Flood-hit Stockton gym left 'like swimming pool' with thousands in damage estimated
A devastated gym owner has spoken of his heartbreak at finding his business 'like a swimming pool' with thousands of pounds worth of damage estimated.
Garry Bell says he doesn't know when he will be able to reopen because he is facing a massive clean up operation - even the boxing ring is destroyed by the water seeping in the wooden structure. The 33-year-old, who has built up Contender Gym in Stockton from scratch, said he arrived early at the premises on Sunday morning for a workout to find the place flooded.
He said at one point the water was pouring in through the basement walls. Garry said: "The gym is quite big and it was like a swimming pool. It must have been about six inches deep. The mats on the floor were just floating around. The water was running like a river."
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Garry claims that after reporting the flooding, workmen from Northumbria Water visited the Yarm Street premises and couldn't find where the water was coming from. He said they believed it was an internal leak and turned off the building's water.
However, the gym owner said as the day went on the water was still flooding in. He said: "There were three holes in the wall about a metre high and it was like someone had installed taps, the water was pouring through."
Northumbrian Water workmen returned for a second look and ended up closing the street outside, digging up the road and finding a crack in an old cast iron pipe.
Now, Garry faces the marathon task of rebuilding the gym. He said the majority of the expensive equipment will have to be replaced and added: "The carpets will need to be ripped up straight away because the smell is horrendous. We might even need to have the structure checked to make sure it is safe."
He said the gym is used by hundreds of people, including professional athletes for training as well as his 270 members. He said: "I need to get it back up and running as soon as possible. I will fix it, I am positive about that, we have so many people relying on it in the community."
A Northumbrian Water spokesperson said: "We always do our best to find and isolate leaks as soon as possible but identifying leaks is not always straightforward and it can take a little longer than we would like to find the source. When we discovered the location of the leak, a lane closure was required on the A1305 and a team worked through the night to carry out the necessary repair to our pipework. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and we are working with the customer to resolve any issues."
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