Paul Manyweathers will never forget the chaos around him as one metre of water rushed through his historic East Maitland house.

The 1800s home was one of at least 250 houses that bore the brunt of 135 kilometre winds and flash flooding during the 2015 Hunter super storm.

The east coast low left four people dead, a damage bill in excess of $800 million, and unleashed 435 millimetres of rain on Maitland in 24 hours.

It turned low-lying Maitland suburbs into raging rivers and left Mr Manyweathers with a damage bill in excess of $220,000 and walls, antiques, handmade carpentry and handwoven rugs in ruins.

The water was almost level with the top of the concrete fence posts in the front yard.

​The house hadn’t seen that much water since the 1955 flood and its triple-brick design left water lingering in the brick work for five months.

Mr Manyweathers and his wife spent May to October without any plasterboard or skirting boards on the walls and had 10 industrial fans constantly buzzing to try to dry the bricks.

The exercise left them with a $1000 power bill.

“It was like living in a wind tunnel,” Mr Manyweathers said. 

“All winter we put up with the wind coming up under the house because there was no plaster and no skirting boards.”

The plasterboard and woodwork have now been reinstated, but the Australian red cedar skirting boards are still missing and there is still a lot of work to do. 

Mr Manyweathers, a builder, is doing most of the work himself but said the need to earn a living was elongating the recovery timeline. 

“It’s a love job,” he said. 

“The insurance money will cover the costs because I’m a builder, it probably would have been fixed if someone else was doing it.

“I’ve got to earn a living as well, so I'm doing the work here and working elsewhere.

“I’m not sure when we’ll be back to where we were before the storm.”

The house has a horrid track record when it comes to natural disasters.

It was destroyed by fire in 1924, the early 1990s and in 2008, and by flood in 1897, 1955 and 2015.

Painters were at the house this week to freshen the outside and cover the water line.

Mr Manyweathers said the water was almost lapping the top of the concrete fence posts in his front yard. 

He didn’t have time to save the furniture when the flood arrived at his doorstep, but when he saw a special wooden box floating about in the house he quickly rescued it. 

The box contained a grey stone, which had been part of a memorial in Afghanistan for his nephew who died there while fighting with the Australian Army. 

When the troops withdrew the memorial was carved up and the families were each given a piece. 

“It means a lot to me,” he said. 

How have you coped with life 12 months on? We’d love to hear your story and see your photos.