FloodSax are the world's best-selling alternative sandbag and the ideal flood protection product for flood defence, flood mitigation and flood prevention.
They are the original sandless sandbag, invented in 2007 with almost 3 million FloodSax now sold worldwide. They are quick and easy to deploy as effective flood barriers for people asking the vital question 'how do I prevent my home or business from flooding?'
FloodSax sandless sand bags - also referred to as flood bags or flood sacks - are transformed from being as light as a pillowcase to become better than traditional sandbags in around 5 minutes to provide you with reliable flood protection. It means you don't need to ask 'where do I get sandbags' when a flood is about to strike as local authorities have no responsibility to provide sandbags at all.
FloodSax alternative sandbags are now used by facilities management companies, business continuity and resilience managers, emergency planning managers, flood risk managers, flood action and flood prevention groups and are a must for people living on floodplains.
For FloodSax flood protection to work, all you need to do is add water and watch these alternative sandbags miraculously expand so they are ready for all kinds of emergency sandbag tasks from providing an instant flood protection system for doors to flood mitigation and flood resilience for offices and commercial buildings.
The semi-porous inner liner within FloodSax contains a special gelling polymer with hundreds of absorbent crystals which absorbs the water to become taut and is an ideal flood management product for those looking for highly effective solutions to flooding.
They can be expanded in water in a bath, sink, bucket or even the floodwater itself. Once the water is in the FloodSax it stays there and the bags act just like sandbags to keep floods at bay. They are designed so they mould into doorways to keep floodwater out.
The semi-porous inner liner within FloodSax contains a special gelling polymer which absorbs around 20 litres of water.
Before they are activated FloodSax alternative sandbags are incredibly lightweight, amazingly weighing just 13 ounces yet once expanded a row of standard 520mm by 470mm by 170mm FloodSax weighing around 20kg each are strong enough to stop a powerful torrent of water in its tracks. Each row of FloodSax will keep around 18cms (7ins) of water out and have proved themselves as flood barriers time and again worldwide.
To learn more about how FloodSax are used outdoors click here.
Although they are often deployed outside as a barrier to prevent floodwater from getting into homes or businesses, FloodSax can be used inside to soak up leaks and spills in hard to reach places such as beneath faulty boilers, radiators and pipes. Read more about how they can save you thousands of pounds damage indoors here.
People searching for them on the internet call them all kinds of different names including gelbags, floodsacks, polymer bags, sandbags other, polymer sand bags, waterbags, floodbags ... but their proper name in FloodSax.
The key thing is they SAVE in every sense of the word.
Save Mess
When flooding strikes it’s powerful enough to send water back up into homes from sewers, flooding bathrooms with filthy water. Just one FloodSax popped down the toilet prevents this.
Saves Trauma
Suffering from flooding is as miserable and traumatic experience as you’re likely to suffer in life. Floodwater causes immense damage, forcing people out of their homes for months while they dry out and then face extensive repair work and an incredible amount of hassle. FloodSax can prevent all this by protecting your doors and air vents to stop the floodwater from getting in.
Save Property
FloodSax have proved to be highly effective as they give instant protection from flooding, leaks and spills. Just 30 of them built into a wall protected £360,000 worth of equipment belonging to a Yorkshire warehouse as torrential floodwater poured towards their premises. Director Lynn Dare said: “FloodSax really saved the day. They have been absolutely brilliant. There was a raging torrent coming down the hill and three layers of 10 sacks held it back from our door.’’
Save Clean-up
Sandbags can deteriorate over time and eventually fall apart unlike FloodSax which are clean, dry and easy to store. Sandbags can also be messy to clean up after the floodwater has subsided with the spilled sand literally getting everywhere.
Save The Environment
FloodSax don’t need to use the earth’s natural resource such as sand and after they’ve been used can be simply and easily disposed of swiftly in landfill sites where they will decompose over time.
FloodSax factfile including sizes and weights
Each FloodSax is made up of 4 layers with 12 internal absorbent sections creating a multi-chamber system to keep the water fully absorbed. These absorbent chambers are then sewn together into an outer sleeve of a nonwoven material.
Each FloodSax weighs just under 1lb (.37 kilos) before it comes into contact with water and is 520mm (52cms) by 470mm (47cms) by 12mm (1.2cms) in size. After it has absorbed the water it will be about 170mm (17cms) deep and the same length and width and will weigh around 20kg.
A box of 20 FloodSax weighs just 21lbs (9.5kilos) and is 54cms by 50cms by 18cms so can easily be carried by one person. There are 4 bags in each box containing 5 FloodSax, making 20 in all.
There are 5 FloodSax in each carrier bag with the bag measuring 70cms by 50cms by 2cms. Within the bag these 5 FloodSax are in a vacuum pack measuring 52cms by 48cms by 1.5cms.
It's possible to stack 24 boxes of FloodSax weighing 253kg on a standard pallet.
A 40ft-high lorry container can take 1,500 boxes of FloodSax.
Each FloodSax can absorb up to 20 litres of water, meaning a pack of 5 FloodSax will soak up to 100 litres of water.
Each FloodSax weighs around 20kg once it has absorbed its full capacity of about 20 litres.
Disposing of FloodSax
FloodSax alternative sandbags should be disposed of once they have been used to stop flooding … and the same goes for traditional sandbags.
This is because floodwater is always contaminated and this could range from sewage and chemicals to fuel and oil.
Most of this inner material within a FloodSax - the gelling polymer and wood pulp - is biodegradable so if you want to shrink the FloodSax after use cut across it diagonally from corner to corner with a knife and then pour table salt on the white inners which will break down the polymer.
This reduces the size of the FloodSax which can then be thrown into the general waste to go to landfill where most of it will biodegrade over time. If short of time, the FloodSax can be thrown away without cutting it across and adding the salt.
Always wear gloves to reduce the risk of contamination left by the floodwater.
The most environmentally-friendly way to deal with the FloodSax is to slice it open, drop the gelling polymer inners into your household rubbish bin and then incinerate the outer cover which has nylon stitching and is made from a nylon polymer material.
Once buried 6ft or more the gelling polymer inside the FloodSax should break down and disappear within 3 months.
If FloodSax are used on an industrial scale they could be taken to a specialist disposal company which would use powerful equipment to squeeze the water out of the FloodSax. A company in the UK does this and then bales all the outer covers before incinerating them. We can provide more information about this - just call us on 01484 641009.
* If you have used FloodSax to protect your home or business then please let us know what you used them for and how well they worked for you. Email info@edslimited.co.uk