We had a lot of rain at the start of last winter which was about two months ago (yup, no white Christmas for a while now). I came back from work one evening only to find the porch light didn’t come on as I entered the rear compound of my property. My heart immediately sank as I was sure that there would be no power in the house. And sure enough, my basement was flooded in the buangruang section.

Interestingly, the water looked clear from what I could see using my iPhone’s torch. It was prolly an inch of water and as the electricity had cut off thanks to the main circuit breaker fuse, I stepped into buangruang and saw what I thought could have caused this – a five gang extension which was plugged onto the wall socket switched on. I switched it off and unplugged the extension. The fusebox appeared dry but I was still wary as to the possibility of water coming down from the nearby wall. Made a call to my builder and electrician – both of whom advised to leave things as it is, and they would come first thing the next morning. All I could do was get a take out from my favourite Chinese take away across the road, and eat my dinner in candle light. Luckily my bedroom had some residual heat which meant the flooding prolly occurred late in the afternoon.


The next day I called in to say that I won’t be coming to work. I entered buangruang with the electrician and he confirmed the wall near the fuse box was ok, and turned the electricity back on. I can then see the (potential) damage which comprised mainly the thankfully cheap IKEA rugs, a few of my guitar pedals and its wires and the pedal power source. The water was indeed clear but it had receded to a few mm. Took a lot of photos and a video of the floor and wet items for insurance purposes. My builder assessed the damage and told me to get back to him once I’ve called the home insurance people. As there was no real indication that the water came from structural damage, we felt that the flooding was a result of oversaturation of the ground surrounding the house raising the water table – which would explain why the water was clear. Before he left, he helped me get some of the bigger items out namely the speaker cabs. Luckily they were just wet at the bottom and I was confident that they should be fine once they dried.

Called the insurance people and they told me to upload the photos/videos onto their online claims form. A chap from a loss adjusting firm will be visiting to assess the damage. I spent the day removing the smaller cabs and combo amps, as well as the guitar pedals, which together with every single extension wire and cables, these were hung out near/on the radiator to dry. And they worked – every single pedal. It is one thing to receive money from the insurance, but you won’t get back that 1990s made in Japan BOSS pedal, will you? The loss adjuster visited after a few days and by then there was no more water in buangruang. I showed him the video and photos and he was satisfied with everything. Interestingly, they just wanted to see a quote from my builder for the work that needs doing to buangruang, as opposed to multiple quotes. I had a feeling that claims were being made from all over the city that insurers have their hands full.

Initially I was happy to let the floor dried out more, but the builder inspected the underfloor and noted fungal growth. I don’t even know why I was hesitating, the insurers had given the green light to proceed after showing them my builder’s quote.

The repairs were all done in three days.

And the insurers paid me in a couple of weeks, after deducting GBP200 of access. They were surprised I had no contents to claim. I explained to them the two rugs were less the GBP200 as there was a separate access for contents. Furthermore, all my electronic items were working. For the final bit, a quick trip to IKEA for new rugs.

I thought of moving things around a bit. Say hello to the redone buangruang: