driveway drainage disaster

[Smitty Two]

Well, not exactly a disaster. But the PO of House B obviously didn't read ahr, so didn't know that new concrete doesn't stick to old concrete. Referenced concrete berm / speed bump was fairly intact when we bought the house 1.75 yrs. ago but has now completely fallen apart. Water gets into the garage, and also rots the bottom of the structure to the left of the garage door (vicinity of personnel door.)

So I've posted links to a few pics showing the layout. We basically have a carport outside the garage. Cars live in carport. I'm considering a couple of options. One is a threshold seal like this:

Which I would put where the concrete berm is disintegrating rather than under the garage door. Or, maybe use two or three of them, possibly angled across the carport to channel water to one side.

I've also found glue-down speed bumps, whose primary advantage seems to be that they're taller (2" vs. 1/2")

Then we get complicated with some sort of drain:

Or maybe I make my own french drain by trenching 3' deep and filling with gravel?

Any suggestions welcome.

[trader4]

I take it that the slab is not pitched correctly so that water drains away and they put the speed bumps there as a barrier? How well was that working until it came apart? What happens in winter, does it freeze and leave a sheet of ice? If it was working OK, then you could use a speed bump that is made of plastic and that gets cemented down. I doubt the small strips intended to go under a garage door will be substantial enough to keep all the water back. Wouldn't take much of a wind for example to overtop it.

If it wasn't working well and there is a natural place for a channel drain to empty into, then you could install that. HD and Lowes sells them. Obviously a lot more work, but could be worth it if it's a better solution.

[Jules Richardson]

I'd go with that. Used to see them a lot in the UK. If you can get the grilles (they used to always be metal, modern ones may be plastic) from somewhere then you could cast your own channel beneath.

Seals will probably fail, and bumps are just annoying.

I'd put the soakaway off to one side, where it's not going to have vehicles driving over it (or not bother - it looks from the images that you might have just enough height for water to spill over to the right of the driveway)

cheers

Jules

[Colbyt]

From the pics it looks like the intended path for the water was to the right.

Only a person with a level and then with a hose can test this to be sure but you need to determine if that is the lay of drive. If so I suspect that cutting several grooves or even a small dip into the driveway which aids that flow is a better choice than the bumps. This would save you from all but the hardest of rains.

My sister has a drain like the Amazon link at her drive in entrance to the basement. The actual ramp/drive is only about 10 feet long since this is not the garage. In 25 years or so she has never had a problem with water.

[jamesgangnc]

Not enough pics. Can't see the roof or the general lay of the area on that side of the house. Any way you can move the source of the water entering form the side of the carport? Drain going else where perhaps? Does the carport roof have gutters? The more sources of water you can divert the better off you will be.

[Una]

Too much hardscape and too small drainage course. Judging by leaf litter and plants in view, the location gets more than 1 meter of rain per year.

I would break out the slab under the entire carport eaves line and install a drain all around, continuing to the right out of the photos. Cobble filled drains, sometimes known as French drains, are a really old system. They are seen often on Japanese temples. You could install actual drain tile, then cover with cobbles. The end result would be a decorative "dry stream" that also conveys water.

Here is another idea:

Do you have an adequate destination for the water?

Una