I've tried using sandbags for floods, they don't do shit.

Can I wrap my house in duct tape

They're great for big floods where the amount of water that leaks through is negligible and/or they can be placed so deep they can form an effective dam (and where you have dozens of people to set them up...). But man, apart from breaking up waves they are useless if you're trying to protect a small structure. You'll have more success using them to bust a hardware store window and then stealing a tarp...

Yes!

I recall maybe mythbusters making a boat out of gaffer tape but I don't recall ever seeing anyone make a boat our of sandbags!
here it is

With enough time and money, anything is possible.

The least you could do is spell it correctly, but that bone-apple-tea is disturbingly prevalent. 🤦🏼‍♂️

edit: Downvote all you want, fellow plebs. It's your ass if you take that incorrect name at face value. Just try it on ducting and see if you don't earn yourself massive repairs that require an actual professional to fix for you.

It's "duck tape", because it repells water like their feathers. It can neither withstand heat nor blowout pressure.

Gawdamn, this civ is fucked.

Your HVAC guy might wanna have a chat.

Sandbags wrapped in a tarp would probably do pretty well, then duct tape the seams. That gives you a heavy barrier and a waterproof membrane as well. Keeps it off your walls too, which may or may not let water leak through if there is a reasonable depth of water against them.

But it also depends on your house and the stuff around it. Where I live surface flooding would have to get past my front wall and there is just a narrow path through the brick wall. So sealing there would make the most sense.

At least until it reaches the height for sewers to back up and flow into my house. Then may as well burn it all down and abandon it.

If you pay for all the tape, I will gladly pay any conceivable travel cost to come and help you do this. DM me a timeline and your deets

As is with typical modern day geniuses, both apparently isn’t an option.

But what kind of tape is this? Wide electrical?

Duct tape could be useful as an improvised protection. It requires the door to be kept closed.

A waterproof panel right in front of the door would allow to keep using the door. Obviously it requires acquiring those ahead of time, possibly work on the door opening to ensure it fits perfectly.

Aka gaffer tape, cloth tape. Not an electrical tape, it's a general purpose, fix nearly anything tape. Given the name, originally designed to quick fix ducts!

Are thinking of Duck tape? That's a brand name dude!

Sandbags are typically used during flash floods and other imminent/unpredictable flooding.

Everyone should own a tarp. So useful.

The linked paper says 73mm-wide 27m-long branded high-quality black duct tape, so I'd guess it's Gorilla Tape, which is well known in the UK and consistent with that description.

They also tested three other types of tape; details are in the paper.

Duct tape was originally duck tape — adhesive on duck cloth — and became particularly popular with GIs during WWII. It would later be developed into its current form using polyethylene backing.

I don't think gaffer tape would hold up to water. I think this is legit super sticky duct tape like for ducts, not just keeping electrical cords in place so people don't trip on them.

Source: I gaffed for a couple summers

Fair point - I use those names for being near enough the same product (sticky cloth tape easily ripped by hand), but I get there are variations for use in more specific cases.

Interesting how the name pretty much stayed the same with modern popular products!

That does explain why it would work well with floods if originally designed to be waterproof. Like lost knowledge refound (at least by some!)

And with this one wierd trick, now everyone can!

"Duck cloth" is a type of canvas, in case that's unclear. 🤓

"Duck tape" was originally conceived in 1943 during World War II by Vesta Stoudt, an ordnance plant worker and mother of two U.S. Navy sailors. After local plant supervisors ignored her idea, she wrote directly to President Roosevelt on February 10, 1943, including explanatory diagrams. Roosevelt forwarded the letter to the War Production Board, which tasked Johnson & Johnson’s Revolite division to manufacture the heavy-duty cotton-duck and rubber-adhesive tape.

WWII GIs would use it to waterproof their artillery cases and it got the code name Duck Tape because water flowed off it & like water off a duck’s back. After the war, during the housing boom, ex-GIs realized the tape had a multitude of applications around the home for general repairs.

Despite the name it eventually adopted, modern building codes often prohibit using traditional cloth-backed duct tape on actual HVAC ductwork because the adhesive can dry out, fail, or become a fire hazard under heat and pressure. The original name was later reclaimed commercially by the Duck Brand.

It's alright, though. Many people are simply tired and can't be bothered to read for pleasure, much less self-improvement. Same as it ever was.

Duct tape around doors... Yeah sure. But who thought that was a good situation for sand bags? They're for outside use.

Thanks 🙏 appreciated 😊

No, but you can probably spray the lower 20..40 cm of your house with stone chip protection / underbody protection (a car maintenance product). Getting it off later is going to be interesting, though. If you have frequent floods, maybe you'll want to keep it. :D

Since my house is made of aerated concrete, stone chip protection is included in my contingency plan.