Preparedness for when

daz378

these technical hitches on the news recently....... are potentially worrying , both in the bank and in the airport , now i can understand the bank relying on outdated computers to save costs, but an airport .... some kind of a cyber attack or the more mundane human error

Alisonpennypincher

My mum was away one Christmas, when she returned home she struggled to open the front door (due to waterlogged carpet). Once inside she found a waterfall through the lounge ceiling, two out of three bedroom ceilings completely down and everything from top of the house to the bottom saturated. Wallpaper peeling off the walls, everything water damaged.

The water tank in the loft had given way and resulted in water pouring through the house for two days.

She was out the house for 10 Months, lost pretty much everything she owned and the whole house had to be gutted. They also then discovered asbestos in the ceilings which lead to further complications.

Now every time she hears a dripping tap or water running she panics!!

The water tank just split of its own accord, partly due to age, all her neighbours have since renewed theirs!

craigywv

loving the storeis gq and lynn, very witty. reading about all the floodings reminded me of last summer sitting out the back of the house absolutely scorching day and I felt rain hitting me, I looked skywards nothing but lovely blue skies, so as you can imagine I was puzzled. within seconds I was bombarded by what I thought was a hose pipe down my back,jumping up to see who had done it and where it came from I was horrified to see it coming from my 2 over flow pipes up near the roof,PANIC!!!!!!!!!!!! runs in to groaning echos coming from attic phoned housing association who were out within 30 mins. ends up the wooden cover on my water tank had rotted away, falling into the tank and constantly pressing down on the ballcockwhich then couldn't flow anywhere as toilet was not being flushed. or taps ran. so maybe worth while next time your in your attic maybe putting Christmas deccos away to have a quick look. I never would have thought that would have rotted as my house is built in the 80 s.so I was told if I hadn't noticed it I prob would have had entire house flooded. so sometimes a flood is in the place you least expect it to be and in the middle of a hot day!!!!the s can htf at anytime!

VJsmum

Not got a flooding story today (we, too, are quite high up and in the middle of the country so unlikely to be flooded from outside) - OH did put a nail through a heating pipe once though.

I am sitting waiting for a surveyor from the housing association flats opposite as the dratted wind had "lifted" the ivy on a wall we share and with it came a large chunk of brick wall. All on top of our caravan! :eek: Fortunately, I think the combination of ivy and caravan cover have protected said caravan from being damaged, but we still have to sort the wall.

I fear it will not be cheap

Goldiegirl

We've only had one water escape, and fortunately it wasn't too bad.


We were away for 5 days, and the toilet cistern in the bathroom overflowed, and the bathroom carpet was drenched.


Fortunately we were able to dry the carpet out, and no real harm was done.


It's never happened again, although I keep an empty ice cream container under the cistern, just in case. (it was about 18 years ago, and not a drip since, so I might be over cautious here!)


But I always wonder what would have happened if we'd been away for much longer.


We were away for 24 nights in September. My friend kindly offered to drop by from time to time to check the house - I made sure she looked in the bathroom on each visit, but not even a drop of water escaped.

ginnyknit

It brings it all back :eek: we had a little earthquake a good few years ago and when I ran a bath that night the water was very slow. I had a look in the tank cupboard and found the cold water tank wooden support had broken in the tremor. The cold water tank had slid at one end and was resting on the hot element cap ontop of the immersion heater. It was slowly but surely melting :eek: Of course Hubby was working away and the kids were living else where (must have been about 10 years ago) So after a mild screaming bout I gathered my sense and turned every stop !!!! off and drained all my lovely hot water and cold water. Happily the council - landlords at the time - sent someone right away, ahh those were the days! I really dont know how a piece of 2" x 1" had held up the tank all those years but now its nice and sturdy. I do still have a look in the cupboard from time to time and check

GreyQueen

Yeah, if water suddenly starts pouring out of an overflow pipe just under the fascia board of your house, it's the header tank. Often, the ballc*ck is malfunctioning; the float has developed a leak or the arm supporting it has seized up. Sometimes, even grit is enough to cause the arm to seize.

It's a PITA but a pretty easy fix.

When I'm away, or SuperGran is away, we look in on each other's flats; pick up the mail and put it on the table, quick visual check of the kitchen and bathroom, to make sure the water is where it should be. It's amazing how often things go wrong when a home isn't lived in, even the absence is only a few days or weeks. It makes me realise how quickly housing stock and other buildings would decay if humans weren't constantly using and tending to their needs.

I once saw a picture of a stone house somewhere in the south-west, in a newspaper. It had a huge fissure down the front of it, like a lightning strike thru the stone work and a hole in the roof and with windows blown out. You could see right thru the walls.

Whatever catastrophe had befallen to reduce such a solid house to such a pass? The house stood empty and it had a leaking gutter. The water got into the stones, and the freezing of the water in winters had levered the stones apart. The foundation had shifted a bit, too, due to the ground being wet all the time from the gutter leak. And a slate or two had slipped, the wind had got into the roof and widened the hole, and swirled around inside and blew out the window glass from the inside. More wind got inside and wrecked the roof still further.

Soooo, for want of a very minor repair (the gutter) a solid stone house was reduced to a ruin in a very few years. Imagine how well a Barratt Box or Wimpy Carton will last in a time of neglect.:(

On the subject of flooding, I remember reading Any Fool Can be a Countryman (v.funny) when the author described his country abode which was an old water mill. It had lots of pipes to take water under it but in time of flood, he discovered that the builders had been even more sly; the back end of the house was upslope and higher than the front and the downstairs floors were tile. If it flooded in the back door, you swept the water out the front, with miminal aggravation.

In my hometown, it isn't at all uncommon for water management techniques to fail to the point where some parts of roads and carparks by the river are only passable with wellies or even waders, and this happens approx every 5 years. I'm not in the market for a home and wouldn't be living in the hometown if I was, but I certainly wouldn't want to spend my hard-earned on a flood plain house.

RAS, fascinating about the map and the springs explaining why people lived where they did. One village I know has a culvert-ised stream which is dry most of the year but runs in the depth of the winter. Beside it is an ancient barn, bestride the stream. Seems an insane thing for a farmer to build unless you know that there was a "winter mill" there; a water mill on a stream which only had enough water in it to run the mill in the winter.

Sticking the barn right over the stream was a pretty efficient way of using the mill for the 2-3 months a year the stream runs. Old stuff is fascinating and the study of local history is more than a slightly-nerdy pastime, it's richly-rewarding and can stop you making some serious errors about building things or buying things which others have built in unwise places.

Soo, if you're reading this and contemplating buying your dream home in the country, spend a little time reading up on the area to make sure you know what's what.

I don't know if it's recorded on the deeds, but I know of a bungalow on the edge of a farm which is built on top of a big pit of anthrax-killed cattle from an outbreak in the early twentieth century. I know this because my Dad worked on that farm as a lad and the old boys who he worked with had limed that pit and hurled the poor dead beasts into it.

No one local ever buys that bungalow when it comes on the market; it's reserved for the incomers..............

boultdj

GreyQueen wrote: »

I'm glad to learn that.

Sooo, I suppose we could consider ourselves to be the MSE-ing? Or the M'sing, if you fancy an exotic slant on it.

Post SHTF Traveller's Tale (collected early 22nd Century)

And we came at last to the land of the M'sing, where the matriarchs of the tribe greeted us whilst wearing their ritual costume of cross-bodied floral aprons with their ceremonial weapons, the rolling pins, held close by, in case we honest travellers should prove troublesome.

After the traditonal exchange of recipes and insults, we settled down to barter treadle Singer sewing machine parts and Pyrex pudding basins with the tribe. Our previous contacts had indicated that these goods would be highly-favoured and we were not disappointed.

Your narrator found the M'sing a fascinating tribe, but couldn't quite understand their veneration of a mannikin in striped shirt, known as the M'tinloose, whom they have held in great esteem since the most ancient of days.

Research has yet to establish whether the M'tinloose was a real historic figure or is a Jungian archetype, as the tribe are very close-mouthed about their origins in the pre-collapse world. They were believed to have formed up in the Dark Ages, from a loose confederation of like-minded souls, who came together with only a password and a covert sigil to identify themselves to each other.

The sigil is represented below but no one has managed to identify what it was meant to represent.

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Oh wise words from the fabled and much venerated GQ the bard and minstrel of the venerable M'ing tribe, whose chosen war chariot of whealbrow with sharpened trowels attached to the wheels is a fearsome sight when seen mowing slugs on those market garden areas known as Lotties (thought to be derived from the name Charlotte a reference to a well known work called Charlottes Web, a wise arachnid worshiped now by the same slugs who are seeking a means of self defence by reading the ancient work). The M'ing are known to be reluctant to part with their posessions, many of which were procured by their ancient ancestors in the time of Eeeeeebay, just before the collapse of the legendary fan from overuse due to the bad bad banker race and their underground practises. The slugs are convinced that these beings will return to save them from the trowels but the M'ing say that the moon will turn blue before that happens and keep their toothbrushes sharp and their rollingpins polished and close just in case, they will not be caught a second time. The sigil is a mighty sign, it is not worn lightly, it is honed from the most flexible steel, many have been passed through the female lines of families for generations, the application of this revered item is shrouded in mystery and is only allowed in times of extreme duress to the shouted warcry of 'Ominikalasticsgone,elp' when they form into a solid circle protecting the crier in their midst. The sigil is reputedly a lifesaver, but the mists if time obscure the legend and the M'ing look smug!!!

:DBest laught of the day, and I salute:beer: the venrable bard's GQ & MrsLW, and wait to see what other pearl's join the tales of post SHTF life

grandmasam

Oh , the best laugh of the month! :rotfl:
I curtsey at the sign of the sigil and the wise women who pass on the magical history of the M'ing people. Mayhap the history should be carved on stone blocks for those who pass through this land and in need of rest , will read and spread the word of the M'ing far and wide.

I'll 'ang on to me safety sigil tho!
Caz

jk0

GreyQueen wrote: »

jk0, what a horror for your tenants and good on you for putting them up in a hotel and I hope you get re-imbursed in due course. As a ground-floor flat dweller myself, I always have concerns of a similar nature myself.

My tenant has now been in the hotel for five nights, so today I was expecting him to go home.

I just got a call from 'Housing Aid' at the council saying he has contacted them saying that the place is unfit to go back to. The woman suggested she was going to send environmental health round to view the place. I told her to go for it.