Flood proof flooring

[Noreng]

Unfortunately for us ours was one of the 1400 homes flooded in Cumbria recently.

We have had a number of visits from loss adjusters, surveyers, restoration technicians and builders, and the destruction starts on Monday.

One casualty is the oak floor that I spent a lot of money on, and time laying - it has to come up!

I have discussed with various parties having a tile floor instead of wood, so as to be more flood resistant should it ever happen again (although I prefer wood). However I have been advised that often tile floors are taken up after a flood, and even that my quarry tiles elsewhere laid in a solid concrete base may have to come up - which seems rather strange to me! (if there was any wood underneath that would of course be different)

So my questions are:

1. Why would quarry tiles laid on solid concrete have to come up after a flood, ok it will be a bit wetter than it was before for a while but so what, probably no worse than when they were first laid and nothing is going to deteriorate.
2. Can you lay a flood proof floor onto solid concrete? My thoughts were that to provide some insulation Wedi board (which is waterproof) could be laid on top of the concrete with waterproof tile adhesive, then some waterproof tiles laid on that with more waterproof adhesive and then finished with waterproof grout. That sounds like it should all be pretty flood proof to me.

Any views much appreciated

[Colour Republic]

Sorry to here about this Noreng, It's a very sad situation.

I'm afraid there is no easy answer to your problem, even if you tiled your floor as if it was a swimming pool you can not stop the rising water from effecting the foundations of the floor, concrete or not it will suffer damage from flood

[whitebeam]

The water pressure pushing from below the ground as well

[Ajax123]

I not a flood expert but I think it is a much a problem of upward water pressure as down ward pressure. I did some specification work a couple of years ago with an architect who was working on flood repairs to some jobs in the Midlands. About the best we could come up with was lots of water proof layers with each successive layer becoming sacrificial if it breached. There were about 4 DPMs and even then we decided that a sacrifical floor covering was better. We ended up decoupling on the basis that the tiles would then be more easily removed if need be later on. We were dsigning for upward and downward water pressures.

[Dave]

Also with none epoxy grouting it would become contaminated from sewerage in the flood water....contamination is the biggest issue with properties being flooded..but not a full reason to remove tiled floors.

[timeless john]

Of course for those with no insurance and the possibility of not being able to aquire new insurance, a tiled floor onto a solid base would undoutably be the best option going forward.
Having recently completed such a tiling job after the Northumberland floods the issue was limitation in damage for the next time it occurs.
Yes there will be a drying out period and some form of decontamination process but unless they are going to pull down every brick built property and rebuild, then the materials are the same!
This is obviously a general opinion and mine -and no specific case can be included without prior structual examination!

[Noreng]

Well the good news, such as there is any, is that we had no contamination. We live below a lake and all the water entering the property was clear lake water with no suggestion of any sewage.

I guess I would like to understand why a concrete floor would deteriorate after a flood. I see this stuff making car parks and often covered with puddles, I see houses rendered with it, I see weirs in the river made of it, I was under the impression that concrete, once laid, did not deteriorate if it got wet.

I do understand about the upward water pressure bit though. We lifted some carpets before the lake/river water entered the property. This revealed a crack in the concrete with a little water welling up through it. I guess that should be repaired?

[Ajax123]

Concrete would not generally deteriorate significantly unless it was contaminated with acidified water or sewerage or the like. Bear in mind also the long term effects of the moisture if not dried out quickly and effectively you can have issues with mould growth.

Mobile ground water may often contain sulphate salts in solution. These can wreak havoc on concrete.

There is also the issue of potential electrolytic corrosion to any steel reinforcement within the concrete.

Insulation is often placed underneath and this can become soft and spongy so this can be at risk unless protected or an insulation not prone to the effects of water is used. Once it all dries out though it should be fine.

All of that said I don't think a house if it was flooded with reasonably clean water should need concrete floors removed for the sake of the concrete itself. There may be damage to the structure which might need attending to which might necessitate it but this would presumably be pretty obvious.

Foundations are probably more at risk I would say than floors.