim. They might want to get dryers/dehumidiers in there to prevent further damage.

Huntakillaz

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Reply # 1583735 30-Jun-2016 22:13

Yeah do insurance only replace damaged stuff, or will they help with costs or prevention? Ie thinking i may need to put a channel drainage if the council/school does nothing.

mattwnz

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Reply # 1583755 30-Jun-2016 22:36

The water from the school shouldn't be flowing onto your property, it should be going into the councils stormwater system. You should discuss the situation with your insurer whatever you do. When we had a flood, they sent a professional cleaning company who put in dehumidifiers and heaters for a week to dry everything, and ended up having to replace some of the carpet due to staining from the dirty water.

Looking at your photos, it looks like your block retaining wall is leaking, and water marks shows it has occurred before. These types of block retaining walls should be sealed, and it should have free draining material behind, with a drainage pipe at the bottom, incase water does get through. So I wonder if your wall wasn't built correctly to begin with.

Bung

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Reply # 1583756 30-Jun-2016 22:38

You may get a response that the damage will be repaired AFTER you have fixed the fault that allowed water into the basement. Does the drain in the last picture that is part blocked stop water reaching the foundation line. The blocks should have been sealed on the outside below ground with a buried drainage system stopping water pressure against the walls.

If you are down hill you have to expect some run-off. The neighbour can't collect water and direct it your way but they don't have to stop water that falls on their property going down hill.

richms

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Reply # 1583761 30-Jun-2016 22:42

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Before you get too far into this, check if it is supposed to be a bedroom or not, there are plenty of bedrooms stuck in what was a garage under houses that have no permits and therefore no waterproofing etc as it was never intended to be occupied. I know that if you claim for that on insurance they can tell you that you no longer have flood cover for that part of the house.

Richard rich.ms

Huntakillaz

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Reply # 1583770 30-Jun-2016 23:11

Bung: You may get a response that the damage will be repaired AFTER you have fixed the fault that allowed water into the basement. Does the drain in the last picture that is part blocked stop water reaching the foundation line. The blocks should have been sealed on the outside below ground with a buried drainage system stopping water pressure against the walls.

If you are down hill you have to expect some run-off. The neighbour can't collect water and direct it your way but they don't have to stop water that falls on their property going down hill.

Yeah that's understandable, i know some run off is acceptable, the school is at the top of the hill and then houses are around it.

But the water is considerable, our backyard lawn is just filled with water during winter. I've never been sure what we can do about it, but have decided to finally investigate as we are startinf to do renovations to the house and so i am not wanting issues like this to happen if possible.

Tthe leaves and stuff on that drain, are coming with the water from the green gate top left off the pic with the bbq and flowing on with it, that drain is generally clear and is at the top before 4-5 steps down to the laundry entrance, where there is another smaller drain 1/4 size.

It has happened before where so much water has come down pushing dirt and leaves with it that both drains got blocked and then water flowed into the laundry (the first pic where the vacuum head is) and then down into that bedroom.

No no the neighbors are also getting lots of water coming from the school ground behind, they don't have a downstairs like us that goes underground, will have a talk with them though too.

Huntakillaz

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Reply # 1583772 30-Jun-2016 23:13

richms:

Before you get too far into this, check if it is supposed to be a bedroom or not, there are plenty of bedrooms stuck in what was a garage under houses that have no permits and therefore no waterproofing etc as it was never intended to be occupied. I know that if you claim for that on insurance they can tell you that you no longer have flood cover for that part of the house.

ok cool will do. But I'm pretty sure it's on the house plans IIRC from when we bought the house and asked for plans/lim report.

Huntakillaz

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Reply # 1583773 30-Jun-2016 23:14

I'll snap a better pic tomorrow of the layout outside.

Behodar

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Reply # 1583793 1-Jul-2016 02:14

When I had some flooding a few years ago, the insurance company (State) arranged everything. They got a company in to dry out the carpets, etc; it was fairly worry-free from my end once I'd got them involved. I'd certainly suggest insurance as the first port of call, and see where things go from there.

DarthKermit

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Reply # 1583797 1-Jul-2016 03:14

We live next door to a school also and it's uphill from our property. I've never asked the school to do anything about the water that comes over here to our property, but they did let me dig a shallow trench along their side of the fence as the fence has a concrete nib that's at ground level (pretty dumb!)

Is there anything you can do to mitigate the effects of water getting onto your property such as improving drainage on your side? EG, more sumps, or a specific sump to catch water at the lowest point on your yard?

Bung

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Reply # 1583821 1-Jul-2016 07:31

If there's a lot of water coming onto the property it may be better to capture it early rather than have it come across lawns etc.

I have a long downhill section and my neighbor below unfortunately gets a 1/4 acre worth of runoff when it is raining heavily. Light rain has time to be absorbed rather than just run. I would like to help but my storm water connection is up by the house and I have nothing to divert the water to down at the boundary. The neighbour put in a slot drain to intercept water from his 3 uphill neighbour's and connected it to his stormwater. There may be things the school could do but at the rate schools spend money I can't see it happening soon.

Linuxluver

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Reply # 1583878 1-Jul-2016 09:09

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mattwnz:

The water from the school shouldn't be flowing onto your property, it should be going into the councils stormwater system. You should discuss the situation with your insurer whatever you do. When we had a flood, they sent a professional cleaning company who put in dehumidifiers and heaters for a week to dry everything, and ended up having to replace some of the carpet due to staining from the dirty water.

Looking at your photos, it looks like your block retaining wall is leaking, and water marks shows it has occurred before. These types of block retaining walls should be sealed, and it should have free draining material behind, with a drainage pipe at the bottom, incase water does get through. So I wonder if your wall wasn't built correctly to begin with.

I had a similar problem (breeze block wall leaking). It was discovered when the builders uncovered the walls after a fire.

It turned out the builder had never coated the exterior of the block wall to prevent leaks. Instead, they coated the INSIDE of the block wall and then framed and GIB-ed it.

Shonky as hell.

I then had to spend $20,000 digging out the entire block wall, clean it and coat it outside, then lay new nova-flo to take water away and then covering the lot with fresh scoria.

THEN they tried to connect the nova-flo to the drain under my downpipe from the roof...and discovered there was no drain. Not even a soak pit. It just went to the ground, then they concreted around it so no one would know. No wonder that corner of the lower flat was always trying to go mouldy every time it rained.

In 30 years I've yet to buy a house where some builder didn't cut corners and leave a mess for some future owner (me) to spend a ton of money fixing.....and this government wanted to reduce regulation of builders!! OMFG....no.

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Aredwood

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Reply # 1584851 2-Jul-2016 20:56

The water coming from the school, is it coming from buildings / paved areas? Or just from grassed areas / fields? As the former - you could force them to fix it.

You will also need to have a look at the layout of your section. It sounds like you are relying on some drains to always work 100% to prevent flooding inside. If you have an overland flow path running into them, then it will flood again. Please post that pic of the general outside layout. Also have a read of E1 http://www.building.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/building-code-compliance/e-moisture/e1-surface-water/asvm/e1-surface-water-amendment-9.pdf

mattwnz

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Reply # 1584894 2-Jul-2016 22:12

Linuxluver:

mattwnz:

The water from the school shouldn't be flowing onto your property, it should be going into the councils stormwater system. You should discuss the situation with your insurer whatever you do. When we had a flood, they sent a professional cleaning company who put in dehumidifiers and heaters for a week to dry everything, and ended up having to replace some of the carpet due to staining from the dirty water.

Looking at your photos, it looks like your block retaining wall is leaking, and water marks shows it has occurred before. These types of block retaining walls should be sealed, and it should have free draining material behind, with a drainage pipe at the bottom, incase water does get through. So I wonder if your wall wasn't built correctly to begin with.

I had a similar problem (breeze block wall leaking). It was discovered when the builders uncovered the walls after a fire.

It turned out the builder had never coated the exterior of the block wall to prevent leaks. Instead, they coated the INSIDE of the block wall and then framed and GIB-ed it.

Shonky as hell.

I then had to spend $20,000 digging out the entire block wall, clean it and coat it outside, then lay new nova-flo to take water away and then covering the lot with fresh scoria.

THEN they tried to connect the nova-flo to the drain under my downpipe from the roof...and discovered there was no drain. Not even a soak pit. It just went to the ground, then they concreted around it so no one would know. No wonder that corner of the lower flat was always trying to go mouldy every time it rained.

In 30 years I've yet to buy a house where some builder didn't cut corners and leave a mess for some future owner (me) to spend a ton of money fixing.....and this government wanted to reduce regulation of builders!! OMFG....no.

Back up until the 80's that was fairly common, it is why so many houses on hills with retaining walls are damp, and the downstairs is musty. It was the reduction of regulations that also led to the leaky building crisis back in the 90's,00's. Now it has gone the other way, and it is heavily regulated, but to the point where there are specific acceptable solutions, and designing anything different requires producer statements and red tape. But it isn't stopping leaky buildings being built today. I think at least some of the problem is buildings being built on the cheap. It was mentioned on the news that 30% of building inspections on buildings in Auckland were failing, and they were just the things they picked up on.

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