Humanity Books re-opens its doors after flood damage

Humanity Books and Fine Arts Supplies owner Michael Lawn was back in business yesterday after a burst water pipe flooded his store in March. Photo/Paul Taylor

It took eight weeks of repairs and maintenance following store flooding but yesterday Humanity Books and Fine Arts Supplies was able to reopen its doors to the public.

On March 22 a mains water supply outside the front of the shop burst with a pressure so intense that the water shot up through the second floor window, flooding an upstairs classroom before seeping down into the art store below.

One third of the art supplies stocked at the store, with an estimated value of $100,000, was ruined and the store was closed to repair the damage.

However, yesterday business owner Michael Lawn was pleased to say the art store was back to business as usual, and reflected on the long process he had followed to get the store up and running again.

"There's still a bit of a way to go to return to normality, lots of details and things. But I guess that's the big thing though isn't it, having the doors open."

Mr Lawn said they had to dump ruined stock, rip up drenched carpet and dry out the store before rebuilding could begin.

"We then repainted the walls which were water stained, replaced and repainted the front half of the ceiling and had the draw units fixed which were left sagging as they're not designed to hold water," he said.

Covered by insurance, up to $60,000 was spent fixing the store while a further $100,000 was spent replacing the lost stock, he said.

Humanity Books saleswoman Colleen Archibald said despite only deciding they would reopen late last week the news had already travelled quickly through word of mouth.

"Business has been very steady. Normally we might have someone in every half hour but today it's been every 10 minutes because the customers are starting to discover we're open again."

Mr Lawn said customers would be pleased they had reopened as the store was starting to field desperate calls from customers wanting art supplies during the end of the repairing process.

Now focused on moving on, Mr Lawn chuckled as he said at least the next 10 years' worth of maintenance has been done in three months.