Participant stories

In 2022, there was a rain bomb, and we'd had a build up of a lot of rain.

We slowly watched the water come up closer and closer to our home.

It was about 9 o’clock at night, and we got to about that far from the water coming into our home
that we decided that we would leave.

So it wasn't until the next day when we came back that there was evidence that water had come inside. So yeah, we flooded.

It was quite a bit of damage, even though it was only, only came in probably 150 mil.

They came in and basically gutted all the walls and everything from about halfway up the walls down, ripped out all floor.

And we started the process of cleaning, which took a couple of months, we had blowers in there
for a couple of months and were actually displaced out of our home for, for a year over the whole process.

The major works was to lift our home.

So we, explored the Resilient Fund and had the assessment.

The team came out and, we were then advised that we were eligible to lift, so we went through that process, of finding a builder and then applying to the fund for having our home raised.

We only lifted 1.5 metres above the flood levels that the Brisbane City Council set.

We didn't want to raise the house right up high in the sky, due to just the aesthetics that we wanted because it was more a cottage style house, we wouldn't have been able to build
underneath anyway due to the flooding.

With the recent ex-tropical cyclone event, the water did come up quite quickly.

So I remember standing on the deck and looking at the water rising and saying to you, have we raised high enough?

Because I think there was probably just that anxiety from past events and, second guessing yourself, but, we were relieved to know that it just stopped where it did.

With the rain, we also had the really high tides. And we were well aware that we were - that it was
going to come into our yard again.

A lot less anxiety, a lot less stress this time around.

I'd previously fixed up shelving in my shed and lifted power points up above the flood levels so that was just a matter of lifting a few things up off the ground.

It's a steel frame shed, Yeah, so it was, it was a lot better this time around, so it's basically just a gerni out,  after, you know, learning from the previous floods.

Well, we get our 100 year events every three years now, so I think we're pretty prepared for the next 4 or 5 of them.

Like, obviously we'll get water in, but it comes up and it goes away just as quick, so, I don't think we need to worry too much more about anything really, now that we're up in the air.

So, it's just relieved a lot of that stressful side of it.

Yeah, just making sure I remember that there's somewhere for the dog to go to the bathroom.

My name is Sam and I’m the technical advisor at the Resilient Homes Fund.

This house here is a really good example of a resilient retrofit.

Resilient retrofitting is simply about making it easier to clean up after a flood, decreasing the disruption and being able to get back in sooner.

This house flooded 2 metres through downstairs in the 2022 flood event and has a risk level that actually goes into upstairs.

The owners in this house have chosen to retrofit so that they can maintain the space here, downstairs.

We normally recommend starting with resilient retrofitting by looking at the essential elements in the home - the floors, the walls, the services and then things like cabinetry.

Resilient retrofits mean that it's easier to clean out. So there's no cavities in the walls, and there's water-resistant materials that aren't as susceptible to damaging water.

What they've done here is open up the stair underneath to make it easier to clean out afterwards.

It's one of the common spaces where water can get where it's hard to broom out after flood.

You can see here single skin construction. And they've done this throughout downstairs.

What that means is, is that there's a wall lining just on one side.

This is fibre cement sheeting, which is more resilient than plasterboard.

And on the other side, it's open so you can come in and hose it out after a flood.

They've also sealed the bricks, which allows moisture to be kept outside, and to be able to wash inside after a flood.

Solid core doors stand up so much better in a flood than the normal hollow core doors that you have inside a house, particularly if you seal them or paint them at the top and bottom of the door.

Around the outside of these doors is solid hardwood skirting and architraves. Hardwood stands up so much better in a flood than soft wood like pine. So these are examples of flood-resilient floors.

The idea for floors is that you avoid having a build up of layers like carpet or MDF floating timber floors which can swell up or go mouldy.

So, we've got polished concrete here.  And then we've got tiles which have been fixed by a moisture-resistant adhesive and a semi epoxy grout.

Some of the other examples of flood-resilient floors are hardwood floors, when you have a suspended floor, or if you have something like a concrete slab here.

Another alternative is epoxy sealing. So, this is a flood resilient kitchen.

There’s a stone benchtop and outdoor-rated material for the doors, carcasses and the kickboards.

Some of the materials that you can use are compact laminate, PVC or marine ply.

Now, these are much better than chipboard, which traditionally swells up when it gets wet.

Importantly as well, there's a kickboard down at the bottom here which can be removed and cleaned out underneath after a flood.

Part of what we look at in flood resilience for retrofitting is making sure that everything

can be cleaned properly, that you have sealed surfaces and there's no cavities or gaps where water can get to that you can't clean out after a flood.

This is a really important prevention method for things like mould, which has major health consequences.

Raising services is one of the simplest things that you can do in resilient retrofitting, like this hot water system here, which has been raised up about a metre, putting it further out of harm's way of flooding.

Other services that you can think of raising are things like air-conditioning units or the electrical mailbox and switchboard.

So, the homeowners have raised the power points to as high as practical downstairs. It's not above the flood risk, but it will get above a low-level flood.

One of the great things about resilient retrofitting is that it can be more affordable than large structural alterations, like home raising.

It also allows people to stay in their existing homes and improve them in a way that increases their resilience.

The home was affected by an inundation that was significant and, and it it's the highest it's ever been.

Even in ‘74.

It didn't go inside.

The water came inside the house by about 1.2 metres.

So it affected everything.

Our biggest fear was the safety of the people inside and then and, and the property itself and the total extent of the total damage or decimation of the place inside and out.

The contractor register was useful in that it provided some guidance to various builders that were available to help and, could undertake that kind of work that we needed.

We reached out and, and we ended up speaking to Hugh and the Ponsford team, who were terrific and they came in and, and demonstrated that they really cared about getting us back on track and back where we needed to be.

So they walked us through the process and, and helped guide us to completion of the project.

The process in raising this home … the owners actually came to us with their architectural plans and engineering drawings, which we then took to a private certifier who then issue us with the BA, the building approval.

And from there we do the usual of engaging our trades, our subcontractors, making sure they execute the work properly and then we'll pay them promptly.

And I have to say that the Resilient Homes Fund’s been really helpful because once they were satisfied that we got to that payment stage, they had us paid within a week, which makes it really helpful for us to pay our subcontractors on time.

This project here was actually our first job with the fund and we did learn a lot from.

We've picked up more work through recommendations and just people driving past.

There's been a lot of flood resilience work that's come from this first job.

So it's been a really positive experience for us.

For other builders looking at signing up for the Resilient Homes Fund work, I'd say it's definitely worth looking at if you're prepared to put the hard work in and do a quality job.

It is rewarding.

One thing that is worth keeping in mind is you've got to remember that they have been through a natural disaster.

Their homes have often been inundated with flood water and on top of that, they've had to wait a year plus, sometimes more than two years, to even talk to a builder.

So when dealing with them, just keep in mind that they've been through quite a bit, and obviously try and help them and make the process as easy as possible for them moving forward.

Through the process, we've learned that no matter how big or unexpected the project is, just to work at it, do the research.

There are people who are willing to help and if you ask and people who are willing to both point you in the right direction and provide the assistance that you might need.

So for those who are still undergoing the process, stick with it.

Coming out of the other end, you will end up with something that that will give you peace of mind in terms of your home resilience going forward.

This job here was actually our first project that we did through the Resilient Homes Fund, and there are lots of things I learned along the way, but one of the things that I think stands out would have been the quote example done by the Resilient Homes Fund.

It's online there.

Try and use those tools that the Resilient Homes Fund gives you.

Try and work with them.

It's worth learning.

You should get a lot out of it using the examples.

When trying to come up with the scope of works with the homeowner,

I'd recommend using the guidelines that give you an idea of what the homeowner is eligible for under the Fund.

For example, like raising hot water systems and air-conditioning units.

But you don't have to stick exactly to those guidelines.

You can as a builder come up with your own ideas as well, like we've done with the stairs on this job.

I think in the guidelines they might recommend that there's no pine to be used, which is totally right.

But they're recommending F-17 hardwood to be used on the stairs.

Whereas we've taken all the timber completely out of the stairs and come up with the design where we've had a steel frame fabricated and then taken it in to get hot dip galvanised.

So there'll never be a rust issue with that.

Then we've gone on to use open profile aluminium threads and for the landings as well, along with the powder-coated aluminium handrail.

Basically, if this property does get inundated again with flood water, when that flood water recedes, it'll be a matter of simply getting a pressure cleaner out here, pressure cleaning off the stairs and they're good to go again.

And I, I think that's a lot about what this program's about is making these homes resilient.

And that's a good example of working with the Resilient Homes Fund as a builder to come up with more resilient ideas.

I've lived here for 40 years, so twice in the last 9 years it is since 2 years have elapsed.

Just about finished me, can I say, it was not pleasant. I lost most of my belongings, including beautiful furniture that I had just bought again following the previous flood, so yeah, it does this to you.

My biggest fear is that it was going to go under again, and as soon as you rebuild then you've gone again, and you've got to go back to square one and another big fear was that I would never be able to sell the place or that my child after I died would never be able to sell the place.

I guess when we look at raising a home, there's many things involved with it.

First of all, we need to start with our plans, and we move on to our engineering to give us the structural components of that build.

We're going to be dealing with a certifier to get approval for the works. We're going to have surveyors that are going to plot the house on the block block and give us the heights that we're going to work to.

And then it's a matter of getting all the trades in. So, we're going to be getting our house raisers, electricians, plumbers, concreters and carpenters. We're going to have the excavator driver and then we're going to be filling the holes with concrete and finalising the raise.

I know that this yard will flood. It's now in a flood zone, it wasn’t 40 years ago, but it now is. I'll now still have to move my car, but I won't have to worry about getting out of bed and my feet touching water in the morning.

I'm safe. My contents are safe. My house is safe.

So no, I have none of those concerns ever again. Dealing with the Resilient Homes program, we didn't have any troubles at all. We found the process to be quite simple.

We followed the guidelines and we found in Sue’s case here we didn't have any issues with the builders being able to go ahead nice and quickly and the whole process was pretty straightforward.

There is absolutely no way in the world that I would have been able to raise this house following that flood without the help of the Resilient Homes Fund. The Resilient Homes Fund for me is a God send. It’s been an amazing response of government, two levels I understand that, Federal and State.

I can only say thank you to everybody that has helped me along the way including my builder.