BRE Flood Resilient Repair House

Flood resilient repair house

As a key recommendation to the Defra Roundtable for Property Level Flood Resilience, the latest demonstration house at BRE Watford – The BRE Flood Resilient Repair House – shows how simple changes can transform a home to become flood resilient. This demonstration house uses both resistance and resilience measures to simulate an environment where the impacts of flooding would be significantly reduced on a home.

The house includes sump and pump systems set into the floor, these are linked back into a back up power source. A flood resilient kitchen has also been installed and will not require replacement following a flood event. A waterproof flooring replaces conventional carpets in the home to again minimise damage costs following a flood event. Plug sockets in the room had been raised up above the level to which the property is flood resistant. In addition to this, flood resistant doors and windows have been installed on the house, and a cavity drainage system will take any remaining water in the property to a catchment located alongside the sump pump systems for removal from the property.

The Flood Resilient House was opened by Emma Howard-Boyd (Chair of the Environment Agency) and Claire Moriarty (Permanent Secretary for Defra) on 3rd February 2017 at a demonstration and launch event of the property. This project was a collaboration between many companies and suppliers, with the common goal of demonstrating what a flood resilient property could and should look like, as well as demonstrating that this can still appear to look like a home.