What to Do When Your House Floods: A Step-by-Step UK Guide
Related service: Flood Damage Restoration
What to Do When Your House Floods: A Step-by-Step UK Guide
Your home just flooded. Your heart’s racing, water’s everywhere, and you haven’t got a clue where to start. This guide walks you through exactly what to do, hour by hour, day by day, until your home’s back to normal.
The first minutes: immediate safety
Stop. Before you touch anything, before you start moving furniture, before you even think about the carpet, you need to make sure everyone’s safe.
If floodwater has come from outside, it’s contaminated. Full stop. We’re talking sewage, chemicals, fuel, dead animals. You can’t see most of it. Don’t wade through it in bare feet. Don’t let children or pets near it.
Here’s your immediate checklist:
- Turn off the electricity at the mains. If your consumer unit is in a flooded area and you can’t reach it safely, call your electricity supplier’s emergency line. Don’t touch it if you’re standing in water.
- Turn off the gas. Same logic applies.
- Open windows if safe to do so. Get air moving early.
- Move upstairs if water is still rising. Take phones, medication, important documents.
- Call 999 if anyone’s in danger. Don’t be brave about it.
Honestly, the number of people I’ve seen try to save the telly while standing ankle-deep in sewage water is frightening. Your stuff can be replaced. You can’t.
If the flooding is from a burst pipe, find your stopcock and turn it off. Most are under the kitchen sink. If you’ve never tested yours, add that to your weekend list after you’ve read this.
First 2 hours: damage limitation
Right. Power’s off, everyone’s safe, water’s stopped rising or you’ve killed the supply. Now you’ve got a window to limit the damage before it gets worse.
Get water out fast. Every minute counts. Use buckets, mops, towels, whatever you’ve got. If you have a wet vacuum, now’s its moment. A garden hose can work as a siphon if the water level outside is lower.
Lift what you can. Curtains up off the floor. Furniture onto bricks or blocks. Cushions off sofas. Books and photos into plastic bags and upstairs. Move rugs to a dry area.
Take photos of everything. Before you clean a single thing, document the damage. Your phone’s fine. Video’s even better. Walk through every room. Open cupboards. Show water lines on walls. Your insurer will want this. (More on the insurance process here.)
Don’t use electrical appliances that have been in contact with floodwater. Not even after they’ve dried. They’ll need professional testing.
A few things people forget in the first two hours:
- Check the loft. Water finds its way up through capillary action.
- Open internal doors. Floodwater builds pressure against closed doors and can warp frames.
- Remove anything from walls that could trap moisture behind it. Pictures, mirrors, shelves.
The goal here isn’t to fix everything. It’s to stop things getting worse.
First 24 hours: starting recovery
You’ve done the emergency work. Now it’s about getting organised.
Contact your insurance company. Do this within 24 hours. Most policies require prompt notification. Have your policy number ready, and those photos you took. Ask specifically about temporary accommodation if your home’s not liveable. Ask about “alternative accommodation” cover. It’s in most policies but people don’t know to ask.
Register the flood with your local council. They keep records and it can help with future support. In Bristol, contact the council’s flood risk team directly.
Start removing saturated materials. Carpet underlay that’s been soaked with floodwater almost always needs to go. The carpet itself? That depends on what type of water and how long it sat. (We’ve written a full guide on whether flooded carpets can be saved.) Pull out wet plasterboard below the water line. It won’t dry properly and it’ll grow mould within 48 hours.
Don’t turn the heating on full blast. I know it’s tempting. But rapid drying causes cracking in plaster, warping in wood, and can actually trap moisture deeper in the structure. Gentle warmth and airflow. That’s what you want.
If you’re on the Gloucester Road side of Bristol, near us in Southmead, we can usually get to you within a couple of hours for an assessment. But wherever you are in the city, getting a specialist involved early saves money in the long run.
Keep a diary. Write down what happened, when, what you did, who you spoke to. Times, names, reference numbers. This becomes gold when dealing with insurers later.
Days 2 to 7: professional intervention
This is when most people realise they’re out of their depth. And that’s completely fine.
A professional flood damage restoration company will do things you can’t do yourself:
Moisture mapping. We use thermal imaging cameras and moisture meters to find water you can’t see. Water travels along joists, behind plasterboard, under floors. It hides. Left alone, hidden moisture causes structural damage and mould growth that shows up months later.
Water extraction. Industrial pumps and extractors shift thousands of litres. A domestic wet vac isn’t in the same league.
Contamination assessment. The water in your home falls into one of three categories. Category 1 is clean water from a pipe. Category 3 is sewage or floodwater. The category determines everything about how the cleanup happens. What can be saved, what must be destroyed, what protective equipment is needed.
Antimicrobial treatment. After contaminated water, every affected surface needs treating. Not just a wipe down. Proper antimicrobial fogging and surface treatment.
Content assessment. A good restoration company will help you sort items into three piles: can be saved here, can be saved with specialist treatment, and needs to go. We’ll document this for your insurer too.
During this phase, your insurer may send a loss adjuster. The loss adjuster works for the insurance company, not for you. Be polite, be thorough, and have your documentation ready. If you’ve got a professional restoration company on site, they can provide the technical evidence your claim needs.
About 30% of the flood jobs we handle in Bristol come through insurance referrals directly. The other 70% call us first, then we work with their insurer. Either route works. (Here’s our full guide on flood damage insurance claims.)
Weeks 2 to 8: the drying process
Here’s where patience matters. And honestly, this is the part most people underestimate.
A flooded house doesn’t dry in a week. Depending on the construction, the water level, and the time of year, structural drying takes anywhere from 2 to 8 weeks. Sometimes longer.
Professional drying equipment gets placed throughout your property. We’re talking industrial dehumidifiers, air movers, and sometimes specialist drying systems that target walls and floors specifically. This isn’t a couple of fans from Argos.
Regular monitoring matters. We take moisture readings every few days, tracking progress in each wall, floor, and ceiling. We’re looking for the moisture content to drop back to normal levels, about 12 to 16% for most building materials.
You can’t skip this step. If you redecorate, lay new carpet, or replaster over damp structure, you’ll be doing it all again in six months. Mould will grow behind your new surfaces. The plaster will blow. The carpet will stink. I’ve seen it dozens of times.
What you can do during this period:
- Keep the property ventilated but secure
- Run the drying equipment continuously (your insurer should cover the electricity)
- Check on dehumidifier water tanks if they’re not plumbed to drain
- Watch for mould appearing on any surfaces and report it immediately
The target is getting the building back to its pre-flood moisture levels before any reinstatement work begins.
Insurance process tips
Dealing with insurance after a flood is a job in itself. Here’s what 25 years of working alongside insurance companies has taught me.
Know your policy excess. Flood claims often have a separate, higher excess than standard claims. Check before you assume.
Get three quotes if your insurer asks. But know that you have the right to choose your own contractor. You don’t have to use whoever the insurer suggests. Some insurers will push their managed repair network. These are often fine. Sometimes they’re not. You have a legal right to appoint your own.
Keep every receipt. Takeaways because your kitchen’s destroyed. Hotel stays. Storage costs. Replacement clothes. All of it’s potentially claimable under your policy.
Don’t throw anything away without documenting it. Photograph it, list it, note the brand and approximate value. Insurers won’t pay for items they can’t verify existed.
Get a specialist report. A professional flood damage assessment from an IICRC-certified company carries weight with insurers. It sets out exactly what happened, what’s damaged, what needs doing, and how much it’ll cost. We provide these as standard with every flood job.
Don’t sign anything you’re not comfortable with. If a loss adjuster presents a settlement figure and it feels low, you can negotiate. You can also appoint your own loss assessor to represent your interests. They typically charge around 10% of the settlement but often recover significantly more than you’d get alone.
Timeline matters. Insurers expect you to mitigate damage (that’s the legal term for “don’t make it worse”). Acting quickly and keeping records shows you’ve done your part.
Getting help after a flood in Bristol
We’re Bristol Cleaning Heroes, based at 290-294 Southmead Road, BS10 5EN. We’ve been restoring flood-damaged properties across Bristol for 25 years. We’re IICRC certified, carry £2M insurance, and we work directly with all major insurers.
Standard enquiries: hello@bristolcleaningheroes.co.uk | 07985 505061
Emergency flood response (24/7): 0808 303 7072
If your home’s flooded, call the emergency line. We’ll talk you through what to do straight away, and get a team to you as fast as possible. That call costs you nothing and could save you thousands.
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