Despite increased investment in flood defences, it is not economically viable to protect all at risk properties from the threat of flooding. This has led to a move towards encouraging property owners to take their own steps in making their homes or businesses less vulnerable to flooding. For example, the UK Government has introduced a grant aid scheme to encourage property level flood protection and has called for the development of new innovative flood approaches and products. Examining the effectiveness of current flood protection products including both resistance and resilience measures, with regard to water ingress, installation cost and acceptance by homeowners, reveals shortcomings with the existing measures. To address this issue, a novel solution is proposed that combines resistance and resilience adapted basement waterproofing, using an internal hollow skirting system (patent protected GB-2449777 and GB-2452423) to address the ingress of floodwaters into properties with solid floors. The method does not attempt to resist floodwaters but manages the water using ways that homeowners can appreciate. It is easy to install and is affordable in line with current grant aid. Furthermore, the new system can be installed in both existing and new build properties and, in doing so, offers complete property flood level protection. It is concluded that the new system may provide a practical solution towards the uptake of property level flood adaptation measures.

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Purpose – Experimental field test apparatus has been used to determine the inter-variability and intra-variability floodwater ingress rates of the masonry wall of a domestic building, before and after preparation with an improved surface treatment procedure. The purpose of this paper is to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach – Replicated and repeated simulations of floodwater conditions (600 mm head) outside a building were created, before and after the wall was treated with a combination of mortar admixture and surface impregnation. Findings – Untreated and treated floodwater ingress rates were 4.99 litres/hour (234.99 litres/hour/m2) and 1.74 litres/hour (81.90 litres/hour/m2), respectively, and display high intra-variability before treatment. These preliminary results indicate water penetration through masonry is linked to the initial rate of absorption of brick units and perceivably the workmanship of the bricklayer. Originality/value – Reductions in floodwater penetration from outside a building, by the impregnation and admixture treatments of masonry walls, can be achieved to manageable levels. However, the target for rates of water ingress through permeable masonry of < 10 litres/hour/m2, to accord with values for kitemark products, still needs further work.

Property flood resilience (PFR) is an important aspect within an integrated approach to flood risk reduction. In the UK this has resulted in a plethora of products and recommended measures to minimise the ingress of water to the millions of properties at risk that are of traditional domestic masonry construction and limit property damage. The study considers the need for innovation to improve the take up of measures in the UK and demonstrates an innovative suite of measures that can be implemented to minimise and manage floodwater ingress of domestic buildings at various floodwater depths. The measures are shown to have advantages that potentially increase the number of properties at risk that can adopt such systems of risk reduction.

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