Stopping flooding in your home or business is as easy as 1, 2 3

The most effective way to stop flooding in your home or business is as easy as 1, 2 3.

That’s according to one of the UK’s most prominent flood campaigners, Mary Dhonau, who is affectionately known as Mary Queen of Floods.

Mary is a flood victim turned flood crusader who is now the ‘go to’ expert on flooding and is often touring the country in her floodmobile showing people the best ways to prevent flooding.

And she has shared her ultimate flooding prevention 1, 2, 3.

Step 1: Have a specialist flood door to prevent the water getting in but be aware that most doors won’t stop all the water from seeping through.

Step 2: Put FloodSax alternative sandbags on the floor inside the door to soak up any water that does get in. In their dry state, FloodSax are ultra-thin with a large surface area so are ideal at absorbing any floodwater.

Step 3: Invest in a portable water pump to get rid of any floodwater in your home or business quickly down to 1mm … and then use FloodSax (http://www.floodsax.co.uk/) again to soak the rest up.

Mary said: “To get the flooding kite mark, anti-flood devices must not leak more than a litre of water in an hour.”

This means that water can and does leak in through many anti-flood devices.

FloodSax are well-known as alternative sandbags – just immerse them in water and they absorb up to 20 litres of it to expand so they resemble traditional sandbags – but in their dry state they are great at soaking up water from leaks, spills and floods indoors.

The fact that they can be used both indoors and outdoors makes them one of the most flexible and value-for-money anti-flood devices on the market.

FloodSax were designed in Yorkshire – one of the UK’s rainiest counties – by Huddersfield-based company Environmental Defence Systems Ltd and more than 3 million have now been sold worldwide.

They are strong enough to act as a flood barrier outside, diverting torrents of floodwater away from homes and businesses.

In their dry state they resemble a large pillowcase which means their big, ultra-slim surface area is great at soaking up water from the hardest-to-reach places such as beneath floodboards, under pipework in kitchen sinks or underneath boilers and radiators.

Many plumbers now use them as part of their everyday anti-flooding armoury.