I Just Destroyed My Garage Floor.

[AMCguy]

Yup, I'm pretty sure of it.

My son and I were working on his car. We had pulled the engine and transmission out earlier in the day. We jacked up the back of the car and supported it with stands in preparation for pulling the rear end. It was now getting kind of late, so we decided to call it a night.

Came out this morning to find the entire contents of the gas tank had emptied through the disconnected fuel hose.

The problem is most of it went into the control cut I made in the floor and this floor sits on 2'' of styrofoam. The saw cut did it's job and there is about 1/16'' wide crack at the bottom. I figure about ten gallons of gas found its way through the crack. I've seen what even a small amount of gas will do to styrofoam in only a few seconds.

I'm afraid I now have a 2'' void under a fairly large area my floor. I crawled around tapping the floor with a hammer and it sounds different in the area of the fuel spill.

I'm somewhat relieved this is not in the vicinity of my lift, but I'm still sick to my stomach as I type this.

 

[e-tek]

Well that *****! I can totally understand how you feel....but I'd bet that:
(1) It will not create any major issues, as the fuel likely soaked only a smallish portion as it traveled downward, and
(2) I hope I'm right on number (1).

 

[Architorture]

time to drill some holes and fill the voids with cement

 

[Bull]

If anyone from the Canadian version of the EPA reads this, will you be in trouble?

 

[RivennHewn]

find someone who can pump grout under the slab to shore it up.

 

[RivennHewn]

If anyone from the Canadian version of the EPA reads this, will you be in trouble?

Careful. Let's not get political.

Forgot the smilley. Oops.

 

[TheClaw]

If you wanted to fill the void there concrete pumpers out there who can do that. Seen a few that will level sidewalks, foundations etc.

Jeff

 

[Bull]

Careful. Let's not get political.

I'm not interested in politics. I am asking a practical question. I don't want to see the OP get in trouble.

 

[cyamaha2007]

Man that *****. Id get a mud jacking outfit to fill the void before it settled. After that id use some high quality sealant to fill the saw cuts.

 

[rasit]

Be thankful for no sparks! You could drill a few small (3/8") holes at the joint where it leaked down and squirt some replacement foam into the void, After it swells up, clean out the holes and patch them with grout.
View media item 28678

 

[SlowPoke-Canada]

Don't worry, there's an app for that. Okay, maybe not an app but the are companies that specialize in this sort of work. A name that comes to mind in my area is JoJacks http://www.jojacks.com/services.cfm
Have an eye out for a concrete leveling service in your area.

 

[I van putski]

Gasoline and styrofoam! You pretty much made napalm.
I'm pretty sure you will be fine. Maybe sweep some Portland down in the crack to fill a small amount of the void under the slab.

 

[Bikes&Bowties]

A few questions from thr uneducated.

What is the point of styrofoam under the slab?

What is the point of a complete through cut in the slab?

 

[caper150]

A few questions from thr uneducated.

What is the point of styrofoam under the slab?

It insulates the floor from the ground,keeps it from sweating

What is the point of a complete through cut in the slab?

I don't think he cut all the way through, but the point of the cut is to control the crack in the concrete,which it did and the gasoline seeped through the crack if I'm reading right.

...........

 

[CNGsaves]

Don't worry, there's an app for that. Okay, maybe not an app but the are companies that specialize in this sort of work. A name that comes to mind in my area is JoJacks http://www.jojacks.com/services.cfm
Have an eye out for a concrete leveling service in your area.

^ ^ ^ ^ This. Saw a home improvement show that had unlevel concrete slab and they pumped in expando stuff into drilled holes and leveled the slab right up like magic.

I'm guess in won't be real cheap, but likely cheaper than cutting out a big square and re-doing a big section of the concrete floor and underfloor.

You didn't mention if you have radiant floor . . . or just 2" foam insulation below the slab??

Next question, what all prevention now you would recommend for everyone in similar situation so this "Oh Sh....t" doesn't get repeated??

Let us know how the fix turns out, and sadly the $ life lesson.

 

[Bikes&Bowties]

...........

Okay I understand now in the way you described it. Thank you

 

[Daddy454]

If it's got styro under it now,why not just pump in some of that expanding foam ****,and let it go to work?

 

[Kevin C]

With any luck the leak only affected a small area. It would take a pretty large hole in the foam to cause a structural problem. Hopefully the gas hit the foam, it ate the foam and the gas kept running down that spot into the gravel. I'm not sure what the fumes will do over time.

The damage may be very localized. The down side is its hard to get any fresh air under the slab to help with evaporation.

 

[srmofo]

With any luck the leak only affected a small area. It would take a pretty large hole in the foam to cause a structural problem. Hopefully the gas hit the foam, it ate the foam and the gas kept running down that spot into the gravel. I'm not sure what the fumes will do over time.

The damage may be very localized. The down side is its hard to get any fresh air under the slab to help with evaporation.

Flush the area with lots of water? If that cracked sucked down 10 gallons of fuel over 1 night, it shouldnt be a problem putting a few hundred gallons of water through it.

Id be real tempted to drill a hole large enough to fit a garden hose. Stick an inspection camera into the hole to see what the damage really is. If its not too bad, then stick the hose down in there for a few days. After that stick and air nozzle in there to dry it out some. Then fill it with expanding foam.

My only other concern would be the location of your plastic under the concrete. If you have plastic sheeting under that foam, then you still have a puddle of gasoline sitting down there and undoubtedly the fumes will continue to eat the foam

 

[volvo]

..
Holmes On Homes repaired a basement floor that had some voids under it by having a company drilling holes and high pressure injecting a thermal supporting foam under it. This would fill your void while still giving you an insulation value & support vs grout.

 

[GShelton]

I think I would leave it alone. I would imagine the concrete sounds different only because it is currently saturated with gasoline. My guess is that no damage was done.

 

[Kevin C]

[/B]



My only other concern would be the location of your plastic under the concrete. If you have plastic sheeting under that foam, then you still have a puddle of gasoline sitting down there and undoubtedly the fumes will continue to eat the foam

Good point... I forgot about the plastic sheeting.

 

[readhead]

You are assuming it all went down the crack. Most of it may have evaporated. Even if some of it did go down I doubt if it did much damage. For piece of mind I liked the idea of drilling a hole and putting a camera down to take a look. The slab is not going to collapse all of a sudden.

 

[spongerich]

Maybe I'm paranoid, but I'd be reluctant to do anything to it until I was damn sure that the gas had evaporated, leached through etc. It might be a very bad thing if you were to start drilling/sawing and creating sparks.

 

[cide1]

I'm also thinking that much of the gas evaporated.

 

[danieldd]

I don't know the right term for it, but there are people that have devices that can generate a sound wave into the structure and capture the resulting echo and from there - can determine if you have any significant voids. Don't know how well this would work with styrofoam, but I thought I would throw it out there as a possible alternative.

I guess if I were you, I would be looking into something I suggested above, first. Other than that, if it really bothers you, I'd cut out a portion of the concrete and do a visual inspection, maybe 1 foot square.

Best of luck!

 

[GreyOwl]

Maybe I'm paranoid, but I'd be reluctant to do anything to it until I was damn sure that the gas had evaporated, leached through etc. It might be a very bad thing if you were to start drilling/sawing and creating sparks.

I was thinking the exact same thing. Can you say possible explosion!!

 

[Cryptic1911]

ohh damn that *****. I guess this is a good reason NOT to put foam under when doing cross cuts. It doesn't take much gas to annihilate some styrofoam.

I remember some rednecks we knew in Florida had one of them 30gal styrofoam coolers full of old oil under the bench.. and one day when they were working on their race gokarts, one of them had like a teaspoon of gas that came out of the carb into a cup, and they poured it into the oil filled cooler. Well, it took all of 30 seconds, and they had about 15 gallons of oil running across the floor like the Exxon Valdez

 

[JakeKohl]

I wouldn't be too worried about different resonance in the concrete...if that's a precursor to problems, I'm in trouble too (I shouldn't be). My concrete sounds very different when bouncing a golf ball in different areas...I think that's pretty normal.

 

[A_Pmech]

The standard trick for locating voids under a slab is to drag a heavy chain across the floor in a sweeping motion. Where the slab sounds hollow, it is.

 

[Falcon67]

I also would be first wanting to confirm what is going on under there with the fuel spill vs any damage. I've had fuel leaks and spills over night and in my experience it does not evap that quick. Had two gallons lay on an epoxy floor overnight from a leaky Holley Blue fuel pump - damn that was scary opening the door.

I would drill - carefully - maybe a 1/2" hole and feed a tube down there to do some checking. And/or buy a cheap HF spy camera to get a real eyeball under the slab.

 

[Harley94]

I'd be more concerned with trapped fumes more than anything else right now.
After hearing your accident with gas in the cut grooved floor, if I were to groove mine, I'd fill the cracks with self leveling caulk so nothing can seep through.

 

[Choptopjimmy]

I put epoxy down on my floor and it filled the relief cuts. No leaking thru slab here. Jim

 

[Kevin C]

Curious if there are any updates on this.

 

[Dale1962]

ummmm may want to be careful drilling holes 10 gallons of gas under floor. one spark and boom.

 

[PT Doc]

I put epoxy down on my floor and it filled the relief cuts. No leaking thru slab here. Jim

Thanks for sharing.

 

[TheGunCollector]

Not sure what the reaction is, but I would run a small, simulated test to see what happens before i freak out and start ripping up the floor.

 

[pmilin]

Do you have any left over foam that was used under the floor. I was thinking that you could conduct a test to see how much/fast the gas eats through it. I'm not sure all foam is as vulnerable to gas in the same way. I could be wrong as I don't go around pouring gas on foam to see the reaction. Just a thought.

If the foam is destroyed, I wouldn't do anything about it until you start to see the effect if any.

 

[Kevin C]

FYI this happened a month ago... kind of curious if the OP had any new info.

 

[rburke65]

cryptic1911.........30gal styrofoam coolers full of old oil.....? Now how come I didn't think of that? Great idea! There has to be a market for something like that!