Recent Floods, Home Protection Products, And You: What You Need To Know
This past winter was one of the worst ones the Midwest has seen in a long time. It was not just the heavy snowfall. The heavy rains that followed the heavy snows as the snow began to melt contributed to flash flooding several feet above river levels and the sewers are unable to handle that much water that quickly. As a result, dozens of cities, counties, and states in the Midwest were declared state emergency zones, and homeowners became eligible for emergency funds for cleanup and flood damage repairs.
If you were one of these homeowners, you may be thinking about the damages these floods cost you and your family, and home protection products that can prevent such a mess from occurring again. There are many things you can do, and a few products that can help. They are as follows.
Seal and Sandbag Your Foundation
There are ways for you to wrap and seal your foundation so that it cannot leak even under the pressure of flood waters. You may want to look into that, but there are still a limited number of companies that provide such a service. This method of flood prevention is increasing in popularity, so you may see it being offered in your area soon. In the meantime, consider filling several sandbags to create levees around your foundation. At the first sign of flood waters rising near you, you can get the sandbags out and around your foundation to help keep water out.
Door Barriers
For door barriers to work, you have to resolve to stay in your home until the flood waters recede. Additionally, these barriers (e.g., Dam Easy and similar products) will only cover the bottom halves of the doors to your home. If the flood waters rise higher than that, you will need to keep the doors shut tight to avoid getting any water inside.
Evacuation can only occur through an upper-story window at this point. The benefits of these barriers are that they are very successful at keeping water out when the flood waters do not get very high. You can even open your front door to see where the water levels are at when you have these barrier products locked in place and the waters are still lower than the height of the barriers.
Waterproof Caulking for Windows
If you noticed that your windows were leaking a lot of water with recent floods, you may want to caulk them up for the next flood. Waterproof caulking seals all the way around the window and keeps water out. If you have the foundation sealed and sandbagged, the doors barred with barriers, and the windows caulked, your home should stay very dry.