Floor Drains---????

[bimmer1980]

I'm getting to the point of planning the details of my floor drains in my new garage. The gable end with the garage doors will be 28' wide and will proably have 2 8x10 doors or one 18' or wider door. most likely the two doors.

Can you all submit pictures of your floor drain setup and what you liked or dislike about it?

I'm interested the varieties of styles of drains and especially the placement.

Would I be best placing a drain the length of the front of the garage about 2' back from the doors or should there be a section of drain under each car? or should it be in the center between the cars????

Thoughts?

thanks,
Brad

 

[APEowner]

If you're working in your garage i wouldn't put drains under the cars. If you do every fastener you drop will end up down there and you'll forever be getting jacks and creepers stuck in them.

The setup I prefer is a drain across each door back maybe a foot. If you get water coming in from outside it'll go down the drain before it floods the shop and if you slope the floor slightly towards the doors then runoff from the cars will end up there as well

I don't have a drain in my shop because when I started to dig the hole for the dry well it filled up with water. I'd like one but it really hasn't been a big deal to not have one.

 

[A_Pmech]

I would be careful putting drains across the doors unless you build them yourself. The standard fare is not up to forklifts and pallet jacks.

However, a section of inverted C-channel blocking off the middle of a concrete gutter will do the trick.

This is likely what I'll do in shop 2.0. Fabricated in-house, of course:

http://www.slotdrainsystems.com/

 

[Costner]

I have one central drain in a 3-car garage and I can tell you it is less than ideal. First of all when I park at an angle (which is necessary to allow Mrs. Costner room to open her doors without hitting my car) my tire will often rest on top of the drain, and considering it is a plastic cover I'm not sure how long it will hold up.

Second, any water that drips from the vehicles flows to that one point, but since I don't have my relief cuts filled with anything they tend to collect moisture first... and there is always a wet area between the cars where the water is flowing.

Third, unless your concrete guy is really skilled and uses lasers, chances are the pitch won't be perfect and thus you end up with some low spots that don't flow just right. In my garage there is one low spot that never drains properly so it stays wet until it evaporates.

If I was designing a garage I would do one of two things. Either put a drain under the center of each garage stall (with the concrete being pitched to match) so all the rain and snow would go directly to each drain, or I would install channel drains about a foot away from the door behind every vehicle.

There are pros can cons to each however. Drains under each vehicle could be a bear if you liked to work under your cars. That isn't an issue for me - but it is for many (most?) on this board. Channel drains are also nice, but sweeping out the garage isn't quite as easy since they tend to collect debris, and anything that blows into the garage from the outside has a good chance of ending up in your channel drain.

Just be sure you have a way of cleaning out the drains and associated traps for any debris and sediment that collects in there. In my setup the trap is in the basement where it will eventually be hidden behind an access panel in a closet. It is connected with removable fittings so I can clean it whenever needed (once a year or so).

 

[chaingang]

bimmer,
I centered my floor drains in each room. I have one in the 2 bay shop area and one in the side room where the benches, cabinets, toolboxes etc... are going. Mine came from a local industrial supply warehouse. They are 8 inch cast iron with heavy grates that will easily support about anything you could throw at it. Same thing you might find in a commercial building. I set them myself about 3/4 inches low. The concrete guy did a great job and the water runs straight to them. Big bay is 25w x 32d so across this bay there really isn't a lot of pitch. The small room has more pitch side to side since this room is only 11 feet wide but it still isn't a problem. I will probably have to shim the post closest to the drain when I get to that point in the main bay but I would use them again if I had it to do over. Pics are of the pour with drains and one of the building so you see what I mean by two rooms. Sorry don't have any of the finished floor yet.

 

[MN BIANCHI]

I am debating what to do in my 48 x 48 shop. It will only have one 12 ft wide overhead door. The right edge of the door will be left of the centerline. I was thinking about a trench drain located approx in the center of the space, but not sure that would be the best location as anything the comes straight in will still be to the left of the centerline.

Thoughts?

 

[chevelle64]

I bought one of these for each door, they are placed just inside of the doors: http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=110877-676-864G&lpage=none.
The outlets go straight down through the bottom, tie into each other then exit through the rear foundation. The end cap in the pictures is a knock-out if you want to go that route. The drains seem very durable, I don't have any fork trucks or anything else like that driving over them. Good luck.

 

[bimmer1980]

I appreciate the comments. Any more pics guys?

The garage will be big enough that the area with the floor drains will be primarily for parking the cars. the remainder of the area will just be solid floor....

The last garage that I had, did not have any floor drains at all, and I did not think it was too bad.....I think it might be nice to have some type of floor drain tho......

 

[redsky49]

I would first determine the required slope for your particular floor slab. Floor and area drains are available in various configurations including heavy duty "traffic" tops, as well as with sediment baskets which will trap any wayward items from disappearing down the drain.

My "go-to" vendor is Josam. Huge selection and excellent quality.

http://www.josam.com/

You will have to address the issue of oil containment, depending on the local jurisdictions requirements.

As always, offered only as opinion

 

[boiler7904]

Another vote for sediment baskets.

Check to see if drains of any type are even legal in your area. A lot of towns have outlawed them due to pollution concerns from antifreeze, oil, fuel, and other automotive fluids finding their way into the sewer system.

 

[Brad1234]

I built my house with 2.5 car garage 12 years ago & just finished building a 30x38 detached shop. My house has 4" round drains centered under where each car will park. This was a good idea after all your car is where the water is going to come from on a daily bases. I tried to improve on things when I built the new shop. I put 4' long trench drains under where each car would be parked but I am regretting them. As someone already said small parts tend to always fall into the drain. Also, I cut a fair amount of wood & worry about how much saw dust goes into the drains. My recomendation is to use an 8" diameter drain centered under each car. Tell your concrete guy that you want only a minimum amount of slope to each drain. The reason for that is it is hard to work on unlevel surfaces when doing projects. Lastly if you have a small step put into the floor where the overhead doors rest it will keep any water from running in. I have both & like the step.

 

[alberto]

http://www.slotdrainsystems.com/

Very cool product. Looks like a winner, thanks for providing the link.

Alberto

 

[pipehack]

I would first determine the required slope for your particular floor slab. Floor and area drains are available in various configurations including heavy duty "traffic" tops, as well as with sediment baskets which will trap any wayward items from disappearing down the drain.

My "go-to" vendor is Josam. Huge selection and excellent quality.

http://www.josam.com/

You will have to address the issue of oil containment, depending on the local jurisdictions requirements.

As always, offered only as opinion

This guy is a Plumber by trade (I believe) . I am too. +1 on his suggestion.

 

[Weedwaka]

I am at this point too ( Deciding on drain setup ). I am thinking a trench style drain before the garage doors with a very slight slope.

That Josam link is great

 

[bimmer1980]

I'm finally to the point of being ready to install the drains. A bit more work of back filling and I will be ready.

I got back into the research of a good drainage solution. The NDS plastic drains from Lowes is a bit light duty for my taste. The Josam and other products look to be better, but at what cost.

I emailed the slot drain company that AP mentioned. I'm waiting on a quote back from them. Then I did some more searching and found this product:

http://www.abtdrains.com/poly-drain/vectordrain/

They use it for athletic running fields, etc, but also have some residential and commerical applications. I have called them for a quote.

I think this will be the winner, pending the cost.

Having said all that, any more recommendations on the placement of drains?? The garage is a 2 car (plus workshop) that is 28’ wide for the two cars. The car parking area is 20' deep, but the whole shop is 44' long. Would you recommend the slot drain parallel to the vehicles down the center or perpendicular to the vehicles at a certain distance to from the door? Any recommendation on the length of the slot drain? 10 foot? longer?

 

[bimmer1980]

oh yeah, I guess it always helps to have a few pics of the project....

so here you go.... 28' wide by 44' long with a workshop area of 28x16'

there will be two 10x8 doors for the car parking area.

 

[bimmer1980]

Well, after evaluating the cost of all of the commercially available products, I had to go back to the drawing board. I liked the vector drain, but the manuafacturer said it would not hold up to the forklift traffic. I really like the design tho. The vector drain was about $23 per linear ft.

The next option was the regular commercial trench drain with grates. I'm not a big fan of the look or the price of about $75 per ft.

The slot drain was nice too, but they had a fairly sizable quote......

therefore, with the availability of the scrap steel from work, I have a plan....... stay tuned.....

here's how I got the steel home.... http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=67220

 

[A_Pmech]

I'm interested to see what you come up with.

I arrived at the same conclusion as you have. DIY or pay muchos $$$.

When the time comes, I plan to copy the slot drain.

 

[ace3]

large 3-car garage here. one central round cast iron drain with a sediment basket.

the entire floor slopes towards the drain, which is awesome. garage is dry as a bone after a big snowstorm.

 

[Aberdale]

When it was decision making time when I built my shop, I thought about drain configurations long and hard. In the end, I convinced myself to forget the drains altogether by sloping the floor towards the overhead doors. I've lived with this decision for 3 years now and am convinced it was the best solution for me. The floor is flat and smooth, which makes rolling the toolbox, engine hoist, oil drain, and transmission jack easy. I can hose out the garage and all of it goes out the door. It dries in about a half hour. No drains to clean, no losing small parts down the drain grate. And there's less chance of the concrete cracking because it is solid all the way across. And it was cheap.

Dale

 

[bimmer1980]

I finally had time to get started on the trench drain this weekend.

A few weeks ago, I hauled home the scrap steel angle from work. It's been sitting at home while I was working on garage rebar and heat tubing.

First I cut the 3" angle iron to the 12' that I wanted for my trench drain. Then I layed out the hole pattern and started drilling the pilot holes in the first piece. Then I matched drilled the holes to the other piece and drilled to 1/2".

Then I proceeded to weld on the rebar pieces to give it some extra grip to the concrete.

You can also see the strip of metal on the end of the angle. This is the width of the trench drain gap. about 1/2" or the thickness of a 1/2" nut.

I used an alternating pattern for the 13 bolts used to space the angles apart. it will become more obvious after I paint and assemble it.

Ideally, I should galvanize it, but I don't think that is in the cards......

More to follow......

 

[bazzateer]

I'm going to have a smooth floor sloping towards the roller door, same as Aberdale above. I will be having a drain across the front though as the alleyway becomes a river in heavy rain and I don't want that deluge coming into the garage.

 

[bimmer1980]

Finally some more progress on the floor drains....

I had poured the other section of concrete for my garage while I was building this, so it took awhile.

In these pictures, the welding is finally done and they have been primed and painted. Ideally, galvanizing would have been the best way, but it wasn't in the cards for this one. I made sure to get a good couple of coats of the primer and paint on all sides.

Then I proceded to add the bolts and nuts to the one side of the angle iron. The two pieces were then bolted together. The width of the slot is the thickness of a 1/2" nut.

The other night I laid in drain pipe and then cut the slot. Then I had to get the angles of the trench drain to fit into the slot. That was where it got interesting.... as soon as I cut the pipe, it tended to close together slightly. I ended up having to use multiple ratchet straps to hold the assembly together while I pried the tubing open for the angles to slide in. THen I used some zip ties to hold it all together.

This morning, I leveled the drain and wire tied it to the grid of rebar.

Almost ready for the pour on Monday......

 

[bimmer1980]

progress!!! I poured the concrete last Monday. Here are some pictures of the trench drain just after I pulled the power trowel off the concrete.

I cut the concrete the following morning.

I used 1/2" round foam weather stripping to plug the trench drain. This allows me to flood the area with water and then cover the slab to keep it hydrated. I must say, when I pulled out only about 6" of the weather stripping, the water drained thru the trench drain nice and smoothly.

 

[hammlm]

Brad, I am enjoying your build.

I did a similar drain, in-between the cars, three + years ago and I love it. I've washed a car in there, no problem.

My drain is a lot shorter than yours, but had no problem draining off the water when I wash. It's also handy for just hosing down and then squeegy-ing the floor.

Best part is in the winter time in PA -- the salt and snow nastiness melts off (I heat the space) and it all drains down. Then by friday, there is about 80lbs of gross salt on the floor, I pull the cars out, get the hose out and send it all down the drain. Takes about 10 minutes.

Here's a shot of mine going in, before the power trowels were on

 

[bimmer1980]

nice work hammlm! Any picture of it when it was finished? Did you to the grate style trench drain or a slot drain?

I'm glad to hear that it works great!

 

[T1320T]

It's cool to you designing your own drain setup. Did you use any kind of sealant where the angle iron meets the pvc?

 

[A_Pmech]

Looks good, Brad!

 

[bimmer1980]

thanks guys!

Yes, I used a roofing sealant to seal between the steel slot drain and the PVC tube. Since the steel angles are recessed into the pvc tube, it is really for my comfort of mind than anything else. I figured a roof sealant would have some of the best properties and sees water frequently in its normal working environment.........