How to make a speedbump-like concrete dam?

[Ignoramus21718]

My factory building has two bay type garage doors.

One of them faces a parking lot, which happens to be so very slightly above the floor level inside the building. So, during a rain, wates ingresses the building.

I knew about it when I bought the place and this is basically not that big of a deal, as water goes into a drain, and it is not a lot of it.

The place used to have an asphalt speedbump-like dam, that let trucks drive over it and yet kept water out of the building. That structure is in shambles now and, so, water gets in.

I would like to do it the right way, to keep water out, and to be able to drive over it. What should I do, call a concrete guy, asphalt guy, DIY, or what?

What sort of structure has a good chance of having a long life expectancy and keep water out? i

[aemeijers]

Make life easy- buy a premade rubber one, and fasten it down with the appropriate adhesive and big-ass bolts. Any commercial OH door place or warehouse supply should have it.

The stuff won't be cheap, but to add new bumps to existing paving and not have them fail quickly, is always hard.

[Sjouke Burry]

Ignoramus21718 wrote in news:P4- dnVMgP9LTEgrTnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

A gutter right where the door is? All garages at my place of work had that.

[Pete C.]

They make a rubber glue down strip for such purposes, kind of like a heavy duty cord guard.

[DerbyDad03]

Dig a trench, drop in one of these and let the water drain off to place that is less offensive...

Add one of these if you can't drain it "naturally"...

[Ignoramus21718]

Cool. Do I need to put grout or something under them, to seal them against water ingress?

I understand and agree.

i

[Tom Gardner]

I have the same problem once or twice a year when the drain gets overwhelmed. We have a small forklift on that side with small tires so I can't put any permanent obstruction there. So, we have a pile of sandbags on each side of the door and can quickly place them if it's raining extremely hard or if a storm is expected in the night. It's very cheap and works perfectly.

[bob haller]

you cant seal water out, as you suggest the only sure cure is to redirect it.

[Ignoramus17081]

I love this solution!

i

[Lloyd E. Sponenburgh]

Ignoramus17081 fired this volley in news:UuWdnXuFFolkgQXTnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

You won't, once you've tried it (I can't even _count_ how many ways you'll hate it)!

If you need to drive over with a forklift, they have ramps (which you could make up yourself) just for that purpose -- just to make it up over a short curb or some other impediment.

Such "dead Irishmen" speedbump materials are available in pre-cast lengths, made from polymers, and able to be hot-melt (hot-stripe road glue, not your craft thing) or epoxied to the (clean) concrete.

That, or a re-directing trench just AT the outside face of the doors are the only two ways you're going to keep water out. If you used a narrow trench, then you'd only need a simple plate of steel the get a forklift over it.

(did you ever consider that a mass of sand is porous? )

LLoyd

[HeyBub]

Not grout. It will crack under pressure and water will leak through the cracks. Ask the place where you buy the rubber bumpers, but I would suspect some sticky, flexible caulk-like materia.

[Lloyd E. Sponenburgh]

"HeyBub" fired this volley in news:2NqdnZwp-4TLqAXTnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Yeah... Butyl will work if the solvent package won't hurt the polymer.

LLoyd

[DerbyDad03]

What if no storm is expected an it's a holiday morning or you're dressed in the "Sunday go to meeting" clothes as that unexpected storm blows through?

Can you honestly tell use that you been able to get the sandbags in place just prior to the "once or twice a year" that your drain are about to get overwhelmed?

Do the bags result in the shut down of your operation since the forklift can't get over the sandbags?

[Ignoramus17081]

But hopefully the bags would not be porous. Nevertheless, I agree with your argument. I will spend a couple hundred bucks on the proper solution.

i

[DerbyDad03]

in

I used to use the "tyvek" covered sand bags in a conversion van I owned to keep the rear end behind me during the winter.

Even though they were "waterproof" it only took a couple of seasons of loading them into the van and then storing them under the deck for them to get worn enough to leak a bit of sand here and there.

I would imagine that moving them around in a parking lot would result in even more wear and tear.

In other words, they might not start out "porous" but they might become that way fairly soon.

[stans4]

Sounds like you need a gutter with a grill over it right outside the doors connecting to the storm drain. Have seen that done in a number of commercial garages. Might freeze up come snow time, though. In that case, an electric gutter heater might be in order. Damming water up with a bump is seldom a fix, just prolonging the inevitable. Most places I've seen that have the guttering done, the grills are a foot or two wide and extend well past both sides of the door. Usually the roof drains feed into the same storm drain piping, not spewing all over the pavement. Keeps from having sheets of ice all over the parking area. Speaking of which, have you gotten any sort of snow plowing or removal planned? Coming up on that time... If you get three feet of snow and a fast thaw, all that water is going to go somewhere. And have you inspected and cleaned the roof drains?

Stan

[JIMMIE]

Water sometimes comes down my neighbor's driveway and he has found that placing the garden hose diagonally across his drive way redirects a huge amount of the water away from his garage door.

Jimmie

[Ignoramus17081]

My neighbor runs a concrete company and he ran out of space. He parks a truck on my property in exchange for snowplowing my yard.

As for the roof drain, I know for a fact that it was recently cleaned. i

[DerbyDad03]

How do you run out of space if you own a concrete company?

Just pour a big slab someplace and start using it. ;-)

[krw]

He did. ...on his neighbor's (17081's) land.