When the worst floods
in a generation hit the banks of the Thames in January, most people got out
their mops and buckets. However, Yaron Ivry had a more ambitious
idea.
The 58-year-old and
his family live on an island between the River Thames and an artificial water
channel, which means they are vulnerable to flooding, and they, too, suffered
the heartbreak of their home being inundated.
And so, determined
not to go through the agonising misery and financial expense again, the telecoms
consultant decided to raise his five-bedroom house 4½ft up in the air — and fill
in the resulting gap with breeze blocks.
Gently does it: Yaron Ivry with his five bedroom house in
Wraysbury, Berkshire, which has been jacked up to avoid the frequent floods
which have plagued his area
Over the course of
just ten days, the 80-ton building, having been placed on a steel cradle, was
raised by 28 computerised jacks, moving upwards at three inches an hour. Now,
after three months, the job is almost complete.
The lifting has been
finished, but the front and back doors are still suspended nearly 5ft up in
mid-air — accessible only by climbing a pile of teetering breeze blocks. And the
old ground floor of the house in Wraysbury, Berkshire, is a newly created
basement.
Today, Yaron, a
dynamo of a man, is busy overseeing every last detail of his grand dream. It’s a
family affair as his son Ben, a medical student on his summer holiday, carts
building materials around the site in a wheelbarrow.
By the end of next
month, the house will be as good as new, except for the insertion of a huge
floodable basement on which the house will rest. And it will enjoy even more
dramatic views across the Thames to Runnymede, where Magna Carta was signed in
1215.
Not only will the
house be safe from future floods, the family will have benefited financially.
Before the flood, which caused £125,000 in damage, the house was worth £1
million. After the flood, though, its value had, understandably, dropped to
£750,000. Now, after the Ivrys spent £70,000 on the lifting project, it’s worth
between £1.5 million and £2 million.
Such a turnaround
seemed a near impossibility just a few months ago. When the flood waters
arrived, the family’s ground floor was wrecked — the hardwood floor, walls and
electrics all damaged beyond repair.
‘After the flood, we
had to think of a way to protect the property,’ says Mr Ivry, who has lived in
the house with his wife and two sons for 15 years. Being self-employed, he was
unable to work after the floods hit.
‘It’s taken months of
my life, plus all the cost of renovation, so I made a decision that we couldn’t
allow it to happen again.’
Danger: The five-bedroom home is at great risk of flooding
due to its position on an island of desirable properties between the River
Thames and a water channel
First, he considered
sealing the house with a barrier fitted all around with waterproof doors and
powerful pumps that would get rid of any ground water and leakage.
‘But then I realised
that wouldn’t be enough,’ he says. ‘Water will find its way in through the
tiniest crack. And all you need is one leak.’
Mr Ivry then
considered a demolition and rebuild job, but it would have cost
£500,000.
And so he devised a
radical plan: to lift the house in one great piece above the flood area
altogether, for a fraction of the price.
Planning permission
was surprisingly easy to get. At first, Mr Ivry sought only to raise the house
by 3ft — but the Environment Agency objected, saying it should be raised by 4½ft
to be sure of avoiding flood damage. Council officials were sympathetic,
too.
As for the
neighbours, they have been supportive and full of admiration because they might
now follow this example. And so specialist builders — more used to lifting
6,000-ton bridges than family homes — set to work.
First, a cat’s cradle
of steel beams was created underneath the house. This web of metal — 250 beams
altogether and weighing 14 tons — would bear the weight of the house when it
began to move.
Beams were erected
within the building, just under the concrete ground floor (the carpet and
floorboards had been destroyed by water and had already been ripped
out).
Through holes punched
in the brick walls, the beams within connected to more beams ringing the house’s
exterior — a design that stabilised the metal framework.
Grand plans: The family has spent three months and £70,000
lifting the 80-ton building away from harm using 28 super-strong jacks, each
capable of supporting 50 tons
Then, 28 super-strong
jacks — each capable of supporting 50 tons — were placed underneath the steel
cradle. A diamond-edged saw then sliced horizontally through all the brick walls
below the level of the concrete floors, severing the building from its
foundations.
The idea was that,
with the perimeter ring of steel steadying the structure and pressure spread
evenly over the jacks, no one part of the building would be exposed to
particular stress as it was raised. If all went to plan, this would keep it in
one piece.
Finally, all the
windows and walls were braced with timber beams to help ease any internal
strains. So now the house was ready to be lifted heavenwards.
But putting
engineering theory into practice was a nerve-racking experience. With each click
of the hydraulic jacks, the building started to move up by millimetres, as the
Ivrys (who are living in rented accommodation while the project is completed)
looked on. The family’s possessions remained inside the house.
Slowly and silently,
their home climbed into the air — but dramatically enough that you could see the
tiny little jumps it made with each click of the jacks.
‘I was terrified,’
says Mrs Ivry. ‘It wasn’t just the house we were lifting, but everything we had
inside. It moved very slowly and quietly — just like the flood.’
As the jacks pushed
the house higher, they were wrapped in metal reinforcement jackets of increasing
height to help to support the weight.
And as those jacks
clicked away — raising the house a few inches every hour — computers tracked how
high they were climbing.
Innovation: The new breeze block basement will be wrapped
in bricks and partly concealed by decking as it cannot be used for residential
purposes
‘It was crucial that
all the jacks raised the house at the same rate,’ says Mr Ivry.
‘Just a 10mm
discrepancy between one side of the house and the other would have meant the
whole thing would have cracked, causing irreparable structural
damage.’
Once the house had
been raised the full 4½ feet, this house on stilts resembled something more
likely to be seen in the hurricane vulnerable areas of America’s Gulf Coast,
where such solutions are commonplace.
Over the past week,
however, the newly formed gap at the bottom of this Berkshire house has been
filled with breeze blocks.
The spaces in the
brickwork, where the steel beams poke out, will soon be filled with a dry mix of
sand and cement. Once this has set, the jacks will be removed and the steel
cradle will be dismantled and taken away.
The new breeze block
basement will be wrapped in bricks and part concealed by decking on the house’s
riverside front.
Under Environment
Agency rules, the new basement cannot be used for residential purposes. Mr Ivry
jokes that he will store a Ferrari there but, in fact, it will have to be left
empty.
Thinking back to the
start of the project, Mr Ivry says: ‘It was very sad. It didn’t feel like a home
any more, and it was terrible taking it all apart. What was a family home had
become a project. But it will become a family home again.’
His wife agrees. ‘It
makes sense,’ she says. ‘It’s easy to forget how terrible the flooding was. My
husband was very stressed. The flooding was so bad that some of our neighbours
never returned to their homes.’
Taking action: Some of their neighbours never returned
home after the floods, the worst of which came in January and sent the cost of
home insurance sky high
Building plots nearby
have become worthless. Insurance firms won’t cover new houses in the
area.
Mr Ivry received
£125,000 in compensation for the flood damage very quickly — but could see that
he would have difficulty getting a new policy.
‘I was very happy
with the insurers,’ he says. ‘But they wouldn’t insure me once my policy runs
out, and I can see why. At the moment, my insurance is £50 or £60 a month. After
the floods, it would be £10,000 a year.’
And so what will
happen to houses on flood plains across the country if, as some are predicting,
flooding gets worse in years to come?
Some houses will be
abandoned by those who can’t afford the higher insurance premiums. Other owners,
after the Ivrys’ example, will surely consider lifting their homes towards the
clouds.
‘If my idea spreads,
then many other houses will be saved,’ says Mr Ivry, the man who took on the
forces of nature — and won
DAILYMAIL.CO.UK
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