Sucking up water - need some advice

JEB · 24 Mar 2009 at 20:24

Had a bit of a disaster. A hose came off the washing machine under the floor of the house. The middle section of the found under the floor, between the dwarf walls, has a fair bit of water in it, and it stinks!! Don't have much access to it, but have a floor hatch that we can see down into. At the part we can see the water isn't deep enough for one of these dirty water pumps to operate, so I was wondering - has anyone got one of these Vax hoovers that can suck up water? If yes how effective are they, do you think it'd do the trick for this sort of thing? Was thinking I could feed the hose down and reach a fair bit under the section of the floor that is flooded. If someone has one what model do they have, don’t want to spend a fortune on one if I can help it, perhaps £100 or so.
Next question - has anyone used deodoriser or some sort of detergent spray that they can recommend that will then perhaps help neutralise the pong once I get the bulk of the water out?

JEB · 24 Mar 2009 at 20:53

Trouble is the water is pretty gunky. I don't think it's clean enough to go through a drill pumb, although for under £10 it may be worth a go. Was thinking a wet hoover with a bit of good suction on it may be better. Got to try to get the water out some-how as the pong will put you on your back!!

JEB · 24 Mar 2009 at 21:06

Its a bungalow and the found has a skin of concrete on it, then the dwarf walls, and about 20" above that insulation and then the floor. The water won't go anywhere as the found is totally sealed, so I have to get it out somehow. It's def not a broken drain, have fixed where the break in the washing machine pipe is, so I know it was definately that which was causing the leak. There is vents on the dwarf walls to the outside of the house but my guesss is it'll take months to evaporate as there is a fair bit of it. The stink is becuase of all the soap-power that's in the discharge water, and that it's by nature grimy pongy stuff at the best of times.
The advice I need really is what I can use to suck it up with.

JEB · 24 Mar 2009 at 21:21

Lopéz said:
I have an Earlex Wet + Dry vac and it will suck up that no bother. I think it was about £40 from Screwfix or similar.

Now we are talking. Ace - at least I now have a steer on a vac that'll do the trick. I notice there is a Earlex WD1100 model. Is that the one you have?

Thank you.

JEB · 25 Mar 2009 at 22:14

Bought one of these Earlex jobbies and it did the trick just dandy. Cheers for the advice.