Our Flood Experience

Working in the flood sector is incredibly rewarding. It’s astonishing to see what our products are capable of and the testimonials we’ve received from customers, whether they flood often or want to protect themselves for the future, are outstanding.

That said, I have never been able to fully empathise with our customers, as my own home has never flooded. This often left me feeling unsure if what I was saying was as sincere as I meant it to be.

As the saying goes, you should walk a mile in someone else’s shoes if you want to truly understand how they feel, and I can wholeheartedly agree with that now.

The Day It Happened

On Wednesday, 15th October, my family woke up to disaster. An over-pressurised pipe had burst in our upstairs bathroom. It happened in the middle of the night and must have been running for hours.

The bathroom was full of water. I quickly ran to stop the flow and walked downstairs to see hot water pouring through our spotlights and ceiling. Our house was flooded, although it could have been mistaken for a steam room.

The cause? A newly fitted boiler system that had not been fully pressure-tested. We are now left to deal with the results.

The Immediate Aftermath and The Kick-in

In the immediate aftermath, we started by trying to get as much water out of the house as we could with towels and a mop, whilst also getting our son to school on time and keeping him calm. It felt very surreal, and at this point, the actual reality of what happened hadn’t fully hit us. 

I won’t go into all the details, but after two or three days, the entirety of what our family was facing kicked in: months out of our family home that we’d spent years making our own. I felt an overwhelming sense of dread, anger, frustration, sadness, and helplessness—the daunting task of everything before us.

We are incredibly lucky to have family who have taken us in, allowing us to stay with them without too much disruption for our son, who has just started school this year. However, the reality of Christmas away from our family home is a bitter pill to swallow.

A Silver Lining: Practising What We Sell

We are now firmly in the process of drying out our house and reinstating, which is going to take months.

There is a silver lining, however. When we were renovating the kitchen three years ago, I decided to go with what I sell, and installed a Floodcabs kitchen. This has been a blessing. We’ve managed to save a month or so on the reinstatement timeline and will see significant cost savings against our premium next year.

Right now, it still doesn’t feel like a bonus, but something I’ve learned through this process: even small protections make a massive difference.

The Power of Talking

I have always tried to be a cheerful, glass-half-full kind of person, and I’m trying incredibly hard to continue being that person through this situation. But the emotions are real, and I did not understand how something like this feels until it happened to us. Our life as we knew it has been ripped from beneath us, and that is hard. 

I have found the only way to get through it is to talk with family, friends, colleagues, anyone you trust to listen. And if you ever find yourself without someone to talk it through with, then please give me a ring- I’m always willing to listen. 

I’ve added my details below:

Ben Griffiths 

ben.griffiths@floodcabs.co.uk 

01934 750084