Keeping you safe at home

Simon Crowther from Flood Protection Solutions is an engineer on a mission to help people stay safe in the home.

Name: Simon Crowther
Job: Managing Director
Company: Flood Protection Solutions

#EngineerOnAMission Video transcript

I'm Simon Crowther and I'm an engineer on a mission to reduce the flood risk across the UK.

My passion for engineering was kick started in 2007 when my parent's house got flooded. And we were out of the house for nearly a year whilst it was repaired. There was an insurance claim for £120,000 and we thought, we never ever want to go through this upheaval, expense or stress again.We scoured the market looking for things to defend the property but everything was either really slow or really expensive, and then we came across a Canadian product called the Water Gate Barrier and bought one.

Five years later the village main street became like a brown fast flowing river once again. We rolled out the barrier and it completely saved the house from flooding.

Alongside this, I was studying for a degree in civil engineering. It's lovely to be able to help people reduce their flood risk and stop them going through what we've been through in 2007.

I worked on a project in Devon that was funded by DEFRA as part of a pathfinder event to see what did and didn't work in the flood defence market. We supplied a Water Gate Barrier to a community of 12 properties and about 6 months later, after it had been supplied, they rolled out the barrier and it completely saved their community, so that was 12 families that we'd prevented from being flooded and it was a really proud moment.

One of my favourite things about engineering, I'm not actually really a pure engineer anymore. Engineering opens doors, you can go into so many different careers with engineering.

I can't think of another degree that you could study and then do so many different things. Engineers are problem solvers at heart, so I would say that if you are interested in solving problems and you get satisfaction out of it then a career in engineering is probably for you.