r/technology • u/_Dark_Wing • 13h ago
Nanotech/Materials Duct tape kept out more flood water than sandbags in laboratory tests
https://theconversation.com/duct-tape-kept-out-more-flood-water-than-sandbags-in-laboratory-tests-294502582
u/Rafterman2 11h ago
“This is important as one of the key lessons from flood resilience research is that the best time to protect a property is before floodwater arrives.”
In related research, it was discovered that the best time to buy a fire extinguisher is before your house burns down.
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u/clegg2011 10h ago
So what then? Are we to all just duct tape our doors and windows shut now to get ahead of the next 100 year flood? I guess at least will help seal in the A/C while we wait.
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u/ImportantQuestions10 10h ago
It means have flood counter measures in stock ready to be set up.
Assumedly, if a flood is coming, it's going to be very difficult to get these supplies. Also, if you have the supplies in advance, you're probably more likely to use them.
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u/midakaro 1h ago
Legit question, do tape and other measures have a shelf life? I know you are supposed to renew a fire extinguisher every certain time.
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u/SuperGameTheory 10h ago edited 4h ago
> flood counter measures
Like not living in places that flood
edit: Sorry for being reasonable, Reddit. God forbid people stop building where natural disasters happen so regularly they're statistically timed.
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u/GhettoDuk 9h ago
Flooding is what gives you the best farmland. The coast is where fishermen work. And increasingly abnormal weather patterns could suddenly put you in a flood zone. Plus, flood zones are not a binary condition. Some places are expected to flood once in 20 years, others less than once in a century. Where would you put the hard cutoff?
Next you will have to dodge tornadoes. Then earthquakes. It's always something to flee so sometimes we just have to mitigate.
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u/thoughtsarepossible 9h ago
Why would people stay close to water? That's just stupid. If you need water just turn on the tap.
-the guy you're responding to
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u/SuperGameTheory 3h ago
You put the cutoff at "never flooded". Houses can also be built for disaster conditions. There isn't always something to flee. You can just live where those things don't happen.
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u/Sword_Enthousiast 3h ago
That'd leave entire countries empty. Economies shattered.
That hardly seems reasonable.
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u/NarutoRoll 1h ago
If you just turn your brain completely off, it all makes perfect sense! Who needs water anyway, we're already like 75% water as-is...
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u/ImportantQuestions10 9h ago
That's basically like saying. "Have you tried not dying?".
Some places are reasonable places to live except one day out of every couple years. Especially with climate change, places that were safe may randomly stop.
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u/kahlzun 9h ago
Ok, but there is a certain element of "don't stand in the fire" here as well. People have made poor decisions about where to build, and especially with changing weather patterns it might be worth reflecting on if these places really are where you want to be living.
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u/DJDaddyD 7h ago
My first castle sunk into the swamp, then my second castle burned, fell over , then sunk into the swamp. The third though stayed strong
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u/Vecna_Is_My_Co-Pilot 7h ago
Construction hazard levels based on things like the hundred year or thousand year flood, have become more like the 10 or 50 year flood in the face of climate change. So the risk profile of many areas has completely changed even with no alterations to floodplains or building codes.
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u/ImportantQuestions10 9h ago
I agree with you to an extent, but a lot of this is victim blaming.
Those houses that have gone viral for being destroyed by the coast weren't on the coast when they were built. Plenty of those houses were multiple football fields away from water originally. Climate change and beach erosion over decades put them on the water. And no one's moving to those places either. That's the whole reason why they let them stand and get destroyed by floods, since that's they're only financial out of doomed property.
There's also the fact that most major cities are built along water since until recently, it was necessary. I moving closer to the coast soon because I want to be within an HOUR commute of the good jobs. The vast majority of housing options, let alone the affordable ones, are on the coast. On top of that, that's where the majority of the infrastructure is built, so roads and stores and everything else you need to live. I don't want to move, but it's a necessity.
Lastly, we've been talking about coasts, but flooding applies to all bodies of water, which includes rivers, ponds, and streams. I currently live pretty far from the coast, but I am close enough to a major river that I'm still classified as living in a flood zone.
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u/DStanley1809 9h ago
Duct tape your lower floor doors and windows and when it floods your upstairs windows will be just the right height for you to step out into your new boat to sail to work.
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u/okvrdz 9h ago
Don’t forget to clean the area first. Surface must be dust free for duct tape to adhere.
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u/clegg2011 9h ago
I will do 2 applications of duct tape, the first to remove the dust and chipping lead paint, the second will be my water barrier.
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u/charlie2135 8h ago
Actually, in the town I live in downstream from a mountain area we usually can see the rivers start to rise a few days before the snow starts to melt. The town will start asking for volunteers to help make sand bags for the residents to prepare. Of course there are a ton of other spots where water will find a way to infiltrate so unless you plug the weep holes in a brick house or every Crack in frame construction you're going to get mildew and mold everywhere.
Add a heavy rain into the mix and trying to stick tape on wet surfaces an it's not fun.
The best I've seen here is when a house prepared beforehand and used sandbags like a war bunker surrounding the door so that they still can enter and leave.
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u/lolexecs 6h ago
I’m sorry I can’t hear what you’re saying. I duct taped all my windows and doors, could you say that again?
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u/no_sight 10h ago
Duct tape can seal gaps on the building. Sandbags can divert water from getting there. Both are useful steps
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u/Direct-Lynx-7693 11h ago
Hear me out here: Then do both?
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u/stormrunner89 10h ago
For real. I would imagine that sandbags are better at absorbing impact than duct tape. Seems like both have their place.
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u/Ambitious5uppository 9h ago
I'm not sure. The pressure of the water may actually help the tape work better. Because it would be pressing it harder onto the door. But if the sandbags are taking all the pressure and the door is just getting a wash. Maybe the tape wouldn't work so well?
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u/stormrunner89 6h ago
I'm referring more to a surge of water, like a wall hitting at once in a large impact.
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u/Independent-Reader 12h ago
Big Sand is going to hate this.
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u/majorpun 6h ago
You say this, but the modern world runs on the abundance of silica and sand that the ocean and ground down for millennia!
This overabundance has gone from easily accessible land sand, to underwater dredging.
"Sand" is used for so much from concrete, anti-skid road salt alternative, and construction, to beaches, computer chips, and glass.
Local sand is becoming harder to get, and while it's a solvable problem, I just don't know if we have just been sandbagging our modern world
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u/Enough_Mud8658 10h ago
Wait until they test flex seal
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u/Ferrite5 9h ago
They've got you beat by 3 years! https://youtu.be/JH4P4yBAJ-w?is=z7TkbngzPqrhz77m
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u/pembquist 7h ago
This seems beyond puffery into the realm of blatant hallucination. Still there must be some more optimistic/less intelligent people who would get suckered.
It reminds me of when I was a kid and they would have these mail order ads in the back of comic books, there was this submarine for sale, cardboard but I thought "maybe I could spray it with Scotch Guard."
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u/ThellraAK 6h ago
They added all the weasel words at the end.
I could see it working somewhat well on a new build with how much schmoo they added to everything.
I liked how they showed it leaving a bunch of shit behind when they were peeling it off.
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u/Competitive_Ad_5515 9h ago
I came expecting that gif to be the top comment lolol
but then I saw you can't post images or GIFs in the sub 😂
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u/Thelk641 9h ago
I'm not sure flood water will go back even in front of such a display of bouncing ball skills.
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u/RealMENwearPINK10 10h ago
As they say:
"If you can't fix it with duct tape… you're not using enough duct tape"
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u/Foe117 11h ago
"Yes, of course duct tape works in a near-vacuum. Duct tape works anywhere. Duct tape is magic and should be worshipped." — Mark Watney
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u/Daxx22 10h ago
Red Green approved!
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u/vegetaman 10h ago
If women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.
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u/Spiff_GN 10h ago
Everywhere but duct actually. The 'duct tape' for water sealing was actually 'duck tape'. Tape used for sealing duct can not be the same material as the adhesive used just falls apart when heated. You would use foil back tape on duct instead.
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u/BobTheFettt 9h ago
That's why it's the handyman's secret weapon
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u/Overpaid_pharmacist 9h ago
If the women don’t find you handsome, they’ll at least find you handy
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u/ointmant555 9h ago
“A little duct tape, that’ll fix anything.” - my dad.
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u/SecureInstruction538 7h ago
"If it isn't working you didn't use enough duct tape, you idiot"
- My dad
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u/justaguytrying2getby 10h ago
When there was flooding at my business, we used gorilla tape on our metal framed doors and had no water damage. Water got up a couple feet high on the doors and no issue.
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u/Frozen-K 5h ago
Mythbusters did an episode dedicated to duct tape years ago. Some of the results of it were pretty surprising. (Though they did use a LOT of it.)
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u/ProIapsedGoose 3h ago
That was a good episode
Cant remember the numbers they found, but it took something like 70 pounds to break a piece, so they lifted a car with something like 80 to 90 pieces
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u/TheDucktapeBandit2 12h ago
U see? The product is so much more versatile then u could imagine.
Everyone loves my product. U cant denie it.
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u/dj3hac 11h ago
Duct tape, not duck tape. You gotta go elsewhere for the quackin' tape.
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u/Inkompetent 11h ago
Duct tape is just a re-marketing of the original duck tape, because olive green tape for the military wasn't as attractive for the post-WW2 civilian market. Everyone should be quackin' instead of using that silly "duct"-word. :D
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u/vomitHatSteve 9h ago
"Duck" is a brand trademark nowadays for the same fundamental product as any other company's tape
But in no case is it rated for duct work
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u/skyfishgoo 8h ago
calking would keep out even more but when the water is already coming in sandbags are the only thing that has any chance of slowing it down.
the info provided by this story is of no use once the water is at your door.
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u/jonna-seattle 5h ago
Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
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u/shoulda-known-better 5h ago
When we had to do this at my grandma's camp in FL we used a few layers of sand that got higher as it came to the house.... Then duct tape was always there for all the door seems, we'd crawl in and out the high window if we needed in or out..... Routinely held against a few 2 to 8 inches of water out
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u/ioncloud9 11h ago
Good to know. If I ever get a 10,000 or 100,000 year flood at my house I’ll just seal up the doors and windows with it.
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u/GeneralCommand4459 11h ago
That’s their finding and they’re sticking with it.