Prevent a Flooded Basement

This summer has been a very wet one here in North America. Many people have found themselves with wet basements and this has gotten them thinking about how to protect themselves from this happening again in the future.
There are many ways in which one can prepare for unexpected water leaks. The simplest way to be alerted to a wet basement is by a device which chimes when water is detected. These systems have an external water sensor that sends a signal to a chime which will beep or chirp. One of the best ways is with a simple water detector and dialer. With this set up you can receive a call from your house to your cell phone, or phone friends or family alerting you that there has been water detected. Many units can dial up to 3 numbers or even text and email.  Some systems can also be expanded to include freeze alarms, motion detectors or simply more water detectors if you have several areas you want to monitor.

A more sophisticated system can actually turn off the water to your house. Most water leaks are caused by broken pipes or faulty appliances and water will keep flowing until it is noticed by the homeowner who then has to go and manually shut off the water. There are a few systems that will do this as soon as they detect water as well as set off a chime to alert you that your water has been shut off at the source to your home.

Many of these products can be found here:
http://www.absoluteautomation.com/water_alarms/
Expandable dialer systems can be found here:
http://www.absoluteautomation.com/alarm-dialers/