Home Flooded - Rewire?

[megloff11x]

I would say that you need to inspect the system for damage. I used to make high-dollar instruments and we had a customer leave one under the sprinkler system. They sent it back, we dried & blew it out, cleaned it up, ran it through test & calibration, and charged them several hundred dollars for the trouble. The instrument was about 50-kilobucks.

Water doesn't conduct well. You have issues when teh radio falls in the tub because of salt from your sweat.

Likewise, floods aren't just water. It's fluid full of dirt and who knows what else.

It also helps start corrosion.

If it were me, I'd move out of the flood plane, or at least move the outlets above the likely flood level when the dry wall was replaced. Houses don't normally use waterproof construction material, so how many times before the structure begins to rot too?

Matt

 

[CEU]

Is the wire Romex

Is the wire Romex

In a flooding situation, there is no way of knowing how long the cables were immersed in water, or what types of potentially corrosive substances may have been in the water that flooded the cables. As was widely reported after Hurricane Katrina, raw sewage and chemicals were known to be in the floodwaters afflicting the Gulf Coast region of the United States. Nonmetallic-sheathed cable has not been investigated by UL for this type of exposure. Therefore, it is not possible for UL to state that cable in a particular installation is acceptable for continued use after having been subjected to the flooding.

The safest approach is to replace any nonmetallic-sheathed cable that was immersed in water for any period of time during the flooding.

http://www.ul.com/katrinafloodwaters/nm.html

 

[petersonra]

In a flooding situation, there is no way of knowing how long the cables were immersed in water, or what types of potentially corrosive substances may have been in the water that flooded the cables. As was widely reported after Hurricane Katrina, raw sewage and chemicals were known to be in the floodwaters afflicting the Gulf Coast region of the United States. Nonmetallic-sheathed cable has not been investigated by UL for this type of exposure. Therefore, it is not possible for UL to state that cable in a particular installation is acceptable for continued use after having been subjected to the flooding.

The safest approach is to replace any nonmetallic-sheathed cable that was immersed in water for any period of time during the flooding.

http://www.ul.com/katrinafloodwaters/nm.html

I would say in a very technical way this is the correct answer.

 

[TOMWELDS]

This is a very good subject..Im trying to look at it in different ways...IE: the UL rating of romex as 'an assembly' or the rating of the individual thhn conductors..thhn has a 'wet' location listing..megger testing being adequate? what is the crossover between thhn and direct burial cable ratings? Direct burial cables can be subject to all kinds of corrosives..In fires and lightning strikes, ive only been asked to megger test all wires and give a written report..interesting