Repairing Water Damage

Buford T Justice

Hi.

A Client of mine has a student property that has been destroyed by water damage. All Ceilings are down, partition walls need to be replaced etc...

All electrical fitting will be replaced as a matter of course on this, because the water seems to have been running down the conduit in the walls and out under the switches on the ground floor.

but I do have a few questions.....

Once the place is gutted, the house will be fully dried with dehumidifiers before work starts. The cables themselves should be fine once dried shouldn't they? or is there a standard sort of practice in this situation.

Does the Consumer unit need to be replaced? I'm thinking this should be done as good practise. How do MCB's & RCBO's take to water, as I'm imagining not very well.

If the ESB come out to isolate the switch at the Meter, will they want certificates before they switch it on again?

I will most likely be getting a sparks in to do the electrical work anyway, but I'll be trying to price up the whole job material wise and would be good to have an idea of costs.

Davy

No cert is need if its reconnected in less then 6months.

Any of the electrical gear that has be in contact with water like that is damaged and should be replaced

M cebee

a registered contractor will have to certify it anyhow

accessories and consumer unit should be replaced


i'd guesss continuous runs of pvc/pvc cabling should be ok-but they can be IR tested-if there's JB's it could be a problem

moonshadow

Just on a side note fingers,ive done several of these jobs last january/feb.
Get paid by the client dont wait for the insurance monies to come to them,i still have two outstanding payments due to insurance company haggling etc thats over nine months since completion of works.:mad:

Buford T Justice

M cebee wrote: »

a registered contractor will have to certify it anyhow

accessories and consumer unit should be replaced


i'd guesss continuous runs of pvc/pvc cabling should be ok-but they can be IR tested-if there's JB's it could be a problem

Thankfully all the cabling is easy to see at the minute because of the damage and there's only one jb visible in the house. Seems to be continuous runs other than that.

EDIT: Is it the ESB that need to be called to turn off the switch in the meter box, and back on again? No need to disconnect the meter or anything, just to isolate the power.....

Davy

Fingers McGee wrote: »

EDIT: Is it the ESB that need to be called to turn off the switch in the meter box, and back on again? No need to disconnect the meter or anything, just to isolate the power.....

Is it a iskra meter with built in isolator in the bottom right hand corner?

DublinDilbert

How small is the place? Water will usually find one or two main routes out. The rest of the Walls might be damp & will be replaced, doesn't mean the were soaked.

Did you see the istallation before it was gutted? Might not need that much if you knew what actually got wet.

Buford T Justice

Davy wrote: »

Is it a iskra meter with built in isolator in the bottom right hand corner?

Its an old analogue meter, thinks its an iskra. House was built in the early 90's I think but there is an Isolation switch in the bottom right hand corner. Has the surprisingly obvious 'ON' and 'OFF' on it, but it looks like its a special key to do it.

Are these readily available?

I'll be back at the property this evening and try to take a picture of it.

Buford T Justice

DublinDilbert wrote: »

How small is the place? Water will usually find one or two main routes out. The rest of the Walls might be damp & will be replaced, doesn't mean the were soaked.

Did you see the istallation before it was gutted? Might not need that much if you knew what actually got wet.

I've seen it, as I've turned off the water to it last night. I was the first person to the house after it was noticed / reported. In short terms, everything is soaking, every wall in the house, its that bad.

All Ceilings are down, all upstairs and downstairs walls are soaking, paint and plaster is blown on some walls downstairs, plasterboard is soaking, and I don't want it to leave rise to mould in later times. Couple of inches of water on the ground floor. The house was easily like this for a week before I got to it.

The water was left running for so long it traveled across all of the ceiling and pulled most of it down along the ground floor. Did the same with downstairs. The back of the house took the worst of the damage, but its run through the whole place. I don't want to post pics of the house at the moment, in case some of the tenants haven't been notified and they come across it here.

90% of downstairs and 60% of upstairs ceilings are down roughly.

Buford T Justice

Hi,

Below is the meter and isolator that I mentioned. Its a siemens unit, and the isolator rotates between OFF, ON, SEAL and PADLOCK. It is currently at On.

Is the key for this readily available?

#

Buford T Justice

Anyone?

M cebee

insulated allen key for that

Buford T Justice

M cebee wrote: »

insulated allen key for that

Ta.

What size is it do you know offhand?

sparcocars

Fingers McGee wrote: »

Ta.

What size is it do you know offhand?

5mm allen key for that.