Making HOME Flood Safe
Flooding not only devastates homes and property; it causes disruption to human life that is sometimes unrepairable. The average time for a family to return home after a flood is currently over 9 months (UK market statistics, Environment Agency database) with devastating effects on a family’s physical and mental health, work and education.
In order to meet UK housing requirements, we must build more structures across more areas than ever before. However, the presence of housing in flood risk areas is already posing a threat to homes and livelihoods:
1 in 6 houses are in a flood risk area – that’s 2.4 million homes in the UK
3 million further homes are at risk of surface water flooding
27% of all new homes (60,000 per annum) are built on a flood plain
Housing developers are looking further and wider to meet demands; this sometimes means venturing into less than ideal lands. While millions of homes continue to be at risk and millions are spent on temporary preventative measures, a more permanent solution has been in development and is currently being built and tested as part of HOME by Hadley.
Introducing the Hadley FloodSAFE™ House
The Hadley FloodSAFE™ House has been designed to avoid structural damage through flooding, and keep contents safe and dry at precisely the moment it is needed, reducing the risk of damage and significantly reducing time needed to prepare for a return home.
A series of EA approved water sensors are installed to detect a significant water-related event. Within 15 seconds, the sensors trigger the Control Panel that raises the structure at the rate of the onset water to 1.5+ metres above the water level. Control panels and variable water sensors keep the home approximately 150mm above the flood water level and maintain such a distance throughout the flood event, until such a time that it is safe for the structure to return to ground level.
The Hadley FloodSAFE™ House is being developed and tested in partnership with Floodjack International – innovators of the FloodJack® system.
The FloodJack® system is designed for a light gauge steel structure, making with the Lightweight Hadley Steel Framing used in our homes the ideal candidate.
At this time, a fully working three bedroom detached FloodSafe House has been constructed to test and improve the concept.
To find out more about the Hadley FloodSAFE™ Test House, read our case study.