After a flood, most people want to know when they can get their home back. For a typical Wandsworth property, the honest answer is somewhere between two and six weeks of drying, and sometimes longer. How long yours takes depends on the type of water, how your house is built and how quickly drying equipment goes in.
Drying is only one stage. Before it starts, the water has to be removed and wet materials that can't be saved have to be stripped out. After it finishes, the house still has to be repaired. Here are realistic timescales for the drying itself once dehumidifiers and air movers are running:
Much of Balham, Tooting, Earlsfield, Southfields and Wandsworth Town is Victorian and Edwardian terracing. These houses have solid brick walls, often 225mm thick, with no cavity. Water soaks deep into the brickwork and comes out slowly. An old rule of thumb says natural drying takes roughly a month for every 25mm of wall thickness. Proper drying equipment speeds that up a great deal, but thick solid walls are still the slowest part of most jobs.
Suspended timber floors are another common problem. Water collects in the void underneath, out of sight, and can sit there for weeks if nobody checks. The floorboards may seem dry while the joists and the ground beneath are still soaking. Lifting a few boards and drying the void properly avoids rot and smells later.
Lower ground floor conversions and cellars, which are popular across the borough, take the longest. Groundwater and the surrounding soil keep feeding moisture back into the walls, so drying has to be managed with more care.
Most of what decides your drying time comes down to a few things:
Dry to the touch is not dry enough. A wall can feel fine on the surface while the brick behind it is still wet. A good drying contractor will take moisture readings at the start, set target readings using an unaffected wall in the same house, and record progress on regular visits, usually weekly.
Once the readings reach the target, you should get a drying certificate. Insurers normally ask for one before they approve reinstatement works, and it protects you if damp shows up later. Plastering or laying new flooring too early is the most common cause of blown plaster, mould and cupped floorboards after a flood.
Remember that full reinstatement takes longer than drying. Between assessment, strip out, drying, claim approval and repairs, a flooded Wandsworth home can take two to six months to put right, depending on the damage and how fast the insurer responds.
Often, yes, if the damage is limited to one or two rooms and the water was clean. If sewage was involved, the kitchen or bathroom is out of use, or the equipment noise is too much, your buildings or contents insurance may pay for alternative accommodation, so check your policy.
Dehumidifiers and air movers running all day can add a noticeable amount to your bill over several weeks. Most insurers will reimburse this, so take meter readings when the equipment arrives and when it leaves.
For a small, clean leak in summer that might be enough, but in solid walled terraces natural drying can take months and carries a real risk of mould and timber rot. Using proper equipment with moisture monitoring is usually quicker, and insurers generally expect it.
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