FloodSax soaking rainwater up inside the LRH Storage and Distribution warehouse at Birtley near Sunderland
FloodSax preventing water from getting back inside the LRH Storage and Distribution warehouse
FloodSax prove their incredible versatility after monsoon-style rain deluges huge warehouse
A flooding drama showed just how versatile FloodSax are after monsoon-like summer rain started to pour inside a vast warehouse.
The incident at the LRH Storage and Distribution warehouse at Birtley near Sunderland also showed the frightening pace flash floods can potentially overwhelm any building which is why it’s absolutely vital businesses and homeowners have instant flood protection on hand.
Warehouse supervisor Dave Halliday checked the CCTV systems at the warehouse at 1.20pm on Saturday, July 15, after thunder and lightning struck the north east.
There was then an almighty deluge of rain and at 1.27pm when Dave checked again he could see water pouring into the 40,000sq ft warehouse.
“I can only describe it as like a monsoon,” he said. “It was raining so hard the downpipes and drains simply couldn’t cope and the water was then backing up the drainpipes and finding its way into the building.
“It was then starting to cover the floor inside but we are prepared for this happening so all our stock is on pallets which means everything is at least four inches off the floor.”
The water was quickly an inch deep in some places but the danger was it would then seep into the offices and wreck the company’s electricals, potentially causing thousands of pounds damage.
Luckily one of LRH’s customers is Environmental Defence Systems Ltd based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, who make the award-winning FloodSax sandless sandbags.
The beauty of the FloodSax is that it’s multi-purpose. In their dry state FloodSax are very flat with a large surface area and a gelling polymer inside absorbs water and retains it. This makes them highly effective at soaking up internal floods and once they had absorbed several litres of water they became instant sandless sandbags which Dave then used to prevent any water getting into the office.
He also used others to stop water flooding out of the drains at ground level and into the building.
“They worked brilliantly,” he said. “I was beginning to panic when I first saw how fast the water was coming in but it was quickly sorted by the FloodSax. They were really good at soaking up the water as it’s not something you can just brush away in a large warehouse. It needs to be soaked up properly.”
In the end absolutely no stock was damaged during the drama.
Dave used a box of around 20 FloodSax which normally retails for around £140.
“I just can’t believe something so cost-effective can potentially save such costly damage which is normally caused by floodwater,” said Dave. “It was such a relief to have them on site and EDS are great long-standing customers who just said we could use whatever we needed to deal with the incident.”
For more information on FloodSax go to www.floodsax.co.uk