Couple's sewage disaster in new Punggol BTO flat

 

PUBLISHED ON MAY 12, 2015 6:23 PM

BY JOANNA SEOW & JALELAH ABU BAKER

Extracted from Straits Times 

SINGAPORE- Just a week before a young family was due to move into their new home in Punggol, they were shocked to hear from the Housing Board on Monday that there had been flooding in their unit.

When they arrived, they found it was not just water that covered the floor of the flat, but faeces as well.

Cement had choked the common sewage pipe shared by their seventh floor unit and those above it in Block 313C Sumang Link, causing a backflow into their home.

The owner, who gave her name as Ms Fadilah, 31, said she and her husband are "upset, stressed and angry".

"The dream house we have long waited to move into, which was complete with new furniture, was damaged just like that," she said. The renovations had been completed just a few months ago.

Photographs circulating online show faeces and murky water covering the floor of a toilet, hallway and living room.

It had even seeped into the children's bedroom and out of the front door. This was how a neighbour noticed something was amiss and called HDB last Friday, said another neighbour, Ms Fadhilah, 29.

A Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council spokesman said it was alerted by HDB on Monday morning. Town council and HDB staff went to the flat to help the family to clean up.

Confirming it was renovation debris that had caused the choke, he said: "We will be working with the HDB to find the culprit."

Ms Fadilah told evening daily Shin Min that when her husband turned up at their flat in Sumang Link, he was confronted with what she described as a "giant toilet bowl".

"My husband was so shocked that he just stood at the doorway crying. He couldn't believe what he was seeing," she said.

The family had spent some $50,000 on renovations alone, and intends to redo the whole house, including all the flooring which had stains between the tiles. A stench still lingered.

...............

joseow@sph.com.sg

- See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/more-singapore-stories/story/couples-sewage-disaster-new-punggol-bto-flat-explodes-on#sthash.cFRbEwGZ.dpuf

There is a saying...."When shit hits the fan...". Well, perhaps new homeowners should be very scared of what happens "when shit floods their home!"

Well, I have blogged about the issue of clogged pipes way back in my 2008 HDB defect checking post. Let me repost the paragraph again..

* ATTENTION*
It was just brought to my attention that aside from the defect lists I have compiled, you should also unscrew the metal covers of all the pipes in the kitchen and bathrooms. This is because some have complained of finding used food containers and waste construction materials underneath these covers! Some workers have even poured cement into these pipes. So, remember to dig them out before it clogs your pipes later on and also, lodge a complaint to HDB about it. :(

Lessons Learnt?

There are a couple of lessons learnt from this shitty incident...first of all, check everything! Nonetheless, I understand that there are pipes or areas which are hard to reach or impossible to check. However, I believe after this smelly incident, you can seek help from the HDB technical officer in checking these pipes!


The same goes for the Condo owners la...this might happen to you also. Why? All pipes are the same, construction workers might commit the same mistake. I heard rumors that they throw rubbish etc on the floor before pouring on the cement during the construction of the floors, it saves time and effort to dispose the waste. But I stress that this is a rumor...but it makes perfect sense.


Finally, the last lesson learnt? Buy home insurance and keep all the receipts of your purchase! Ok, I need to find out whether if the home insurance covers such shitty disaster...but one thing is for sure, if you have NO receipts, it is very hard to seek compensation and claims. Yes, you have to SCAN all the receipts since some of the damn receipts fade away with time.

Do you have any ideas what we can do to prevent this from happening again? Do share! :)

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Categories: defect checking tips, defect checklist, musings