Tuesday 30 April 2013

The FPA develops new interactive website

By Mary Dhonau, OBE

With the future availability of flood insurance hanging in the balance, there is now a much greater need for home owners and businesses to think about protecting their own properties. Being flooded is an appalling experience and taking moves to mitigate against the many months of misery and business interruption that flooding brings with it, is surely a sensible option!

Many people are totally baffled and just don’t know where to begin to protect their own properties (apart from using a humble and inefficient sandbag). The Flood Protection Association (FPA), a non- commercial trade body which represents the flood protection manufactures and promotes best practice and innovation within the industry, would be a good first port of call!

The Flood Protection Association has developed an interactive website for both domestic and commercial use. The user can simply hover the mouse over any part of a property where water can enter (e.g. an airbrick – where an astonishing 5,000 litres of water an hour can enter a property) and immediately be guided to a selection of approved companies who specialise in supplying protection for that area. Most of the FPA members have a Kitemark, which is a stringent testing regime that tests flood products to a set criterion.

It is essential before attempting to protect a property that a property level survey is undertaken to assess where the water comes from.  After all, it is no good protecting the doorway of a property if the water comes from underneath! The FPA has suitably qualified members able to undertake such surveys. 

The interactive website also gives information about flood risk and sources of flooding and has a direct link to members own websites. Please do visit http://thefpa.org.uk/ for further information. 

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