Sharing my flood experience from another post..
i had to rehab a relatives home after the flood in louisiana, what a pia! Some things to consider..subcontractors are going to be very hard to find/get out unless you have long term relationships to rely on. Materials were very difficult to get, and there weren't nearly as many impacted homes as in houston. I had to go to the neighbor state to get all my cabinets and doors! Short and medium term impact on the value of a flooded home is sustantial, and my research would indicate as much as 30% reduction in value from pre flood value, after complete rehab. If you are thinking rehab and resell, then documenting every step, showing you waited for all the framing to get dry enough to re-drywall and perhaps getting pro mold treatment with a warrenty would help mitigate flood value loss. I can tell you in the neighborhood i was in, lots of people were doing this stuff themselves and NOT doing things right! To make things worse were all the fema trailers in front yards, piles of trash and torn up front yards, which might make selling a home in a shortish time frame difficult. Also you have to decide what to do with electrical wiring. The nec says nothing about replacing flooded wire, but nema states submerged wiring should be replaced. Everyone i spoke to did not replace wire.just remember; all drywall 12 inches above flood line, cabinets, doors, flooring(tile should be fine), maybe the a/c equipment, window stools, baseboard, insulation, outlets (at least) and it took us 3 months with multiple fans and humidifiers running to get all the wood back to acceptable moisture content. Another weirdness that you may or may not face...many of the homes were continually having big wet spots appear in/on the slabs, hundreds of people, were calling leak detection services, thinking an underground plumbing leak was causing these mystery wet spots. The only thing i could ever figure is that water got trapped between slab and the plastic that goes down at construction and just slowely mitigates out, which might mean no water sensitive flooring for quite some time. Oh and the cherry on top is everything is potentially toxic! 3 subs and myself got really sick, some bacterial thing comes in with all that muck water!
I don't want to discourage you but i am very experienced builder/remodeler and i would not want to go through this again, without a clear minimum of $50k at the end of the rainbow. I think the only way to approach is rehab and rent for 5 years or more or get these properties at a super discount. I might suggest 25% of pre flood value?
