Flood Ready Kamala Crt
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House Notes – Flood Ready Kamala Crt
On February 28, 2022 my home was flooded but only 15cm of water came through the home, twice. First on high tide around 6am and then again from 3pm. Even though the water level was low the damage was extensive. The walls were cut off to half height, the kitchen and bathroom demolished and all the flooring deemed unsalvagable.
I contacted Renew to ask for guidance regarding flood resilient retrofitting and was directed to the pioneering work of JDA Co. in Brisbane. I followed the recommendations and shared the strategies and techniques with my community in the hope that more homeowners would be able to reject allowing their insurers to simply rebuild their homes ‘like for like’ so that the loss and trauma is set to repeat in the future.
Sustainability Features
- Sustainable materials:
- - The power points and data access were raised above the bottom wall panel height of 1200mm throughout the home. If another flood doesn't come through for decades and the house is stripped again to 1200 high the electrical amenity will be retained.
- The pine frame that soaked up so much water and then went mouldy was dried out and treated to kill the mould then painted with Crommelin AquaBlock. A "unique high cover broad wall surface sealer, primer, undercoat and stain blocker paint with excellent waterproofing properties".
- The bottom half of the wall linings that were originally gyprock were replaced from 300mm above the floor to 1200mm hight with:
a) compressed fibre cement sheeting on all external walls (those where the cavity is clad with brick and future flooding will enter the cavity via the weep holes)
b) Gyprock aquacheck on all internal walls
- All walls have a dado rail trim at 1200mm. This was deemed faster and easier due to the lack of plaster trades available and on the external walls the dado had a 4mm step in the back to bridge the difference between the 10mm Gyprock on the top of the wall and the 6mm fc sheet on the bottom.
- Below 300mm on all walls we left a gap that got covered up with skirting boards made from form ply. In the event of a future flood the skirting boards can be unscrewed and removed so all cavities can be cleaned, dried and a fogging machine used to treat mould.
-The flooring was carpet and tiles before the flood. Now the entire home is simply the concrete slab that was ground and polished. Except for the bathroom which is standard slab then waterproofed then tiled but the grout and glue are semi epoxy to ensure flood resilience.
- The cavity around the waterproofed section of the bathroom was removed by cutting out the pine frame and replaced with a concrete block wall. Literally a fortress that was then doubly strengthened by being waterproofed on the outside and painted before being boarded up and waterproofed on the inside. Flood waters will not be able to get in under the waterproofing next flood which was the reason cited for the entire bathroom being demolished after this flood.
- Cabinetry in the bathroom has been limited to one floating benchtop at standard height that houses the vanity and moveable furniture provides storage space underneath.
- The kitchen is a state of the art example of flood resilient design in a brick veneer home slab on ground. The two key elements that achieve this are:
a) the cabinetry is removable so the cavities in the walls can be cleaned and dried. This requires the simple but transformational redesign of the structural support for the bench top changing from being the cabinetry itself to an independent steel frame.
b) the cabinetry is rated flood resilient. The doors are Tricoya and the carcasses Stylex.
- All-Electric Home?
- No
- Cost estimate of sustainable home/features:
- 50 000
- Wall Materials
- Brick veneer
- Number of bedrooms
- 3
- Number of bathrooms
- 1
- Housing Type:
- Duplex
- Project Type:
- Flood rebuild
- Open with support of
- Mullum Cares Incorporated
- Builder
- Bruns Build Co
- Designer
- JDA Co
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