‘Flooding ruined my house – but DIY effort saved £20k’
ATHRIFTY man whose home was ruined by floods at the height of the pandemic repaired the entire property himself because he couldn’t get tradespeople in – and saved £20,000.
Derek, 58, and Valerie Lown, 62, were on holiday when torrential rain saw two feet of water run through their three-bedroom house in a matter of hours.
It was the fourth flood the couple have endured in 15 years, leaving the garden decimated, and water running through the ground floor of the house.
The cupboards were all emptied with glasses, plates and photographs floating through the house and the furniture was left caked in mud when the flood subsided.
A staggering £60,000 of damage was caused, and while the devastated couple got an insurance payout within days, they couldn’t find any workers to repair the home.
They needed a team of builders, plasterers, painters and flooring experts to fix the damage – but nobody was willing to enter their home due to Covid rules.
Undeterred, Derek took on all the work himself, using skills he learned from his dad Jack, and over four months, renovated the entire house.
He learned to plaster, replace skirting, lay flooring and singlehandedly fitted a new bathroom and kitchen.
The garden was ruined with field debris and water damage, so Derek had to completely redecorate the outside space with new plants and decking. He estimated the DIY job saved him a staggering £20,000, which he has pocketed as a tidy “wage” for his hard work.
Derek, from Twigworth, in Gloucestershire, said: “The bulk of the work was done within four weeks, for which I worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
“But it took almost four months for us to complete the house and garden as we had delays in getting certain materials due to Covid.
“I completed most of the work on my own until it came to putting new doors on at the end of the work. By that time I was physically exhausted.
“All in all the insurance payout was £60,000, but by doing all the work myself, I was able to cut enough costs and I had some money left over.
“This meant I could take a wage for myself, which was really helpful, as I had just been made redundant.
“I am now 58 and my wife is 62, and we know as we get older the flooding will become increasingly harder to deal with.
“But we love our house so much and are confident, fifth time lucky, we’ll be able to successfully take all the right precautions so a disaster like this never happens again!”
The house flooded for the first time since 1942, in 2007, when storm water surged through their home – rising over their kitchen worktops.
Their fridge freezer was floating through the kitchen, and all their cupboard doors were forced open, forcing them to move into a hotel, claim £100,000 and have their home repaired.
Derek, an ex buyer, built a flood defence system, which saved them when fields around their home flooded on Christmas Day 2013. But more rain two months later saw them flooded again, when water rose through the floor.
They upgraded their flood defence system – building a 3ft wall, installing flood proof doors and raising their lawn with 40 tons of soil.
But the home flooded while they were away in Tenerife in February, and a friend wasn’t able to get the special doors fitted correctly in time. They arrived back at 3am the next day to a house filled with water, and they went to a hotel.
Valerie, who works as a carer, said: “After staying there for two weeks waiting for the house to have dryers put in, lockdown meant we were forced to leave and had no option but to go back and live in the upstairs rooms of our flooded house.
“In that same week we were told that we were not allowed to have anyone in the house to do any work to repair the damage, and my husband was made redundant so things were pretty bleak.
“We decided that the only way forward was for my husband to do the work himself, and having worked as a buyer for a building firm, he was very knowledgeable about how to go about it.”
Derek, who is a stepfather of two, with five grandchildren, used the money from their insurance payout to buy the materials, renovating his bottom floor almost entirely by himself. His jobs included the removal of plaster, skirting boards, flooring and doors as well as completely demolishing the downstairs toilet and kitchen units.
He said: “We also got my brother, who is a decorator to paint the kitchen, hall stairs and landing, as lock down measures were eased, which was a huge relief as it meant I could finally take a break.
“My father was a joiner, so I learnt a lot from him. He is a DIY enthusiast and always has a project on the go.”