Flood victims smashing up household appliances and furniture

[Meredith]

In order to stop looters nicking the flood damaged stuff local residents are trashing their household goods as they stand outside waiting for the insurance companies to assess the payout.

My heart goes out to anyone who has suffered from the flooding but if the goods are deemed worthy of pinching surely they are recyclable.

I can only shake my head, which is preferable to me blowing a gasket. Firstly that items are not being cleaned up where possible and secondly that anyone would go in there and loot.

Has this wanton destruction got anyone else hopping mad?

Meredith.

[Shirley]

That's awful. If the goods were to be stolen wouldn't they still get the payout?

[kimbobill]

I was totally gobsmacked when I saw that, unbelivable that if is good enough for looting then surely can't it be recycled to the people without insurance?
The other thing that got me was that the looters were given a fixed penalty notice what message does that give out...........don't pay your rates = get locked up, steal property and they fine you and not even a court appearance

[Wombat]

I thought looters were shot on sight..........

[kimmysmum]

Hey Nev they are in South Africa and some American states.

[the.fee.fairy]

I'm afraid that's made me change the way i feel about the victims now.
I did feel sorry for them, and was willing to help, but i'm not now.

If i was anything to do with the insurance assessors, i'd be turning down the claims due to wilful damage od property.

If the furniture had been stolen, then household insurance should pay out. To smash stuff is immature. As has already been said, useable stuff could have been donated to those less fortunate who lost everything, or donated to a charity shop/anywhere.

[baldowrie]

not defending anyone but if any items have been in a house that has flooded they are contaminated, and not just with muddy water.

When a house floods the sewers flood too and flow freely into houses and all over furniture. That is why the plaster needs removing after a flood several feet above the water line. Dependant on how long the water and sewage has been in the house the actual house can be condemned due to contamination.

Looters couldn't give a damn about contamination and will clean it up and sell it on..you buy it and you run the risk of illnesses.

Has it crossed your mind they may have been told to do this? After all if it was available would you not salvage it rather than destroy it?

[Thomzo]

Well I wondered the same thing, it seemed such a waste to smash up this stuff. There were fridges and leather sofas being wrecked. I guess the sewage bit is a worry but then if you buy a second hand fridge you always take a risk and I would have thought you could clean/disinfect it pretty thoroughly.

Zoe

[baldowrie]

not only the sewage but mould spores get in the fabric of the item and no amount of disinfecting will get rid of it, it comes backs.

It depends how long the house has been flooded to whether or not furniture that has not got wet can be salvaged or not, of even if the entire house can be savalaged.....specilist cleaning is required for brick work to kill the spores

[Stonehead]

And don't forget the electrical side of things. The plethora of circuit boards in modern appliances are very prone to damage from even the smallest amount of water.

We had a washing machine that caught fire because condensation shorted out the circuit board. The repairman who replaced the board told us that it wasn't designed for use in a damp environment. Erm, but it's a washing machine...

In the case of flooding, not only would you have the direct water damage but you would also be left with a film of gunge and dirt all over the circuit board. That could also conduct electricity even when the board had been dried out.

And before someone says "just replace the circuit boards", the board for our washing machine cost £86!! It was still under warranty though so the company paid for it.

Another thing to consider with appliances with moving parts is the effect of dirt getting into bearings and the like.

Basically, almost all modern electrical appliances have to be written off after submergence in flood waters because the cost of stripping them right down, cleaning everything out, checking all moving parts, replacing circuit boards and power supplies, etc would be far more than the cost of buying a new one.

It's the same with cars. A pre-electronic era car could be salvaged from a water grave with a fair chance that a mechanic could get it going again once it had been dried out. But a modern car with electronic everything and on-board computers? No chance.

Sad but true.

[baldowrie]

yep spot on Stoney, not a simple of saving a few items that don't seem too bad.

I had a minor flood, just 50 gallons of clean water from the hot water tank straight down onto the TV and under the bedroom and lounge carpet.

Even for that amount in a very hot summer and with 3 large industrial dehumidifiers going full pelt for 2 weeks, the house was still damp in spots but workable once the entire ceiling of the lounge and hall was removed. Luckily the TV chap said I had switched of the TV and moved it in time to prevent terminal damage. But the wooden bookshelf beside it was condemned.

[Meredith]

I live close to the affected area and I have a friend who's whole ground floor living space has been ruined by contaminatated water. Quite rightly the stuff should be disposed of.

However, I have seen things thrown into the skip, such as pine tables and chairs which I would have been happy to have, given a bit of common sense cleaning. There are wide screen TV's out there which have been flooded right up to top of the TV stand but no further. I am also a bit confused by the amount of beds and wardrobes outside houses that are not bungalows.

I am not blaming the victims par se but I cannot believe the wholesale dumping of items can be right, without any regard to whether they could be salvaged.

It is an awful situation and I am very thankful that I have not been personally affected but chucking things into landfill that can be reused just doesn't go down well with me for whatever reason.

Meredith.

[Stonehead]

I live close to the affected area and I have a friend who's whole ground floor living space has been ruined by contaminatated water. Quite rightly the stuff should be disposed of.

However, I have seen things thrown into the skip, such as pine tables and chairs which I would have been happy to have, given a bit of common sense cleaning. There are wide screen TV's out there which have been flooded right up to top of the TV stand but no further. I am also a bit confused by the amount of beds and wardrobes outside houses that are not bungalows.

I am not blaming the victims par se but I cannot believe the wholesale dumping of items can be right, without any regard to whether they could be salvaged.

It is an awful situation and I am very thankful that I have not been personally affected but chucking things into landfill that can be reused just doesn't go down well with me for whatever reason.

Meredith.

I, too, don't like to see things that are salvageable being thrown away but even solid timber furniture may well be beyond salvaging (at least in its current form).

I've repaired (and de-constructed!) a fair amount of water damaged furniture over the years. Older furniture made from solid hardwood and slow-growth soft woods are the best bets for repair, but even then they need to be dried out very slowly, will probably need to be disassembled and all joints re-jigged and re-glued, and ferrous ironmongery may need to be replaced.

Modern furnishings made from fast growing softwood that's been kiln dried are almost inevitably beyond repair. The wood buckles and warps, often suffering further damage as the fittings pull out out, and then warps again when dried.

The best solution for modern furniture is to pull it apart, let the wood dry out for a few months and then saw and plane the best pieces for re-use, while popping the rest in the fire.

If the furniture has veneers, chipboard, MDF and ply (not marine ply which may be salvageable), then it's only fit for the tip after submersion. If it's a piece of antique furniture with veneers, then you need a specialist repairer - and even they can't save everything.

We shouldn't be too quick to apply "green" standards and judgements to flood damaged items unless we're actually in a position to see the items AND have the expertise to know what's safely or usefully salvageable and what's not. I can be fairly certain some things will be thrown away that could be salvaged, but equally I can be sure that a lot of stuff that looks salvageable isn't.

[magenta flame]

Ummmm If it's stolen how are they supposed to recycle it?

[Jarmara]

having been in the hereford/gloucester area when the floods happend i can tell you that the stench coming from the water was vile even if you could eventually dry things out i'm possitive that you would not get ride of the smell also people were told by the authorities to damage goods to stop looters and insurance companies will not pay out if you havent got the damaged goods to show them,people are having to throught out things of great value to them in lots of cases the value is sentimentle only as in family heirlooms because the risk to health is too great to even try to keep them