Flood barriers for home or sandbags. How to install them?

Tips
May 20th, 2021 4 minute read

When it comes to protecting your home from flooding, you have to act fast. People prefer to go with good old sandbags or innovative solutions like the removable flood barriers for home choosing among various anti-flooding solutions.

On the one hand, once you are familiar and used to some technology, it may be the most reasonable solution for you as you will manage to install it properly and provide maximum anti-flooding protection for your home.

However, manufacturers of various flood barriers for home and removable dams claim that their solutions are so straightforward and user-friendly that you will be able to install them efficiently even if you use them for the first time and find yourself under the pressure of the upcoming disaster.

We decided to go over the rules of proper installation for the most popular solutions nowadays: sandbags and removable flood barriers for homes. Let`s see which are really the simplest and most reliable flood-preventing methods.

How to use Sand Bags properly?

Sandbags might be one of the most fundamental and therefore tested ways to protect your home from flooding. Technically, the process of proper installation of sandbags consists of 5 steps:

·Ensure that the area where you are building the sandbag dam is leveled and even without pitfalls or sharp curves. Clear it from debris and garbage;

·Fill the bags with sand. You should address someone for help as while one person is filling the bag, another has to hold it to make sure that it is not overloaded. Make sure that you leave some space in the bag for the sand to move. The more flexible the bags are, the better will be the anti-flooding seal of your dam;

·Build the dam, placing sandbags long side parallel to the anticipated water stream. Don`t forget to tamp down each layer of sandbags before placing the next row; will create a better seal;

·Don`t place sandbags directly on each other. It is best to build your dam with sandbags chequerwise;

·If you have to build a wall taller than 3 layers of sandbags, make sure to build your dam like a pyramid – putting more bags on the bottom to make the construction stable. You may also want to use 6 mils thick plastic sheeting to make your dam most reliable.

To ensure that you provide thorough anti-flood protection to your home with sandbags, make sure that you are not building it alone. Sandbags are considered the most reliable anti-flooding solution, but prepare for some serious physical exercise when you build it and even a more advanced workout when you have to remove it when the sand gets wet.

How to use flood barriers for homes?

Removable flood barriers are manufactured according to the measurements of your property that you provide when you make the offer. For additional sealing, you can also use adhesive patches that come with the kit.

Here is how you should install Dam Easy Flood Barriers for home:

·Fit the bottom of the barrier to your doorway;

·Extent the side panels to the door;

·Inflate the seal using the pump handle up to approximately 2 Bar on the gauge;

·Turn the Air Retention Valve to the closed position.

The whole process takes several minutes, and you don`t need any additional assistance to install the flood barriers for your home. It means that you can efficiently seal your property under the pressure of the upcoming disaster and won`t have to depend on somebody`s availability or willingness to help you. Removing your flood barrier is even simpler, and you can store your anti-flooding protection even in the smallest garage or storage drawer till the next time you need it.

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A Christmas Miracle

This thing is excellent and the company has the best support. Last year Poseidon thought it would be funny to flood our home in the NY hudson valley with a 5.5' tidal surge on Christmas eve. Fortunately I had been following the forecast and had purchased the Dam Easy barrier a month prior.

I had installed the barrier the night before in preparation and awoke to find 18"+ of water up the side of my house and the barrier. Over the next 2-3 hours the the Dam Easy barrier worked perfectly in keeping the water from our basement and saved our Christmas. A true miracle!

As the tide subsided and our Dam Easy-less neighbors were pumped dry, a member of our local fire department asked if we needed our basement pumped out. I'm pretty sure he didn't believe me when I told him we were fine (likely thinking we were hiding a meth lab or something).

I now keep my barrier ready with spare seals on hand just in case we experience a similar surge. Top marks Dam Easy!

Flood protection

I have the Dameasy flood barriers for the past 5 years. I have put them up on several occasions, but fortunately we did not need them. On 13/11/23 for Storm Debi they went up again and on this occasion they definitely proved their worth. Without the Dameasy flood barriers, we would have been flooded. Best money ever spent.

Quick Delivery / Quick Install

I have installed the new seal on my Barrier. It was extremely easy to install. I then stored the product "ready to go" and hope to never need it!! The barrier, btw, worked amazingly well - held back 2 feet of water...

I bought more ( :

After these barriers proved effective in my single door openings, I bought more and connector poles to cover a 100" opening. We also raised the clothes dryer vents to 48" and filled the old openings with concrete.
Now, my 1950 Brick Bunker is protected within minutes, and my friends say they're stylish, too. Thank you DamEasy Flood Barriers. We keep them under our beds.

Sleeping Better during Hurricane Season

I live in North East Florida on the Intracoastal Waterway. We flooded 5 years ago during Hurricane Irma. Every year during mid-summer we start watching the Hurricane Tracker app to monitor potential storms. We typically don’t schedule extended vacations during September and October during peak hurricane season. In 2022, we had two potential flood events where water rose above our seawall. While thankfully we did not flood, it was a very stressful situation. We needed a solution to eliminate / minimize flooding.

In November, I spent countless hours online searching for solutions to prevent flooding. I reviewed numerous publications on how to flood proof your home, including FEMA’s “Homeowner’s Guide to Retrofitting” and, countless online reviews for all types of products.

My considerations for purchase were: 1) component quality of product, 2) potential effectiveness, 3) ease of use, 4) top rated reviews, and 5) cost.

Based on these criteria I selected DamEasy flood barriers. I used the online calculator to determine the number of barriers and extension poles required. For our rear doors I emailed DamEasy photos to get an expert recommendation since I had raised stucco foam trim around some doors and was concerned about the structural integrity. To my surprise I received a phone call the next day from Chris at DamEasy. He said they would be in my area and would it be okay if they come over the house and personally view exactly what was needed.

During Chris’s visit I purchased flood barriers and extension poles to protect all 6 openings on my house. I needed some additional cement / stucco work to further protect my house and install the extension pole base sockets. Chris recommended a local contractor that was working with DamEasy in North Florida. I hired them and their work product was amazing and it was done at a reasonable price.

In my opinion DamEasy has a high quality product with great customer service. While we still get uneasy when a new tropical disturbance is announced, we feel more at ease with the DamEasy flood barriers. Hopefully we will never have to use the flood barriers, but we know we have an added level of protection – which is simply DamEasy.

Thank God for Damn Easy!

Our home in St Augustine flooded twice last year. And while insurance covered the majority of repairs, after dealing with all the bs and nearly a full year of contractors, dry wall guys and big box stores, I was looking for some kind of flood mitigation system that wasn't too expensive or ridiculous to install. After reviewing several different options – including what amounted to a giant rubber donut placed around my house – I was really confused. Everything seemed so expensive and crazy to install that I basically gave up until I noticed a neighbor had purchased a system from a company called DamnEasy Flood Barriers. Interested, I set up an appointment with their sales guy and was pleasantly surprised to see their system was not only super easy to install, but also reasonably priced. As a guy who flunked wood shop – twice – I was hesitant at first because this kind of thing is out of my lease, but when I saw and felt the DamnEasy product I was convinced it could work. At 44 pounds – and with adjustable wings – the DamnEasy barrier fit snuggly in my doorway within a matter of minutes. Even my wife was surprised how easy it was for her to install the system. We even showed a neighbor how to do it in case we weren’t in town when a flood hit, and he had the whole system – 4 door barriers and a chain of barriers for our garage – up in less than 15 minutes. And while there was about 4 feet on the side of my house where we needed to install a small concrete wall, the DamnEasy guys even helped with that, utilizing their local contractor to get the job done in a day or two. And while it sounds a little crazy, I’m actually anticipating our next flood so I can see how well the system works (and I have every reason to believe it will). Even betterl, the DamnEasy system costs me less than half of the other systems I was investigating, none of which went up as easily or seemed seems as sturdy. No special tools or crazy retrofitting – the system was ready to install the moment it was delivered. Not sure how much easier it can get but would recommend DamnEasy to anyone looking to avoid the hassles of even a minor flood (which caused us over $150k in damage.)

Saved twice in 2022

St Augustine, Florida. In October and also November 2022 My home was protected by Dam Easy barriers. My tenant installed them in minutes, to hold back what he described as 11-15 inches of water. 100% effective.
See the picture of my home after Hurricaine Nicole. This was taken by a neighbor directly across the street. I did not have coverage for the french doors as shown, but the main part of the house was dry.

Great product and service!

Irma in 2017 filled our garage and front door with river water in our home in Jacksonville Fl. Clean up was miserable and it caused quite a bit of damage. Determined not to have that happen again, I found this ingenious product. They are pricy but not nearly as expensive as flood damage. I bought three of them and a post in June. When Ian started heading our way I headed to Jax to get them in place. The roiling river in the picture is high tide as Ian passed. Thankfully it did not rush through our garage door that faces it like it did during Irma. Two days before Ian hit I got a text from Chris at Dam Easy asking me if I needed any help installing the barrier before Ian got here! Who does that??? The instructions are great and the installation easy. I had to drill a hole in the concrete for the post in garage door entrance and epoxy its base. A bit of work but it is a solid, secure installation. Post and base are well made. I had a slight issue with one of the seals not holding pressure but there is an extra one included and they are very easy to replace. Again Chris was there for me if I needed him. He even called me from Ireland the next day to make sure everything was ok!! I never installed the front door dam because thankfully the river never got to the house. But I was confident that I could quickly put it in place if the river approached after seeing how easy it was to install the garage door barriers. While thankfully Ian never pushed the river to the house, I have absolutely no doubt these would have held. Very solid and well designed product. And the guys at Dam Easy are great! If you are anywhere subject to rapid flooding I highly recommend this product and the the folks at Dam Easy.

Great Product, Great Service, Great Company

We suffered very significant flood damage (over 1.5 ft of water in our house and over $230K in damage) from Hurricane Id'a in the fall of 2021. Oh, how we wish we had known about Dam Easy's flood barriers before then. We have had 2 other significant flooding instances since we acquired and installed the DamEasy barriers in front of our garage doors and we haven't gotten a drop of water inside our garage or house! They are extremely easy to put up and take down - the only real effort that may require some assistance (as was the case with us) is the installation of the sockets for the extension poles. I not only highly recommend these barriers, but I also highly recommend the company itself. Their Customer Service is amongst the very best I have ever dealt with. They answered every question I had and went the extra mile in making certain I was getting the very best from their product. Given this level of customer service and what is at stake regarding the cost these days of damage due to flooding, an investment in these barriers is a tremendous deal.

Perfect solution for our problem

We purchased our home on the edge of a golf course with a creek nearby. It seemed like a perfect place to spend our retirement years. This is until the following year we experienced heavy rains that produced a flood that did $60,000 in damages to our home and months of haggling with our insurer. We needed a solution because we did not want to go through this trauma again. As we looked we found options but none that we could physically handle at our golden year age until we found DAM EASY FLOOD GATES. The Dam Easy support team advised us through the installation process which we did with some help from our son. A little over a year later we had another flood which was more severe than the previous flood.... we came out bone dry... thanks Dam Easy for your product.... Roy and Barbara Beebe...

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Flood barriers for home or sandbags. How to install them?

How to use Sand Bags properly?

How to use flood barriers for homes?

Flood Barrier Door Dam - Ultimate Flood Gate

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