Description

The measures described in this Wood Information Sheet (WIS) summarise the many practical steps that can be taken - often for little extra cost - to make timber frame construction flood resistant and resilient, and likely to comply with the evolving building regulations.

The main approaches to mitigating the effects of flooding are described in the Department of Communities and Local Government's (CLG) Guidance and summarised in TRADA's Construction Briefing. In order of priority, these are:
- Flood avoidance - constructing a building and its surrounds (at site level) in such a way to avoid it being flooded;
- Flood resistance - constructing a building in such a way to prevent floodwater entering it and damaging its fabric;
- Flood resilience - constructing a building in such a way that although floodwater may enter, its impact is reduced; and
- Flood repairable - constructing a building in such a way that, although floodwater enters, elements that are damaged by flood water can be easily repaired or replaced. This is also a form of flood resilience.

Timber frame buildings can be made flood resistant, as well as flood resilient (and repairable). Although some of the recommended measures could be used in flood betterment, the emphasis in this sheet is on making new build construction flood resilient. The advice in this information sheet is under four headings:
- Designing a timber frame building to avoid flooding
- Designing a timber frame building to resist flooding
- Designing a timber frame building to be flood resilient
- Selecting materials for enhanced flood resilience.

A limited number of hard copies are available to TRADA members on request for free. Please contact the publications team on +0044 (0)1494 569602/publications@trada.co.uk to receive your free copy whilst stocks last.