Emergency response
Emergency flood response in Wiltshire
A burst pipe puts out roughly nine litres a minute. Left running for an hour that is enough to soak a ground floor, the void beneath it and the bottom of every wall it touches.
What it involves
We get there fast, stop the spread and get water out of the building.
The first call matters more than the first hour on site. We ask where the water is coming from, whether you have found the stopcock, and whether the electrics in that part of the building are safe. Most people can cut the volume of damage in half before anyone arrives, just by turning the right thing off.
On arrival we isolate the source if it is still running, then work out where the water has actually gone. Water travels along the path of least resistance — under skirtings, along joists, down the back of a stud wall, into the ceiling void of the room below. What you can see on the floor is rarely the extent of it.
Extraction comes next. Standing water is pumped or vacuumed out, saturated underlay and carpet are lifted where they are holding litres of water, and anything acting as a wick — cardboard boxes, chipboard, packed cupboards — comes off the wet floor. Where a floor void is holding water we open access points rather than guess.
Then the drying setup goes in the same visit wherever possible: dehumidifiers sized to the room volume, air movers positioned to move air across wet surfaces rather than around the room, and a first set of moisture readings logged so there is a baseline to measure against.
Questions
Asked most often.
+What should I do before you arrive?
Turn the water off at the stopcock, then open the windows — even if it is raining, moving air out of the property helps far more than keeping it shut in. If it is safe to do so, turn off electrics in the affected area. Photograph everything before you move it, then move what you can lift — place it in a dry area, or put it up on blocks to get it out of the water. Do not try to pull up saturated carpet yourself — it is far heavier than it looks.
+Do you work outside normal hours?
Our normal hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5pm, and we take emergency callouts outside those hours too. Call 07971 435221 and we will tell you honestly when we can be there.
+Will my insurer pay for this?
Escape of water is covered by most buildings policies. We log readings and photographs from the first visit so there is evidence to submit either way, and we can deal with the loss adjuster directly. You may need to sign an authorisation mandate so we can liaise with your insurer on your behalf.
+Do I need to move out?
Usually not. Drying equipment is noisy and the rooms in use will be warm, but most households stay put. If the kitchen or the only bathroom is out of action that changes, and we will say so early.
Coverage
Emergency flood response across Wiltshire
Where we are coming from and what we expect to find changes by town. These are the four areas we work in most, and what an emergency call usually looks like in each.
Trowbridge, Westbury and Bradford-on-Avon
TROWBRIDGE · WESTBURY · BRADFORD-ON-AVON
Trowbridge is ten minutes from base, so a Trowbridge call is normally the fastest we do. The housing works against us though: the mill-town terraces off Union Street and the Victorian and Edwardian stock across the town mostly sit on suspended timber ground floors, and water that reaches the void under those boards is invisible from the room. We lift a board and look rather than assume.
Salisbury and Swindon are covered too — call 07971 435221 and we will tell you straight away whether we can get to you and when.
Water in the building now?
Mon–Fri 8:30am–5pm — emergency callouts outside these hours.