The Boxing Day floods of 2015 reached hundreds of homes in Croston, and the water came from more than one direction. The River Yarrow broke its banks, surface water had nowhere to go, and sewers overflowed. The flood risk management scheme built upstream since then has reduced the river risk a great deal, but many owners refitting older Croston homes now choose materials that recover quickly if water ever does get in. Flood resilient renovation skip hire is a planned job rather than an emergency one, and it is one we handle regularly through our skip hire in Croston.
What a Flood Resilient Renovation Takes Out
The idea behind a flood resilient renovation is to replace the materials that soak up water and hold on to it with ones that can be washed down and dried out. On the ground floor of an older Croston cottage or terrace, that usually means a lot comes out at once.
Gypsum plaster is the first thing to go, because it absorbs water and fails, and it is often replaced with a lime or cement based render or a water resistant board. Suspended timber floors may be taken up and replaced with a concrete slab or a treated alternative. Chipboard kitchen carcasses, which swell and fall apart when wet, give way to more robust units. Carpets are replaced with tiles or other hard floors, sockets are raised up the wall, and skirting boards and internal doors are often changed at the same time. Every one of those decisions creates waste, and most of it is heavy.
Flood Resilient Renovation Skip Hire and Choosing Sizes
The waste from a resilient refit comes in two distinct kinds. Plaster, rubble and any broken concrete are dense, and they fill a skip’s weight allowance quickly. Kitchen units, floor timbers, doors and old carpet are bulky but light. Getting the order of the strip-out right means you can match each phase to the right container.
For the heavy phase, an 8 tonne builders skip is usually the right choice, especially where a timber floor is being replaced with concrete and the old sub-floor has to be dug out. On a smaller cottage, or where the refit is limited to a kitchen and hallway, a 4 tonne midi skip may do the whole job and fits more easily on a tight frontage. The full range is set out on our skip sizes page, and a quick call will usually settle which one fits your plans.
Flood Resilient Renovation or Post Flood Strip-Out
A resilient refit done by choice is a very different job from clearing a house that has already flooded. After a flood the materials are wet, often contaminated, and the priority is speed and hygiene. Our article on water damage strip-outs covers that situation. A planned refit gives you time to sort the waste as it comes out, and that makes a real difference to how much of it can be recovered.
Clean timber, metal, brick and concrete can all go on to a second life when they are kept reasonably apart from general rubbish. Everything we collect comes back to our recycling centre, where it is separated and sent on, and a planned refit is one of the easiest jobs to divert from landfill because nothing has been soaked through.
Skip Placement in the Village Centre
Croston’s older streets were not laid out for lorries, and the village centre sits within a conservation area where frontages are narrow and many cottages open straight onto the pavement. That leaves many homes with no driveway, so the skip has to go on the road. Lancashire County Council is the highway authority here, and a skip on the road needs a permit, which costs £42 per 28 days. Our guide on skip permits in Lancashire sets out what is involved, and we make the application as part of the booking.
On the narrower streets we look at where the lorry can stop and lift before we deliver, and where a midi can go in a spot a larger skip could not, we will say so. Placing it well from the start saves moving it halfway through the job, which is disruptive for you and for your neighbours.
Practical Advice Before the Work Starts
Get independent advice on which flood resilient renovation measures suit your property before you start pulling anything out, because the right choice depends on the construction of the house and where water came from in the past. Then plan the waste around the work. Strip the soft furnishings and units first, sort the plaster and rubble as it comes down, and keep anything that cannot go in a skip, such as old electrical items or paint, to one side from the start. Book the skip for the day the strip-out begins rather than the day after, so nothing ends up piled in the garden or the back yard waiting for somewhere to go.
Refits Across Croston and Nearby Villages
Croston sits among a group of villages that share the same low lying farmland and the same older housing. If your property is nearer skip hire in Eccleston or out towards skip hire in Mawdesley, we plan it the same way. We have been a family business in this part of Lancashire for more than a hundred years, and we know how these villages are built.
If you are planning a flood resilient renovation in Croston, call us on 01257 752399 or contact our team online. Tell us which rooms are being done and whether the floor is coming up, and we will recommend the skips and arrange any permit needed.
