If you're a DIY kind of guy who wants to be prepared all the time, then these tools are for you. A flooded basement is the last thing you want in your home, lest your gadgets and geek toys get damaged by a leak or swallowed up by floodwater. Protecting your basement from flood or water damage is a must, in order to safeguard your techie toys as well as your health. Read on.



Portable Sump Pump - This one comes in handy when you have a leak or water buildup anywhere in the house, and especially for floods in the basement. A portable sump pump will enable you to drain the water out, and is a better option to a vacuum cleaner for water removal. Models vary according to the horsepower capability and the number of gallons the pump can drain per minute. Most portable pumps allow you to connect a garden hose or a drain hose with a bigger diameter. If you can afford it, go for the larger drain hose; you'll be able to work faster because more water can be pumped out. You might as well get the model with the higher capacity motor too. Make sure you buy enough length of drain hose so that you can get the water far away from your house; otherwise, it'll flow back. Take note of the drain area capability of the pump too. Some pumps can drain almost all the way to the floor, leaving only 1/8" left. Bigger pumps may drain enough and leave 3/8" water puddles.

Floor Squeegee - After you have drained the water you now have to mop up the remaining water puddles. You can use a floor squeegee to sweep the water, or you can try a shop broom. Floor squeegees look like those nifty squeegees that window washers that clean buildings windows use.They work by scraping the remaining water off the flooded basement surface. The suction of the rubber blade allows you to sweep the water from flooded area in towards your sump pit or out of the room.

Wet/Dry Vacuum Cleaner - Another useful thing your flooded basement needs is a wet/dry vac. This type of vacuum cleaner allows you to clean up dry and wet matter. If you are going to use this for the basement, make sure you empty out the canister before doing so. Otherwise you will have muddy goop in the canister and it will be messy and dirty to cleanup The wet/dry vac can also be used in tandem with the floor squeegee, if you can rope in any of your family members to help you. You wield the vac, and the other person sweeps the water towards you with the squeegee. Be careful when you are using the vac in a wet environment; don't plug or unplug it with wet hands.

After you have removed most of the water it is a good idea to pour some disinfectant on the floor to get rid of any fothcoming bad odor caused by the water. If the water in your flooded basement came from outside the house, you definetly need to do this.

Dehumidifier - Ok, most of the water is gone, but your basement will be damp. Leaving it that way will encourage mold to grow. A dehumidifier will help to dry it up and prevent the growth of unwanted microbial organisms. Turn the dehumidifier on and let it run the whole day for several days. This will dry out the air and the saturated concreteflooded basment's concrete floor. Most dehumidifiers have an automatic shutoff switch that turns off when the catch basin or bucket is full. This prevents the container from overflowing and wetting your basement all again. Check your dehumidifier to see if it has a drain fitting on the catch bucket. You can attach a garden hose to this and put the other end of the hose either in the sump pit or outside. Doing this will enable the excess water in the catch basin to run through the hose and will allow you to operate the unit continuously without having to empty out the catch bucket every so often.