Floor Drain Placement

[iagsxr]

Anyone have any rules of thumb for floor drain placement?

I'm doing a 48' x 36' addition to my shop with an 18' overhead door. Tonight I stepped off where I thought the floor drain should be and made a mark in the fill lime. Pulled my car in like I think I would normally and yep stepped out right in the center off the drain.

Not so much worried about stepping on it as I am dropping small items in it as I'm getting out. We were planning on a 2' x 2' pit.

My concrete guy of course would like the drain centered in the area that slopes to it to get the most gradual fall possible.

 

[Andybull]

I installed round drains (6" +-) centered at every garage door and centered them lengthwise on my 64'x36. When I added to the building I didn't install a drain.

 

[c7fx]

I sloped my garage towards the door and have a trench drain the length of the garage (3 car)
This works out well and no issues with standing water

 

[jeepmedic]

When I build my dream place someday for the attached parking garage I want the drains centered under the parking stalls that way when the rain/snow melts/falls off the vehicle in goes under and minimizes walking through it or tracking it inside. Detached shop most likely a trench on the door side. I am thinking 6" round with a trap then reduced to a common 3-4" drain line would handle more than anything you threw at it and the trap would catch those dropped things and allow you to retrive them without a major hassle.

 

[DTE]

I can offer this advice, I have a 30ft deep bay that I work out of and there is a 2x2 ft pit located right under the engine compartment when a car is pulled in and that is a problem for using a engine puller , floor jack, etc. Just something to consider. I am in the planning stage for a shop at home and I am going to put a 6in. drain in the center of each bay, ( no lifts ) Local code here requires 2in. of fall out the bay doors from 3 feet inside of the building, even with a drain. So you can slope to the drain except the three feet at the doors must slope away from the drains and out the doors and drop 2in.

 

[APEowner]

If it's a working shop then I recommend a trench drain near the door or no drain at all and enough slope outside the door that you can squeegee stuff outside. I've worked in a variety of buildings with a verity of drain placements over the years and I've grown to really dislike having the them at all.

 

[iagsxr]

Thanks for the input.

What we came up with was moving the pit forward so it won't be where you step out and making it smaller.

I own a carwash so there's no reason to ever clean anything really dirty in this bay. The pit is almost more a city pacifier. They allow floor drains to go to the city sewer but you're responsible for the cost if you plug them. They want you to have a pit to trap solids.

This won't be a primary work bay, more a loading/unloading area. In the winter my truck w/snowplow will sit on one side of this bay. All the snow from it has to have a place to melt.

 

[rshadd]

My garage floor is sloped towards the garage door and I don't have a drain. I wash my truck in the garage wash bay and the water drains out without any problem. I had planned on a french drain in front of the garage door, but we ran into rock ledge when digging the foundation and the cost to jack hammer out the rock was prohibitive.

 

[UpstateNY]

If it's a working shop then I recommend a trench drain near the door or no drain at all and enough slope outside the door that you can squeegee stuff outside. I've worked in a variety of buildings with a verity of drain placements over the years and I've grown to really dislike having the them at all.

New 30 x 40 pole barn getting built next week. I was thinking of (2) 10' drains, 6 feet in from the doors, installed parallel to the doors. Each door is 10' wide.

I really don't envision washing a car too much in the shop, but it could happen from time to time. The concern I have is that a have a crushed stone driveway leading to the new barn (there will be a 4' concrete apron outside the barn too). I know from my existing garage that stones will track into the new barn on the vehicle's tires. In my current garage with no drains, I just sweep out the stones once a week. With the floor drains parallel to the doors, I'll be sweeping "into" the drain and otherwise have to sweep "around" the drain so as not to fill it up with stones etc

Are the drains really worth it ? Seems I'll be sweeping a lot more (once a week or so) than I'll be washing cars. Maybe no drains and a slight slope toward the doors and a squeegee is best ?

Opinions please.