Garage Floor Drain

[Cbags]

Hello,
I need some advice on draining water from my garage. I bought a house last spring and just recently finished the garage (insulation, plywood walls, NG heater). My only issue now is that I have no floor drain and have lots of water pooling up from snow melting off vehicles when pulled inside. Luckily I have determined an obvious low spot where the water pools naturally. I have read other threads about possibly cutting a large square in the concrete, digging out a hole and putting some type of drainage tank, then patching in the concrete. I like this idea but I’m not sure what to use for a tank and cover. I need something that is strong enough that a vehicle can drive over and not break. At first I was thinking a 55 gallon drum cut in half, with holes drilled in it, some rock inside and around the outside of the barrel. I just don’t know what I would use as a cover for something like that. One last thing, I live in North Dakota so using a squeegee and pushing it out the driveway would only make for an ice rink outside. Thanks in advance for the responses!

 

[CavernUs]

What would your budget be for this project? And what would your plan be for the water in the 'barrel'? Sump pump and hose? Discharge to.....where?

Personally I would opt for a section of trench drain. Call your city or county and see what they require for drains in residential garages. You may live in an area where they tell you as long as it is only water hitting that drain they don't care what you do with it. And if that were the case you could probably tie it in to any sort of storm drain you can find on your property.

Don't have enough posts to get a link up here. Just search trench drain and look for drive on versions that will hold up to a vehicles weight. It would make squeegeeing water around a much more pleasant experience.......trust me.

 

[finn]

I have a trench drain in my garage that drains to daylight. Inspector approved it. The garage is usually kept above freezing so the drain works well. The exit to the pipe is about 20 feet from the building.

A second garage has a round drain, but is unheated. The drain freezes bu February and is blocked with ice, sometimes until late April.

My shop was built to shelter logging trucks and heavy equipment. It required an oil separator in the floor drain system to meet code.

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,...... If you live on good perkable soils, just drill a hole in the slab, 'n put a drain grate over it,....

No need for a barrel of rocks,....

 

[Retroman]

Ayuh,...... If you live on good perkable soils, just drill a hole in the slab, 'n put a drain grate over it,....

No need for a barrel of rocks,....

Yup, if your soil drains water just have a 8" to 12" hole cored, dig it out as wide and deep as you can and fill it with pea-gravel its called a "French Drain" the gravel compacts nicely and you don't have to worry about twisting or breaking a ankle by accidentally stepping in it.

 

[NORTON'S SHOP]

Ayuh,...... If you live on good perkable soils, just drill a hole in the slab, 'n put a drain grate over it,....

No need for a barrel of rocks,....

Not a good idea. A friend had the same problem as the OP. In one of his "here hold my beer moments," he came up with the bright idea of drilling a hole (about 1/2") in the floor. It worked for a few years until one day when he placed something heavy over the hole. Next day he noticed a huge crack in the floor. He made the hole larger so he could see what was going on. Turns out there was about a 6' diameter by about 3' deep depression from settling. He thought he had "perkable" soil. Apparently not.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Not a good idea. A friend had the same problem as the OP. In one of his "here hold my beer moments," he came up with the bright idea of drilling a hole (about 1/2") in the floor. It worked for a few years until one day when he placed something heavy over the hole. Next day he noticed a huge crack in the floor. He made the hole larger so he could see what was going on. Turns out there was about a 6' diameter by about 3' deep depression from settling. He thought he had "perkable" soil. Apparently not.

Had a something sort of like that on building. Water leak under the slab washed out or allowed some of the fill to compress under the slab until a section of the slab collapsed.

I like the trench drain idea if your local inspection regime will allow it.

Another building I work with had a "code compliant" floor drain installed, which amounted to a collection box with a pipe coming up from the bottom about 18" above the bottom of the box so it would hold 50 or so gallons of snow melt, allow solids to settle and water could drain once it got at least 18" deep. Long story short, having stagnant water sitting under a grate stinks to high heaven. Spent a lot of money on it and it was unusable.

Phil

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Keep in my, many AHJs do not allow floor drains in garages.

Tommy

 

[NORTON'S SHOP]

Keep in my, many AHJs do not allow floor drains in garages.

Tommy

If they're done correctly, they work fine. Typically the biggest obstacle are the local codes.

 

[iowa4x4dieselman]

From the sounds of the OP's problem. it would require new concrete to install a trench drain.

I feel like we need more info on what is allowed, if you are in city limits, and how the garage is situated. If it is situated on a hill and you could run a drain out to daylight, i would bet this would be the cheapest, if the concrete slopes in the center and not to a random spot in the garage. Getting concrete sloped to drain that was not originally designed for it could be a larger challenge than a re-pour.

 

[Showkey]

Agree.......
Floor drain without the proper floor pitch to the drain.........equals very limited effectiveness. Post 10
Floor Drain with no exit to the daylight is looking for trouble. Posts 6-7

Daylight drain needs a heat cable to stay open in cold weather. My experience is blocked drain is worse than no drain ?

Restrictions on garage floor drains are all about gasoline and oil leaks.

 

[Retroman]

Not a good idea. A friend had the same problem as the OP. In one of his "here hold my beer moments," he came up with the bright idea of drilling a hole (about 1/2") in the floor. It worked for a few years until one day when he placed something heavy over the hole. Next day he noticed a huge crack in the floor. He made the hole larger so he could see what was going on. Turns out there was about a 6' diameter by about 3' deep depression from settling. He thought he had "perkable" soil. Apparently not.

Are you saying a 1/2" hole in a slab created a 3' x 6' depression under the slab and that the slab cracked when he put "something Heavy" on the hole?

I find that hard to believe, How much water would you have to drain thru a 1/2" hole to create a crater that size? This was in a covered garage so just nuisance water not a pressure line or am I missing something? I have been in the concrete cutting/ core drilling business for 35 years and have cored thousands of holes thru walls, decks and slabs and I am not talking about 1/2" holes these holes are for MEP installation's and don't recall ever having a issue with cracking in these load bearing walls. Typically concrete won't crack out of a round hole it likes to crack off of 90 degree corners.

 

[uscarry45]

I would buy rent or hire a concrete saw and then make a sloped cut let’s say 1/4” wide from the low spot where water pools to one corner of your garage door and then outside. To make the sloped cut you will need to find out the height difference between the low spot and the exit point and make your cut have “grade” so water will run out.

If you want to drill a hole in the concrete I would suggest cutting a 1’ ft square hole Second use a post hole digger to dig as deep as you can like 4ft or better. They make hole augers that you keep attracting lengths of pipe to permit going deeper then slip a piece of 4-6” perforated pvc pipe or just drill a lot of holes and fill with pea gravel

You could cut a small spot in the low spot so you could place a sump pump in it

What about those interlocking tiles for garages?

Re pour concrete floor?

Janitors mop and bucket setup?

 

[NORTON'S SHOP]

Are you saying a 1/2" hole in a slab created a 3' x 6' depression under the slab and that the slab cracked when he put "something Heavy" on the hole?

I find that hard to believe, How much water would you have to drain thru a 1/2" hole to create a crater that size? This was in a covered garage so just nuisance water not a pressure line or am I missing something? I have been in the concrete cutting/ core drilling business for 35 years and have cored thousands of holes thru walls, decks and slabs and I am not talking about 1/2" holes these holes are for MEP installation's and don't recall ever having a issue with cracking in these load bearing walls. Typically concrete won't crack out of a round hole it likes to crack off of 90 degree corners.

Just telling everyone what happened to him. He lives in Minnesota, not the Mojave Desert where you live. Snow accumulates on a vehicle that will melt in a heated garage. He also washes the vehicle in his garage.

Try it if you like. Your results may vary.

 

[Dodge]

This is what I did. My attached garage has a man door in the front coming in from the driveway. Just inside the door, to the right of the path, water would puddle there. I cut a 3' X 3' section out of floor with a cement saw. I dug down about 3'. Pretty much all sand and deep sand below that. I filled the hole with river rock. Placed a 9" catch basin to be level with the top of the concrete(floor). I put turn downs on the bottom of the catch basin, it was designed to put pvc there. I did that to keep rocks from eventually getting inside of basin. Sloped area with about 3 1/2 inches of concrete. Works great. Been there about 20 years. I sometimes have to squeegee water to the drain, but better than nothing. I even helped a couple of friends that did not have drains in their garages do their garage drain. They also have good results.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

If they're done correctly, they work fine. Typically the biggest obstacle are the local codes.

That's exactly what I meant. Most localities no longer allow it because of the possibility of waste oil and antifreeze going down the floor drain.

Tommy