New training aims to deliver better solutions for flood risk properties
A new training course has been developed that will help ensure homeowners living with flood risk receive the best possible advice for their personal situation.
‘Property Flood Resilience Training for Surveyors’ has been designed for anyone who wants to understand the processes involved in the assessment of flood risk and the delivery of resistance and resilience measures in the built environment.
By detailing what should be involved in a competent survey procedure, the course sets out to ensure the most appropriate, relevant and informed strategies can be recommended.
The training has been developed by national trade body the Property Care Association and chief executive Steve Hodgson is confident it will prove its value.
He said: “The course aims to deliver a thorough understanding of the property flood resilience survey process.
“Managing flood risk is far from simply identifying which products can be fitted where. It’s more about assessing and evaluating every element.
“It’s therefore vital for surveyors to assess and understand every individual scenario and this training will ensure the most appropriate strategies can be recommended to suit each homeowner, their property, their particular flood risk and their lifestyle.
“We’ve been working hard over the last six months to ensure we offer a first-class standard training programme and we believe this will prove to be invaluable.”
Uniquely for independent-provided training, the course explains why liaison with each homeowner is a specific and essential part of a comprehensive flood resistance and resilience survey.
Mr Hodgson added: “Living with the risk of flood can bring worry, misery and numerous challenges for homeowners. When flooding occurs, it is not just the property that is affected, it is people’s lives.
“The course has therefore been developed to explain how personal circumstances can make some strategies more or less suitable than others.”
The comprehensive two-day training features four key modules.
‘Flood Risk’ examines the different sources of flooding and the types of risk, the hierarchy of flood protection and when to use resistance or resilience measures.
Topics within the ‘People’ module include the impact of flooding, the history of Property Level Protection (PLP) and how it fits in line with flood protection, sources of assistance and grants and insurance.
A section on ‘Buildings’ distinguishes between different constructions and explains how they inform the likely performance of strategies while a ‘Products’ module examines PAS1188, the types of product available and examples of how they work.
Training, delivered as a mixture of presentation, group discussion and practical exercises, is carried out by flood management experts with decades of theoretical and practical experience.
Andy McHugh, flood risk consultant at RAB Consultants, leads on flood protection and flood risk assessment projects on a national basis and has vast experience in carrying out property and Routes of Ingress surveys. The second trainer, John Alexander, managing director of Aquobex Independent Flood Management Solutions, has extensive experience delivering a full range of bespoke PLP projects.
The first two-day course takes place at the PCA Practical Training Centre in Tower Square, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire on November 28-29.
The cost to PCA members is £320+VAT, while non-members are asked to pay £420+VAT.
For more information or a booking form, visit the PCA website, email [email protected] or call 0844 375 4301.
The training reinforces the professional activity of the PCA’s Flood Protection Group – which forms a national framework to help consumers looking to protect themselves from flooding to locate experienced, skilled, dependable specialists able to provide reliable solutions.
The PCA created the group to provide a clear and trusted route to find contractors who really understand what they’re doing and who are each verified by a trusted trade body.
Members are professional, reliable and trustworthy tradesmen with specialist focused skills who are able to design and deliver robust and reliable solutions for high-risk properties.
The Group works to a practical Code of Practice which provides guidelines that set the principles and standards for members of the PCA.
It recognises the need for any professional involved in the protection of buildings at risk of flood to understand the physical, financial and emotional impact on property owners and to work in partnership with insurers.
The PCA is also a member of TrustMark – the government-supported scheme to help property owners find reliable and trustworthy tradespeople to make home improvements.
More information on flood protection and flood resilience can be found via the PCA website at www.property-care.org/homeowners/flood-protection/
The trade body has also released a video demonstrating the impact of flood resilience work which is available to view at http://bit.ly/1V4c00b. The film reveals how homeowners affected by catastrophic flooding in 2007 called on PCA member expertise to ensure there was no repeat of the problem.