The basement Watchdog model BWD-HWA will detect water only 1/32" deep when the alarm is placed on floor. Most of our other ALARM SYSTEMS can either be placed on the floor or the sensors can be on the floor to provide an alert system for any flood prone area. As you can see, we also have systems that can be connected to a phone dialer to call any programed phone number to alert you of a possible flooding problem. As far as being able to detect water that is, say 5 feet away from a sensor, however, I don't believe there is anything available at this time.