Intona to the rescue!

Intona were called by a client to urgently attend a property in Fife that had been flooded due to a frozen water pipe bursting within the roof void. Our immediate attention was required and time was very much of the essence.

The owner was not in residence at the time at the time of the flood. If he had been, he would have seen the water collapsing the ceiling in two bedrooms, the landing at 1st Floor level and the lounge, hall and kitchen on the ground floor.All the floorboards on both floors were saturated and had begun cupping. Added to this, the roof insulation was also saturated and if things could not have got any worse, all the kitchen units and kitchen white goods were water damaged. The damage was absolutely immense – heart breaking for the owner.

When instructed our surveyor attended the property. It was horrific to see how much damage a frozen water piper could cause. Safety was as normal absolutely paramount so immediately our electrician isolated all the electrics and installed temporary a fuse board.

The very messy bit now began in that our operatives removed all saturated insulation, ceiling plasterboard, kitchen units, floorboards, the damaged wall plaster and anything else that had been affected. The drying process was about to begin whereby fans and dehumidifiers were installed to reduce the moisture levels within the property for a period of approximately 28 days. After this period reinstatement work could begin – in essence, we had to put the house back together again. Sounds normal but there of course had to be a caveat however!

Before re-instatement works started, we were informed that the property owner, due to temporary accommodation issues, had a seven week deadline to get back into his house. The clock was now seriously ticking as this meant the all the reinstatement work including snagging and cleaning had to be finished in 6 weeks to allow the final week for the owner to return to his property. Time was certainly once more indeed of the essence. We could not let anybody down.

The job started. It was certainly going to be a team effort, for example organisation to the umpteenth degree was paramount. In the first week, all floors were renewed, ceilings sheeted and insulation fitted within the roof void. Week two saw the plasterboard being fitted to all walls, new door frames being erected, skirting and facings being put in situ and light pendants and sockets being renewed. So far after two weeks, all thankfully was going to plan.

The following week, i.e. week three, saw all the new plasterboard being taped and filled, the bathroom suite being re-fitted and we were delighted to see the new central heating piping and new gas boiler being installed. We were literally halfway through the very tight programme but things were still going well. All the trades had dovetailed together and up until now thankfully, there had been no serious hiccups. Hopefully this would continue, it had to!

Week four brought a brand spanking new kitchen, new internal doors being fitted and saw the window surrounds being renewed in stunning new upvc. There were now however only two weeks to complete the project on time. This meant all the snagging and redecoration works were finalised by the end of week five with week six, i.e. final deadline week seeing all radiators being fitted, connected and switched on to ensure everything was working properly. The reinstatement works had finished. We had made it but before the keys could be handed over to what was a seriously happy and satisfied customer, the property was given a full deep clean. It looked perfect. Everybody was delighted at what had been a massive undertaking.

We had made it. Other companies had quoted twice as long to do the work. We said we could do it in the period allowed and we did it. Intona had indeed come to the rescue. It was a superb team effort from everybody within the company culminating in what we wanted – a happy satisfied customer.