Before you go back in
Electricity first. Do not switch anything on and do not re-enter a flooded property with the power live — turn it off at the consumer unit if you can reach it safely, and have an electrician check the installation before it goes back on. Gas likewise needs a Gas Safe engineer before appliances are used.
Assume the water was contaminated. Floodwater routinely carries foul sewage, agricultural run-off, heating oil and whatever was in the drains. That assumption drives everything else — the protective equipment, the hygiene, and what has to be thrown away.
Wear gloves and waterproof boots, cover any cuts, and wash hands thoroughly before eating, drinking or smoking. If anyone develops sickness or diarrhoea afterwards, mention the flood exposure to a doctor.
- Power off at the consumer unit
- Gas off until an engineer checks it
- Assume the water is contaminated
- Gloves, boots, cover cuts
- Wash hands before eating or smoking
- Watch for structural movement
What has to go, regardless of appearance
This is the part people resist. Anything porous that absorbed floodwater cannot be reliably decontaminated: carpets and underlay, upholstered furniture, mattresses, soft toys, insulation, plasterboard below the water line, chipboard and MDF furniture.
Chipboard and MDF are the clearest case — they swell, delaminate and never recover structurally, even if they look acceptable once dry. Plasterboard wicks water well above the visible line and holds it, which is why it is cut out to a height above the tide mark rather than to the mark itself.
Food is not a judgement call: anything that contacted floodwater goes, including tins and sealed packaging, because the seams and seals cannot be guaranteed. Same for anything in a flooded fridge or freezer that lost power.
Photograph everything before you move it
Especially the water line. It's your best evidence and it disappears when the wall comes off.
Evidence before you clear
Photograph and video everything before you move a single item — wide shots of each room, close-ups of damage, and the water line on the walls. That tide mark is the single most useful piece of evidence you will have and it disappears when the wall is stripped.
Make a written inventory as you go: item, rough age, rough value. Doing it while clearing is far easier than reconstructing it from memory weeks later, and insurers ask for it.
Tell your insurer before you throw anything away, and ask what they need retained. Some will want to inspect; most accept photographs. Keep the waste transfer notes too — they evidence that the contents were genuinely disposed of, which supports the claim.
Drying out properly takes months, not days
Strip out first, then dry. Drying a building with sodden plasterboard and insulation still in it does not work — the moisture stays trapped and the mould follows.
Ventilate, use dehumidifiers, and be patient. A masonry wall that has been saturated takes months to reach normal moisture content, and replastering too early traps moisture behind the new surface and causes the whole thing to fail again.
Professional drying with monitoring is worth it on anything substantial, and insurers frequently cover it. Rushing this stage is the most common and most expensive mistake in a flood recovery.
Getting the contents out
Flood waste is bulky, heavy and contaminated. Saturated carpet weighs several times its dry weight, and a room's contents can be more than a household expects to shift.
We clear flood-damaged contents across Scotland, working to insurance timescales, and we photograph what is removed so the record matches the claim. Every collection carries a duty of care (your legal responsibility for waste you produce) transfer note under our SEPA registration (WCR/R/3002381).
Anything hazardous that the flood disturbed — heating oil, chemicals, asbestos in older buildings — needs flagging rather than loading, and we will say so. See flood-damage clearance.
