Part of the BRE Trust

Flood Resilient Buildings – towards a mainstream activityDr Stephen Garvin

Director, BRE Centre for Resilience

6 July 2017

Flood damage 2015

Flood Damage 2015

Impact of damage

– Damage to building fabric, services,

fixtures, fittings, contents

– Cost of repair (£50k - £100k)

– Long term repair, 6 months++

– Issues for owners, tenants, etc

– Problems with obtaining insurance, at

affordable levels, even with FloodRe

– Resistance (dry proofing)?

– Resilience (wet proofing)?

Flood resistance measures

Flood resistance measures

Flood resilience measures

Flood resilience (defra guidance on FR Grants, Jan 16)

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The Action Plan

1. Action Plan seeks after 5 years an environment where it is normal for properties at

high flood risk to be made flood resilient.

2. The report identifies key areas for action:

• Further exploration of whether Building Regulations can be better used to

encourage flood resistant and resilient construction.

• Helping FloodRe establish an evidence base necessary for them to incentiviseproperty level resilience for households at high flood risk.

• Rigorous independent standards with proper certification processes that enjoy

support across the industry.

• A strong partnership between insurers, surveyors, the legal profession,

materials producers and the government, to encourage and enable the take up of

flood resilient measures and boosting active flood resilient behaviour by

householders and small businesses, at risk of flooding.

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Property flood resilience roundtable, 2016

Standards, certifications skills reviewRisk

assessment

BS8533

BS8582

None Further training required for professionals, particularly

those involved in planning flood resilient repair

schemes.

Further consideration of the needed for professional

guidance and training courses required.

Surveyors None Full Training courses as well as standards and certification

need to be developed.

Up to 150,000 UK properties in flood risk areas are

sold each year. Training related to conveyancing

surveyors in flood risk is required.

Installers PAS1188 Part The BSi scheme is new to the market, it requires

further understanding and acceptance; consideration of

the role of non-certifiable products is required.

Building

materials /

products

None Full Materials and products resilience standards required to

compliment property standards.

Fitness for purpose of materials and products for flood

resilience needs to be further addressed.

Refer to BSi/CB committee for construction to consider

further. PAS or similar standard required to grade the

flood resilience of materials and measures involved.

Flood resilient repair

demonstration

– Approaches for flood repair:

– Resistance

– Resilience

– Demonstration contains both

approaches, we call it:

– “The Property Flood Resilient

Repair”, or “Property Flood

Resilience”

– Limit damage and reduce time needed

for re-occupation

– Clean-up, drying and decontamination

is always required, but this should be

within reason

Starting point

– Empty unit found 2016

– Not unlike a flooded building that

had been cleared

– Walls and floors back to brick

and concrete

Design for demonstration of flood resilient repair

Design for demonstration

Resistance

– Flood resistant doors

– Flood resistant windows

– Solid brick external walls with external

render (2 coat proprietary system)

– Resistance design to 600 mm depth

– Controlled inundation to property

beyond this depth

Floor

– Original concrete floor; 100 mm on

ground

– Profiled drainage membrane

– Resilient insulation boards

– Screed membrane

– 50 mm self levelling concrete screed

– Ceramic tile finish, turned up walls by

150 mm, fully bedded in waterproof

adhesive

Walls 1

– Resistance and resilience

– Resistance: Cavity drainage

membrane, drain and pump:

groundwater and external water

under force

– Resilience: membrane prevents

wetting of wall, resilient insulation

and wall board finish; drying of cavity

via ventilation or limited removal /

replacement of boards and insulation

Walls 2

– Resilient

– PUR (100 mm thick) insulation, with

resilient wall board finish

– Cement render, directly onto brickwork

(party wall) and blockwork (internal

partition)

Resilient kitchen

– No MDF or chipboard components; or

laminated or melamine surfaces

– Resilient composite material

– Ceramic work tops

– Tiled under units

Services

– Electrical: wiring hung from ceiling

down walls

– Sockets located above flood level (800

mm, 1200 mm, 1500 mm)

– Water: non-return valves on toilets,

kitchen supply / drainage

Property flood resilient repair process

1. Understanding risk flood risk

2. Planning for flood resilient repair

3. Property survey

4. Design and specification of flood resilient repair

5. Construction work

6. Maintenance and operation

Property flood resilience database

– Resistance and resilience – not to date

fully accepted by insurers

– The insurer knows your flood risk, but not

if you have done anything to mitigate risk

– Even where fitted or installed there is no

knowledge or where, what, how well

– Property Flood Resilience Database

(PFR-d), intended to capture data on

measures taken to property

– Considers resistance, resilience and

some community measures

– Allows insurer to see both flood risk and

building performance, better assess risk

What else is needed

– Certified flood resilience surveyors,

– Qualified subject to specific training

– Building professionals, or water /

flood managers

– PFR-d – with app tool to examine

options, upload data, generate

PFR-Score and make entry

– Willing by insurers and others to

accept the system

PFR – Code of Practice

– CIRIA (project manager)

– BRE

– UWE

– Whitehouse

– Environment Agency

– Publication by end 2018, with

supplementary guides for

planners and building owners

– Get a better deal for UK plc (clarity, certainty,

consistency and confidence).

– Address recommendations from EFRA

committee and Defra PFR Action Plan

– Develop an integrated approach that covers

the whole lifecycle of PFR delivery

– Consolidate the diverse range of information,

guidance, standards and training (no wheel

reinvention).

– Create intelligence clients and a reputable

PFR industry

– Enable the insurance industry to encourage

PFR

– Look at retrofit AND new build

Flood Resilient Repair Project: Partnership

BRE Trust Centre for Resilience

AXA AVIVA ABI Lloyds Cunningham Lindsey

PCA BDMA Aquobex UK Flood Barriers

CBA BRUFMA BASF Celotex Kingspan

Natural Cement Distribution Isothane

Delta Membranes Proten BACA Architects

Defra Environment Agency

Miinus Pustelli Bellitex Dragon Board

Part of the BRE Trust