Brent Lucas Builders had received “a large number” of insurance-related jobs since the flooding at the beginning of the month.
The firm was busy before the claims and owner Brent Lucas said work began last week on repairing many South Dunedin homes.
“We’ve always got a lot of insurance work [but] this is fairly similar to 2015.”
In 2015, $138million of property damage was caused by flooding in South Dunedin.
Many of the same issues were being found in homes this time; however, they were in different areas of the suburb, Mr Lucas said.
“It’s good for business, but it’s stressful for business. It puts a lot of pressure on everyone.”
Not all jobs were due to surface flooding; many were also to fix leaking roofs.
Some of the jobs were from previous customers, many of whom they had worked with in 2015.
“From what I’ve seen, some of the places that flooded this time, didn’t last time. But there is a lot of houses that we’ve gone back and this is their second time in a flood.”
The firm was dealing with a lot of damaged floors and the workload was keeping everyone at the business “on their toes”, he said.
“It would be nice to get the people back into their homes as soon as we can for Christmas, and that will happen as long as things keep going the way they are.”
Dunedin City Council building inspectors completed inspections at 82 affected properties across the city, of which nine were red-stickered — meaning access was prohibited — and 46 were yellow-stickered, which meant access was restricted.
There were 10 properties which were white-stickered, meaning the building might have suffered little or no damage, but people should still take precautions, and 17 properties where no sticker was required.
ben.andrews@odt.co.nz
