Electrical Repairs after Flooding in South London
Repairs after Flooding in South London
In recent years, there have been some awful winters with higher than average rainfall causing extensive flooding in the UK including properties in south London. What a lot of householders forget is that it is not just appliances that have been wet that can be a danger, the electrical wiring and sockets may be unsafe due to the water as well.
But it’s not just flooding caused by the weather that damages domestic electrics, rain getting in, burst pipes and tanks, leaky wastes and so on can all contribute to hidden damage.
Repairing the electrics after a flood
Whatever the cause of your flood, you will undoubtedly want to get back to normal as soon as possible, but be careful about repairing electrical wiring yourself. We had a call out to a house in Wimbledon following flooding. Why? Because the owner had figured that he could install a new electric cooker when the original was subjected to water damage.
Cooker installation in Wimbledon
Installing your own cooker is not actually a good idea as only a qualified electrician can assess the true extent of the damage. Also, not using a qualified electrician in Wimbledon for this job would invalidate the guarantee. The householder in question had taken the opportunity to update his original cooker to a bigger one with an electric hob too. He called us in when the circuit breaker kept tripping. It only took us a few minutes to find that the spur wiring had been damaged by the flood. So we checked the maximum loading of the cooker/hob, nipped out to the van for a properly rated circuit breaker and cable of the right cross sectional area, fitted it, cleared up and were out of there in less than two hours. One more satisfied customer in Wimbledon!
Advice from electricians in Wimbledon
So here are a few things to remember concerning your electrics if you have suffered flooding:
Turn off the electricity as soon as possible or, if the fuse box (consumer unit) has been wet, ask the electricity board or your local electrician to do so
Contact your insurance company before organising any repairs
Do not attempt any electrical repairs yourself, call in a qualified electrician who will check what faults there are and issue you with an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) which will identify the condition of the wiring and equipment in need of repair
All small appliances affected by the flood should be tested to make sure that they are still safe to use, as well as fixed equipment such as air conditioning, central heating pumps and controls and of course electric cookers.
If the water damage is fairly minor and the water was from a clean source, then it is likely that your Wimbledon electrician will only have to to dry out cables and replace things like sockets, switches, plugs.
Partial or full rewiring could be necessary if the flooding was caused by water from a river or stream that has burst its banks.
If you need your Wimbledon home rewiring after a flood, the electrician may be able to raise the height of the fuse box, sockets and cabling to a level higher than that expected from future floods.
Call the experts
If you require a cooker install, either after flooding or not, talk to South London Electricians on 020 3199 9093. Fully qualified, more years of experience than we care to thin about and on the new website www.electricalcompetentperson.co.uk which is a government run website listing all registered competent electricians in your area.