How To Make A Homemade Flood Alarm

This is an interesting idea for homeowners who have basements that flood: make your own flood alarm. This device, first invented by a trio of high school students in Penang, was created to warn people who need to know about the rise of flood waters on a property. When the water level reaches 3 or 4 inches in height, an alarm sounds to warn people nearby.

Making The Alarm

Making your homemade flood alarm is going to require some ingenuity, because unfortunately, the inventors of the original model have not provided the world with very clear step-by-step instructions. In this tutorial, we’ll give our interpretation of the steps for making the alarm, but the exact process will depend on the kind of materials you acquire for this project. To get started, you’ll need:

A holder for the flood alarm float
A float made out of a Styrofoam ball with a dowel stuck in it
An alarm made from a buzzer attached to a battery pack
A remote trigger for the alarm attached to the buzzer via a long wire

Once you’ve got your materials together, you’re ready to MacGyver your flood alarm.

Create a case or a house for your flood alarm. An upside down flower pot or upside down heavyweight bucket is ideal. If you use a bucket, attach weights to the bottom to ensure the bucket won’t float away when flood waters rise. Whatever you use, the case for the flood alarm will need a hole in the top where the dowel poke out, and also a hole in the bottom so water can enter the case. On top of the case, you’ll need something that will hold the dowel and the remote trigger for the alarm. You can see an example of what will work in the video beneath this tutorial.
Stick the dowel in the Styrofoam ball. The dowel will need to protrude from the float by a few inches. This is the float.
Connect the alarm and battery pack to the remote trigger.
Stick the dowel in the flood alarm case. Point the dowel upward through the hole in the top of the case.
Attach the part that sits on top of the case to hold the dowel and trigger in place.
Insert the trigger into the top part of the case.

This is the flood alarm in a nutshell. Before you rely on the flood alarm to warn you about rising flood waters on your property, try testing the alarm in a controlled environment. Place it a bucket and fill it with water. As the water level in the bucket rises, the dowel inside the case should rise, and that should set off the trigger and turn on the alarm. You can see this process in action by taking a look at this video online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwOtla3riJM

The Buzzer is Going Off…Now What?

It’s not enough to have a water alarm in your basement. Without a sump pump or some other form of water extraction device, your alarm will do no good. Installing a sump pump will ensure that you can remove the water as soon as it starts to flood your home or yard.

For sump pump installation services, call Terry’s Plumbing. With over 30 years in the business, we can expertly install a sump pump on your property.