New Home Garage Floor has no slope

[baldaufg]

Hi, new to the forum, but based on what i've read, this seems the best place to ask this question.

I build a new home a couple years ago with a fairly large high quality builder with a good warranty on their home. I'm approaching the 2 year workmanship warranty and need some advice.

I have a fairly large oversized attached three car garage. When the builder poured the garage floor, they ended up pouring it without any slope. As we went through the winter, there was several times that the general slush from my wife's van would create huge puddles and the water would pool near the inside edge of the house and would not make it to the drain slots at the edge of each pad. They've been back to fix the floor a couple times and have basically put a silt treatment down, but all this has done is make the floor even more level. We recently had our first snow, which was very slushy and once again, the water is pooling as there is zero slope in the floor.

I've heard that there needs to be anywhere between 1/8th inch to 1/4 inch of slope per foot for proper drainage.

As my two year warranty approaches, i'm considering asking the builder to tear up the entire garage floor and repour it, but that will be a ton of work, and i'm not convinced the builder will actually agree to this.

Does anyone have any suggestions on potential options that would help with my drainaige issue other than tearing out the old floor and pouring a new one? Please let me know your thoughts and opinions.

Thanks!

 

[SuperSocket]

Is the slope required by your city codes? I have seen quite a few new installations with no slope. Did the build work order include specification for slope? Did the inspector or anyone involved with the decision making sign off on this?


I highly doubt that they will do a re-pour unless if this was specified or against codes of some sorts.

 

[baldaufg]

I'm checking with the city now to see if sloping is part of the code. I believe some level of slope is required, but not sure.

 

[cderalow]

other options include pouring a 'topping' slab that accounts for the slope, though that will decrease clear ceiling height.

otherwise, grinding/bushing the slab to gain the required slope.

 

[cowboyjosh]

Your screwed, no builder is going to redo the floor, its just one of those f ups that no one thunk about until it was too late. In my case my floor has a couple inch slope but all the water runs to the inside corners of my garage as my garage floor sits maybe 1/8 to 1/4 at most below my driveway. Like your problem the cure is worse then the disease.

 

[KGarage75]

It's against code. It's a safety hazard to not have a slope to the main door in your garage.

The slope allows gas fumes (heavier than air), liquid gas, water, etc to flow out of the house.

You may have to take them to court but they will lose and they will have to fix it or pay you what it would cost to fix it.

Have an independent concrete specialist come in and quote what it will take to fix the problem. It may require tearing up the driveway as well to get the proper drop needed in the garage.

 

[ConCretin]

Nice try.

 

[Dakota00]

An option instead of ripping up the floor or doing ugly patch work is to tile the garage floor. Using a dry pack method to create the slopes needed for drainage, then tile over it. Once laid, the floor will be indestructible!!

 

[cobrad]

When I built my garage this summer I wanted the floor completely flat. When I'm working on a car it may need to be in neutral and I didn't want the car rolling out the door. There are products like this.

http://www.elite-xpressions.com/flooring_parksmart_cleanpark.htm

Brad

 

[KGarage75]

R309.3 of the IRC states:

"Garage floor surfaces shall be of approved, non-combustible material. The area of the floor used for parking of automobiles or other vehicles shall be sloped to facilitate the movement of liquids to a drain or toward the main vehicle entry doorway."

Of course, I never could find in the code book how much of a slope it needs. Only that it should slope toward the entry door.

My brother-in-law was sued over a house he constructed with a flat garage floor (at the owner's request but nothing in writing). He ended up settling out of court as he was told there's no way he'd win. It was a lot cheaper to settle.

Each county differs in how building codes are implemented. Some counties in the US still don't have building code requirements or inspections.

 

[regguy1]

It might be a tough fight with the builder

 

[Scott65]

Any pictures? It might be easier to get them to agree to removing a portion to get some slope in the direction that it is needed. I also like the tile idea. It would allow you to get the necessary slope and create a great finish.

 

[Kevin54]

It's against code. It's a safety hazard to not have a slope to the main door in your garage.

The slope allows gas fumes (heavier than air), liquid gas, water, etc to flow out of the house.

You may have to take them to court but they will lose and they will have to fix it or pay you what it would cost to fix it.

Have an independent concrete specialist come in and quote what it will take to fix the problem. It may require tearing up the driveway as well to get the proper drop needed in the garage.

Where did you get this information at? I have never heard that the slope is for fumes to run out of the garage. Gas fumes will rise, propane fumes will fall. Automobile fumes will rise.

I'd say the slope is for water. Some people opt for slope, others do not. And with what you are saying, people that have floor drains in their garage are pouring their fumes down into somewhere, where it shouldn't be.

To the OP.....you are probably SOL as far as getting anything done, but one way to control where the water goes would be to cut some control joints in the floor and make sure you squeegee it out when you have a lot of slush on the car.

You could also look into the parking mats that are ribbed that will let the water lay on those instead of running across the floor.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

R309.3 of the IRC states:

"Garage floor surfaces shall be of approved, non-combustible material. The area of the floor used for parking of automobiles or other vehicles shall be sloped to facilitate the movement of liquids to a drain or toward the main vehicle entry doorway."

Of course, I never could find in the code book how much of a slope it needs. Only that it should slope toward the entry door.

My brother-in-law was sued over a house he constructed with a flat garage floor (at the owner's request but nothing in writing). He ended up settling out of court as he was told there's no way he'd win. It was a lot cheaper to settle.

Each county differs in how building codes are implemented. Some counties in the US still don't have building code requirements or inspections.

This is a very vague spec. . You would have a hard time using that as your means to extract a new garage floor from the contractor.

You need 1/4" per foot to move water without assistance. 1/8" per foot with help from a squeegee or broom.

 

[Jagmandave]

I'm with Cobrad, I'd much rather have a flat floor in my garage, and the amount of rain/snow/slush we get even here in KC wouldn't be enough to require a slope, IMHO. I'd just keep a squeegee in the garage and push it to the door once in a while.

The benefits of having a flat floor to work on a car far outweigh the negative from bad weather - to me.

I guess if I lived in an area that got a lot of snow all winter and didn't really do much automobile work, a sloped floor would be better. Hard to know tho as the OP doesn't say where he is....

 

[Macgyver_ga]

Mine is aprox. 1/4 per foot. It falls about 4.5-5" from the inside wall to the garage door.

I still have some low spots that don't drain immediately but they drain enough that they evaporate in a few hours.

 

[Kevin54]

Mine is aprox. 1/4 per foot. It falls about 4.5-5" from the inside wall to the garage door.

I still have some low spots that don't drain immediately but they drain enough that they evaporate in a few hours.

1/4" per foot seems excessive. Basically what we get around here is about 2" in 24'. Not a lot of slope but enough to get water running towards the door. Even at that, when you have slush and a lot of water, you still have to squeegee.

 

[racerbob4]

Have a lawyer write a demand letter and send it return receipt requested. We wanted our floor dead flat, and its really close, so we can check the alignment before every race. It takes two of us about 10 minutes to check alignment with the tools we have.

 

[Fastback]

Flat floors are great for a 4 post lift! Especially when you want to move the lift with a car on it.


Can you cut in a channel drain under her parking spot that has fall at the drain bottom?

 

[mikeyr]

and to think I paid extra to have perfectly flat floor with NO slope !!!

Stupid builder did not listen to me and put the forms in with a slope even though I told him I wanted it flat, I figured it out the night before prior to pouring and had the contractor work late into the night fixing it, he charged me some overtime that I did not argue about but should have.