uneven garage floor

So, I've seen this problem posted a few places but have yet to find an easy and inexpensive stop-gap solution.

I have a 2-car garage. My garage floor is just a concrete slab (no drain). In theory, it should angle slightly towards the front and center, but it is imperfect and when snow and ice falls off the car, what happens is from some places it moves toward the garage door or stays where it is (both fine), but from other places it moves toward the back or sides of the garage.

I'm perfectly happy to take a broom or squeegee when necessary and push the water out the front. But because of lack of storage space elsewhere in the hose (no attic, tiny basement), I tend to store a lot of stuff in the garage. I have a various shelving units both in the back and sides of my garage. I've raised these wooden units up off the floor with bricks, but water will pool underneath these things and I can not easily get it out. Not to mention that some stuff is just on the floor.

For the past few years, I've been using these vinyl car-pads

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under the cars to contain the water, and then I push it out when necessary. But they have deteriorated, and don't hold the water as well any more, not to mention that they have bunched up in certain places making it difficult to push the water out. Also, they tend to stay wet underneath all winter, which can't be good for concrete slab. And they're kind of pricey.

It would be nice to make a shallow (1-2") berm around the area where the cars are parked. Then the water wouldn't get to my storage area, and I could just push it out when necessary. This product looks like it could do the trick

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but it seems ridiculously expensive for what you get.

Any tips on how to resolve this problem quickly, easily and inexpensively?

Thanks.

-Jonathan

Reply to
JJ
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JJ wrote in :

Bite the bullet and have a concrete grinder slope the concrete properly. You'll be done and never have to worry about it again.

Alternatively, have a concrete company put a skim layer on top. These aren't always successful, since they can delaminate.

Reply to
SteveBell

There are also companies that will hydrojack the slab. Basically, that involves drilling holes and injecting enough slurry to regain the slope that should be there. Not particularly expensive, but it does require a crew that knows how to do it as it is easy to break the slab if you do it wrong.

Reply to
Robert Neville

Don't know how permanent you want it or how fancy but, how about making the berm with a row of small bricks? If those are too thick, they sell some that are half the thickness. Just cement them down or if that's too permanent use a couple of beads of bathroom caulk in the tube or silicone or Liquid nails. If you want it smaller and low, how about using the frame material that they sell for plastic lattice and stick that down?

Reply to
Forrest

They make a rubber wire casing for use where wires must be placed on floors where people walk. That could be caulked to the floor to form a berm that would probaly last well and be a lot cheaper than the thing the OP had.

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Cut the corners at 45 degrees and caulk the joints.

Reply to
Bob F

Thanks for the suggestions. I like the idea of caulking down some kind of barrier (like the suggested rubber wire conduit). If I decide to go this route, What kind of caulk should I use? Will my garage floor need to be dry and warm in order for this to work? The odds of the floor being totally dry any time soon are slim. And It hasn't got out of the 30s during the day here in the past 12 days, and there's no sign of it warming up any time soon. At night it's been in the teens and twenties (down to single digits one night). Much colder than usual for this time of year here in central NY. The garage is usually a bit warmer than outside, but usually only about 5 - 10 degrees at most.

Thanks.

-Jonathan

Reply to
JJ

clipped

Knowing nothing about correcting concrete problems, I would be inclined to lay down some indoor/outdoor carpet. We have some outside our front door that has no adhesive and hasn't curled or caused problems. It would soak up a fair amount of water and probably dry if door left open a while. Only problem I would foresee would be very cold weather when it might build up ice. If it gets too wet, drag it outside to dry out. Not very expensive for low loop nap.

Reply to
Norminn

I've done this by laying concrete bricks end to end around the area I wanted to contain. It's easiest to use a tube of urethane caulk in a caulking gun. Urethane needs moisture to cure so a damp floor is fine.

Reply to
Boden

I also would recommend urethane caulk. It's hard to find these days, though. H.D. and Lowes don't seem to have it these days. I just got some at a construction supply place.

Whatever the O.P. does, if it's really cold,it will take a long time to cure. It would need to be cured before driving over it.

Reply to
Bob F

Thanks for the tips. I looked at the gazillions of different caulks they had at Lowes, and even the one that mentioned eurethane, claimed it needed to be dry to cure. I didn't see any caulks there that needed moisture to cure. I'll probably just suffer through this winter and see if I can apply a fix in the warmer weather.

I shouldn't ever have to drive over the caulk - but I would be using a push-broom or squeegee near it to push the water towards the front of the garage.

-Jonathan

Reply to
JJ

Urethane does need moisture to cure, but not very much. Just the moisture in the air.

Reply to
Bob F

Look for a butyl caulk (bitch-a-thane), They make cars, buses, box cars trains, and planes with it.. Said to "stick to a ball of lard"!

Price may be up past $7.00 a tube now.

Reply to
Oren

responding to

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coach bob wrote: Not sure if you found a good solution yet, but figured I would forward you some info about a garage door seal that seals the gaps between your garage door and an uneven garage floor. The snirtstopper worked for us to close the gap on a roll up door for a shed. We were going to try the hydrojacking, but decided against it because of the freezing and concrete heaving we get here in Minnesota. The snirtstopper turned out to be easy to install with self tapping screws, and when the concrete started heaving this past winter, we simply backed some of the screws out, and then adjusted the seal to reach to the concrete again...which was well over 2 inches. They have a website to order from and a yahoo email address too. The seal was invented by a small company run by some local veterans in town here.

Reply to
coach bob

Given that it's been 4 years, maybe he's moved by now. In case he hasn't, another solution is to just leave the cars outside when they have so much snow and ice on them that it's going to create a flood in the garage.

Reply to
trader4

...snip...

Not only did "coach bob" respond to a 4 year old post, he also responded with a solution to a problem that the OP never mentioned.

The OP wanted to build a berm to prevent water flowing from his inside- the-garage vehicles to the back of the garage, not seal a gap betweeen the door and the floor.

Methinks "coach bob" is a spammer since his email address includes the product he is suggesting as a solution to a non-existant problem.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

Spam???

From the homemoaners hub???

What is the world coming to?

Reply to
bud--

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