Adding a drain, or drainage pit, to my garage? Can I do it?

[jeff000]

With winter, comes an always wet garage. And it is slopped for the most part to the door, but it hits the seal on the bottom, makes a little ice ridge and then floods to the corners of my garage.

How possible is making a 6" wide pit or something 10" in from the door? Can I make it drain in the ground somehow? will it cause erosion?
Will it screw with my slab?
Should I just make it 10" deep and make it out of concrete to hold the water?
Something I can just clean the sand out of every spring?

I do have a heated garage.

I have a crack through the center of my garage, from front to back in the center and from side to side through the center, enough that the builder filled it with something.


Am I thinking completely out of my rocker? Is there a better way?

 

[jeff000]

If it just drained to the ground would it cause erosion issues?

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

You can certainly cut a slot in the concrete and burying a drain pipe, but you have to figure out where you want that drain pipe to go. Remember that it will have to drain at a slope so you'll have to keep digging that trench deeper as you go out towards the end.Back fill with gravel and concrete to bury and finish off your groove in the concrete floor. Add a nice metal grate that is removable. I'd advise putting in a small metal mesh insert underneath the grate to catch any nuts or bolts that fall through the grate in between cleanings.

Most garages are built with a slope so water will always flow out- usually under the garage door. Do you not have a slope in your floor? A marble or ball bearing will tell you the slope.

(EDITED to show that I mean to slot the concrete to pull up a section and bury a pipe- not slot the surface as a drain channel)

 

[theoldwizard1]

Do not simply cut a slot in the concrete down to grade. It will cause erosion/washout.

You can put in a proper drain and just have it run out to a dry well behind the garage,

BUT

I can almost guarantee you it is against your local codes, unless you add some elaborate oil/fuel separation devices !

 

[jeff000]

You can certainly cut a slot in the concrete and put in a drain, but you have to figure out where you want that drain pipe to go. Remember that it will have to drain at a slope so you'll have to keep digging that trench deeper as you go out towards the end.Back fill with gravel and concrete to bury and finish off your groove in the concrete floor. Add a nice metal grate that is removable. I'd advise putting in a small metal mesh insert underneath the grate to catch any nuts or bolts that fall through the grate in between cleanings.

Most garages are built with a slope so water will always flow out- usually under the garage door. Do you not have a slope in your floor? A marble or ball bearing will tell you the slope.

I do have a slope.
But the water hits the door, gets part of the way under the door, and then freezes... it's -24C right now. And then the water just builds up at the door and into the corners.

I'm not sure where I would connect the drain to. but would just having a catch basin type trough work? 6 or 8" wide, the length of the door.
Could hold a lot of water, hopefully it would evaporate before over flowing. And i could just shovel the sand and stuff out in the spring.

I could get a guy in to saw cut a 16" by 10' hole and then chip it out, then dig it out, then line it properly, form it up so it makes a 8" wide 10" deep trough, use 4" walls and set some coated angle iron in for the lip to hope the grate. Could even dowel the old slab to the new concrete with rebar.

But the 14-16" between the edge of the current slab, and where the hole would be cut, I'm worried that part will just crack and break off, causing me all kinds of problems later. Or should it be strong enough?
I mean will the whole slab be ok too?

Do not simply cut a slot in the concrete down to grade. It will cause erosion/washout.

You can put in a proper drain and just have it run out to a dry well behind the garage,

BUT

I can almost guarantee you it is against your local codes, unless you add some elaborate oil/fuel separation devices !

What if it doesn't actually drain? just a catch basin of sorts?

 

[the_saint]

Get a ceiling fan to help with the water pooling. The moving air will speed up the evaporation and hopefully minimize the freezing you are encountering.

I am building right now, and my garage has both drains and ceiling fans (along with radiant heat).

Good luck.

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

Draining to an outside spot is doable, but yes, likely against code. Not that such will really matter too much. Depends on what you're putting down that drain. Water? No problem. Used oil? Sorry, not the right method.

The drain pipe would go out to what is known as a french drain. Typically you'd dig (in armer months) a hole several feet down and a few feet wide, place your drainage pipe into this (black corogated pipe with holes in it) and backfill with gravel to about 1' from the top and then cover over with soil, grass, etc. The spot might sink over time as it settles, but you can help resist that by tamping the gravel well.

This works well if the drain is in a gravel side driveway or similar where it won't be noticed anyways.

 

[jeff000]

Get a ceiling fan to help with the water pooling. The moving air will speed up the evaporation and hopefully minimize the freezing you are encountering.

I am building right now, and my garage has both drains and ceiling fans (along with radiant heat).

Good luck.

Hmm, a fan isn't a half bad idea. Have it kick on with the heater? Be cheaper and easier for sure.

Next house will have a drain for sure. But this has to do for like 10 years.
Maybe I will try a fan first, if that doesn't work very well then I might have to still dig in a trench. Probably not a drain, it seems too hard, but just a trench should hold enough water for long enough.