A flood can cause huge amounts of damage to a business. It can damage stock, equipment, machinery, furniture and fittings, costing thousands of pounds. Of course there are floods of varying severity and you hopefully won’t suffer anything too serious, but if you do have a flood at your place of business, you will want to deal with it quickly.
Of course you don’t want to be flooded at all, and to guard against it – as much as is possible – it you should probably consider the most common causes of floods in commercial premises.
Common causes of business floods
Some of the most common causes of floods in businesses are:
- Unsuitable location for the building – too near rivers of other water, for instance
- Unsound sealing of walls and floors – this is often a problem in basements
- Blocked gutter system – this relates to the drainage connected from your business to the sewer system
- Badly installed drainage – if incorrectly installed leaks are very likely
- Eavestroughs full of debris – this often relates to leaves that fall into eavestroughs, also known simply as gutters
What to do about your flood
Fortunately the UK Government has launched a scheme for flood-affected business. However, you can’t just sit still and wait – you need to keep the wheel turning for your business.
You have a couple of options as to how you will deal with the flood that has invaded your place of work. The first is to call in a professional team to take care of everything for you. This may be an appealing prospect and might suit you fine, but of course this is the more expensive option.
An alternative is to get hold of the equipment you need to deal with your flood and remove the water yourself. This may be a less attractive proposition, but if your business is small or has limited funds, and you can’t rely on insurance to pay for water removal and repairs, doing it yourself could make sense. Companies such as Shorflo offer specialist pumps which can be hired, and if you choose to deal with your flood yourself, this is when you can get down to business.
How to pump the water out
If you have suffered a flood you need to get rid of the water as fast as you can, to limit the damage it can cause. If you have hired a specialist pump this can thankfully be achieved fairly quickly. Once you have the equipment – whether you opt for a super diesel pump or another piece of kit – the hose just needs to be laid where the flood water is deepest, and switched on. More information will be available from the hire company if that’s what you choose to do.
Cover photo credit: Dachalan / Flickr
