Wet garage floor

[Moo]

I moved into a 30 year old house this summer, and am getting seriously pissed off with puddles of water from melting snow from the truck. In previous houses, floors have been angled to drain through the door naturally, although I've never seen it work particularly well.

In this house the water pools up in a couple of areas, towards the middle of the floor. To make matters worse, there is a load bearing 2x4 wall in between 2 stalls that is in the middle of one of the areas where it pools badly. It's starting to rot and I'm probably destined to replace it (this time with a layer or two of block at ground level to avoid water touching wood in future).

I really want to find a way of draining the floor. I'm not sure what the best approach is. If money and time was no option, I would dig up the floor, put in drains, and have then feed some large soaking beds under the frost line (3-4 feet here in MN) to the side of the garage, dug deep enough that they would absorb a lot of water. I don't really have the time or money for that. Does anyone have any ideas? Maybe I should dig holes say a foot diameter, 4 feet down, and fill with gravel, cover up with drain etc? I would need 2 or 3 to catch the key low points, but that would not be too difficult.

I don't want to do the stupid mats as I know people that have had them break after one season, and I don't want to have to get the shop vac out every day. Looking for a low maintenance option.

I've putzed around on google for a few hours looking for ideas, but most of it is the stupid mats.

TIA for any ideas.

Mat

[hallerb]

it (this

ld dig holes say a

how about a under the slab drain with openings at the collecting spots going to a sump pump.

with a low voume of water, this should do it.

do you have a place to send the water?

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Leave the truck outside.

[EXT]

Many areas forbid drains in the garage to prevent people from dumping oil and/or anti-freeze or other chemicals down the drain and contaminating the storm drains.

["Blattus Slaf]

Put grooves in the floor where it puddles to the garage door, under the door and out. Hopefully your driveway tapers away from the garage.Use one of those cement cutting discs in a skill saw and keep lowering it as you approach the door. You probably don't need much taper.

[ransley]

Tear down the garage and redo it as you want

[ransley]

You need to move before it all hits you

[Joseph Meehan]

I wish I knew. On side of our double car garage drains nicely, the other does not. That is the fault of the contractor. They should IMO be graded to drain towards the center of the lane and out the door so that they drain under the car and out the door. I have added this to my list of things to demand on new construction or a serious remodel.

[Moo]

how about a under the slab drain with openings at the collecting spots going to a sump pump.

with a low voume of water, this should do it.

do you have a place to send the water?

-----

That's what I was thinking. Trouble with taking the water out is there is no place to vent it outside (since it is below zero for most of winter here, the normal sump arrangement venting above ground outside will not work). Also concerned that the water will silty/sandy and will block a pump.

[Moo]

Great idea, I'll leave it outside in -20 cold and add 15 minutes to my morning clearing snow and warming it up.

[Moo]

Conversely, I've also seen some areas requriing garage drainage linked to the foundation drainage system

[Moo]

Such intelligent insight, so glad you shared. You must be one of those people who has to say something, even if you have nothing remotely worthwhile to say. Are you my mother in law in disguise?

[Phisherman]

I used to live in northern Ohio were garage drains are common and useful for the melting ice chunks that form behind tires. But here in the South there is no such thing and we get occasional small puddles. The logical solution is to park in the driveway when your vehicle has snow or water on it.

[Moo]

I like this suggestion.....but any idea how get the grooves at the right depth and pitch?

[aemeijers]

Use a tapered board as a guide?

Given how much pawn-shop skilsaws cost (no way do you want to do this with a good saw), not to mention the abrasive wheels, I'd see if the local rent-all place has concrete saws. Or given that I would have to teach myself a use-once skill, I'd just call a concrete cutting or flatwork company, and see how much they would charge for the work. They have honkin' big saws, sometimes air-powered from a truck-mounted compressor, that would make real short work of it. And a flatwork company would probably even understand what you were trying to accomplish. Most recent driveways I have seen, the expansion joints are not floated in by hand old-style, they are saw-cut in the green concrete. Old cured concrete will be a lot harder, so they will have to cut slower, but the principles are the same.

aem sends...

["Blattus Slaf]

Another option, add another thin layer of concrete or asphalt to the floor and level it so that water drains toward the door.

Another option is to bore a hole all the way into the earth at the bottom of the pools and put a drain cover on the hole. You don't get enough water to worry about a drain, the hole will soak up the water.

[Nate Nagel]

I'm surprised nobody's suggested a skim coat of leveling compound... looks like someone did that to my basement floor years ago and it appears to have held up well. Not sure how much you can get with it though.

I'd wait for another opinion; I've never done this, just throwing it out there as an idea.

nate

[DerbyDad03]

Warming it up doesn't have to add any time to your morning routine. I hit the button on my remote starter when I get out of the shower and it's warm before I get done getting dressed. Waste gas, not time!

[DerbyDad03]

Don't they say that putting a salt laden vehicle in the garage makes it rust sooner, or is that an old wife's tale? Or maybe they don't use salt where you live?

[Edwin Pawlowski]

********************

Rusting is a chemical reaction. Warmer temperature speeds it up.