Joy lives beside a stream and now twice in a month the water has risen to about 20 inches up the outside wall. I cut a board with foam tacked to it and it worked well at the front door but the old house is not flat and the foam has to press into stucco. So seepage (even through the bricks - made the house wet. Then another wall leaked. The problem is that there are only a few inches of water spread over a large area and in nooks and crannies. The house is Elizabethan.

Apart from a vacuum cleaner like a Henry (she will be getting one) is there a pump type that can suck up water that shallow continuously? and does it need priming and therefore stops when it sucks air? A vacuum cleaner has to be emptied but has uses daily.

I found these guys Pume Express .co.uk but it looks like their products are designed for a residual water level to work.

I suggested digging a hole and dropping the pump in, which would work for the porch, but indoors - I might be lynched.................

I have quietly cleared some rubbish and detritus from the stream creating wiers and backing-up the level to the haouse but there is a gov edict that prevents you clearing vegitation from the banks of streams until August - which if you are a farmer would mean loosing subsidies and her brother works 24/7 as it is for less than I earn! (last holiday in 6 years was 2 days for son's graduation day).