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With global warning continuing to wreak havoc and the storm season about to hit in Australia, here are a few key steps you can take to protect your family home.

Did you know that flood damage is the number one insurance claim in Australia and that the average flood repair cost is about $30,000?

If you want to save your home and your premiums here a few valuable tips.

If you’re in a high-risk flood zone, consider raising your home. Sounds expensive? Well, yes it is but it will still come in far cheaper than the amount you would spend dealing with flood damage throughout your home.

If you can’t stretch to that, ‘wet-proof’ your home by installing foundation vents that allow water to flow through the building, instead of rising inside and causing more damage. You’d need at least 2 vents on different walls throughout the ground level of your home.

Also do some ‘dry proofing’ by applying coatings and other sealing materials to your walls to keep out floods.

Raise switches, sockets, circuit breakers and wiring at least a foot above the expected flood level in your area. Modify your furnace, water heater and any other anchored indoor equipment so that it sits above your property’s flood level.

Take last-minute measures as waters rise

1. Clear gutters, drains and downspouts. On a side note, install gutter guards, not only will they reduce your gutter cleaning dramatically, they also help protect your home from water and fire damage as leaves and debris caught in gutters literally add fuel to the fire. You can install gutter guards yourself of course which keeps it affordable.

2. Move furniture, rugs, electronics, favourite kids toys and other belongings to upper floors, or at least raise them off the floor.

3. Shut off electricity at the breaker panel.

4. Elevate major appliances onto concrete blocks if they’re potentially in harm’s way from flooding.

5. Last but not least keep sandbags on the premises for emergencies and use them to help protect your home from flooding, especially if you live anywhere near a river. You can buy ‘Miracle Sandbags’ through leading retailers like Bunnings which are far less back-breaking to use.

They’re ready to use with no filling required and self-inflate automatically when they come into contact with water, absorbing up to 18 kg’s of water in 4-6 minutes. While they’re completely re-usable they’re also easy and safe to dispose of if you no longer need them as they’re biodegradable and won’t harm the environment.

Both traditional sandbags and next-gen ones can also be used to help mitigate damage from burst water pipes and to protect any exposed areas from water damage. They will also absorb and contain a spill.

flood

Do you suffer flooding during the wet season?

Share your comments below.

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  • We are on quite low lying land so our garden will definitely flood. Fortunately, we haven’t had issues with flooding in the house – dreading this next few days though now the storm has been classed as a Super Storm here in Victoria …..

    Reply

  • Some wise tips when you live in a flood sensitive area.

    Reply

  • I’m very lucky we live in an area where we don’t have this problem.

    Reply

  • We had our gutters done recently!

    Reply

  • Luckily where we live we are quite safe. We further live on top of a small hill and far from the sea. It must be terrible to suffer flooding.

    Reply

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