5 questions about damage repair after severe weather

Rain, rain and more rain. The month of May was soaking wet and caused a lot of damage and inconvenience. Marc Nieuwenhuizen is an architectural expert at the Lengkeek expertise agency and visits people's homes on behalf of insurers. What does he come across?

1. How busy is this wet month for you? All hands on deck?

"We have plenty to do. That's for sure. We have more damage than usual and those damages are also related to the weather. But, like the rest of the Netherlands, we are also dealing with staff shortages. Adjusters are becoming rare. The tricky thing about weather-related damage is that it's almost impossible to plan for it. Fire, burglary and water damage occur all year round. We can easily calculate that, but we can't control the weather influences. Alas!"

Exceptionally wet month of May
The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) issued several weather warnings in May and reports that this year is an exceptionally wet month. For example, up to and including 26 May, 107 mm fell in De Bilt, while 59 mm is normal for May.
According to Peter Siegmund of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), there has also been an extreme amount of rain locally. "On 22 May, for example, no less than 84 mm fell in Callantsoog in 24 hours. And on 25 May, Hoogerheide precipitation station even recorded 96 mm and Hoek van Holland 90 mm."

Curious about more (local) figures? Take a look at the website of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI).

2. What weather-related damage do you mainly have to deal with?

"We have a lot of water damage, especially flooded basements, but we also see a lot of lightning damage. Lightning strikes cause induction damage and whether it's a milking system at a farmer's house, a lift in a flat building or a fire alarm system in a nursing home, induction damage always has a major impact. If there has been an impact with overvoltage, there is damage. And if the milking system doesn't work, that farmer can't milk his cows. That is why we take care of these types of claims as a matter of priority

3. How does this work in practice? You are the first to come to someone's home or office and then what?

"Let me give you an example. I am now dealing with a major damage at a high school, where the basement was flooded. I first check where the water comes from and in the meantime I contact a reconditioning company to have the water pumped out. Then I look at what can still be saved and secure as much stuff as possible. This is followed by the drying process. Only when that is done do I know what has been damaged and I can assess the structural damage to the buildings and calculate the damage to the inventory (in the case of a company) or the contents (in the case of a private individual). Take, for example, an interior door. If it has a little bit of water damage, it can still be fine during the drying process, but if it has been inches deep in the water, there is too much damage. Sometimes such a door is so turned off that it doesn't even open any more."

"We are trying to become more and more aware of sustainable damage repair"

4. Do you also try to look at sustainable solutions in all the speed and hectic, including in the drying process?

"That's what we'd like to do. For the repair, we look at energy-efficient manufactured materials anyway, but any additional costs of a drying process must be covered. A natural drying process prevents a lot of energy consumption, but it also means that people have to leave their homes for six weeks instead of two due to forced drying, for example. This will result in additional costs. At one company, that counter increases even faster. After all, as long as the business is at a standstill, there will be no income coming in. Incidentally, together with insurers and reconditioning companies, we are trying, in a manifesto, to become increasingly aware of sustainable damage repair. For example, in the case of a parquet or laminate floor, we first check whether partial repair is possible once the floor is dry again. But, to be fair, if that floor is covered with a layer of water five centimetres deep, that spot repair will not work."

5. On behalf of NIVRE, you are represented in one of the working groups that make proposals on sustainable damage repair. How does that work?

"It's going well. It's tough, though. I am a member of the Energy Working Group and we are now working on a number of issues. We want to make a list as concretely as possible of the difference in energy consumption between a building dryer and a natural drying process. Energy-efficient methods take longer and are therefore often more expensive, but it is important that awareness is raised first. Both with insurers and with reconditioning companies and loss adjusters, but also with the victims. If we don't discuss it with victims and point out the energy savings that sustainable solutions entail, we won't get anywhere. That is why we are now working on a number of cases, so that we can start working on a pilot after the summer. I am convinced that we can go a long way if everyone is on the same page."

"If we don't point out to victims the energy savings of sustainable solutions, we won't make any progress!"