Why Traditional Sandbags Leak - Prevention and Alternatives
The sandbag is a vital tool for preventing flooding and helping to keep rising waters from damaging homes and property.
While an old but trusted measure, sandbags are still very effective at blocking flood waters, but they do have their problems.
Sandbags quite often leak, and this can be due to several reasons.
The first, and biggest problem is that the longer sandbags are used against water, the more the sand gets saturated and water eventually starts seeping though.
Another cause for leaking sandbags is overfilling or poor manufacture.
The seams can often fray and not only will the sand seep out but they can easily split leading to a collapse of a sandbag barrier.
Ensuring sandbags are stored properly before use is about the only measure you can take to prevent leakage - and once used, sandbag walls will need to be regularly rebuilt with fresh bags as the sand gets sodden.
This is very time and energy consuming, as each sandbag will require two people to fill and others to build the wall, and often there just isn't enough help in times of flooding emergency.
But leaking isn't the only problem either.
Finding a source of sand to fill them with can be a challenge in many locations.
They can't be filled in advance of flooding because that would make transportation to difficult.
And even when there is a ready source of sand in the flood hit area, they take time and energy to fill often leading to a race against rising flood waters as people frantically fill bags and erect walls.
Alternatives to the sandbag, however, are readily available and have many advantages over the traditional sand-filled bag.
Instant Sandbags can be stored like traditional ones, kept flat until needed but they have a distinct difference: When needed, an instant sandbag is filled with water, not sand, and in flood hit areas this is never a hard-to-find resource.
Secondly, they fill in minutes, and once full they are completely water-resistant, and using water rather than sand means there is no risk of leaking, doing away with the need to continually rebuild sandbag walls.
Because of these advantages, Instant Sandbags save time, money, energy and manpower, and can make all the difference in such a time-sensitive and fraught situation as flooding.
While an old but trusted measure, sandbags are still very effective at blocking flood waters, but they do have their problems.
Sandbags quite often leak, and this can be due to several reasons.
The first, and biggest problem is that the longer sandbags are used against water, the more the sand gets saturated and water eventually starts seeping though.
Another cause for leaking sandbags is overfilling or poor manufacture.
The seams can often fray and not only will the sand seep out but they can easily split leading to a collapse of a sandbag barrier.
Ensuring sandbags are stored properly before use is about the only measure you can take to prevent leakage - and once used, sandbag walls will need to be regularly rebuilt with fresh bags as the sand gets sodden.
This is very time and energy consuming, as each sandbag will require two people to fill and others to build the wall, and often there just isn't enough help in times of flooding emergency.
But leaking isn't the only problem either.
Finding a source of sand to fill them with can be a challenge in many locations.
They can't be filled in advance of flooding because that would make transportation to difficult.
And even when there is a ready source of sand in the flood hit area, they take time and energy to fill often leading to a race against rising flood waters as people frantically fill bags and erect walls.
Alternatives to the sandbag, however, are readily available and have many advantages over the traditional sand-filled bag.
Instant Sandbags can be stored like traditional ones, kept flat until needed but they have a distinct difference: When needed, an instant sandbag is filled with water, not sand, and in flood hit areas this is never a hard-to-find resource.
Secondly, they fill in minutes, and once full they are completely water-resistant, and using water rather than sand means there is no risk of leaking, doing away with the need to continually rebuild sandbag walls.
Because of these advantages, Instant Sandbags save time, money, energy and manpower, and can make all the difference in such a time-sensitive and fraught situation as flooding.
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