Ideas for my leaky garage?

[Stainless]

Hey guys,

Long time reader, first time thread-starter. Bear with me here, because this is long and "explainy."

I bought a house this spring that came with an 18x22 garage. It's no Garage Mahal, but it's heated, insulated and wired for 220.

Anyway, during the home inspection prior to purchase, the inspector noticed that the garage's front wall was problematic. It's literally just wooden walls on a concrete slab, meaning that the wood technically extends a couple inches under the gravel grade on that one wall. The inspector suggested that water could leak under the wall during a big rain. It was a killer house otherwise, so I figured I'd take my chances and cross that bridge when I got to it.

Well, the big rain came tonight and that front wall leaked quite a bit. So, something has to be done.

Now, my savings took quite a beating to buy this place, so I'm not in a position to get too crazy in terms of adding a concrete pony wall or anything. I'm hoping I can come up with a semi-temporary solution to drain water away during a downpour. It's not a problem during normal volume rain.

I was thinking maybe I could dig up the gravel in front of the wall and put in a run of 2" ABS with numerous small holes along the length of the wall and then use that to drain water safely away. If I sunk the ABS under some clean gravel, it seems that I could prevent the ABS tube from getting plugged up with leaves and ****.

Any thoughts or other ideas? See the attached pictures for more detail.

Here's a picture of the leaky wall. As you can see, the siding extends below the gravel grade.

Here's how far down the wall extends. It's about two or three inches.

Here's what I found inside after a pretty solid rain storm tonight. Mercifully, nothing got damaged.

Thanks!

S

 

[afx]

There are a few things you could do.

Build a larger and deeper trench and put some perferated pipe on the bottom with river rocks above to drain the water, easy, cheap fix that just requires some leg work.

Next step is a bit more labor intensive. Pull the siding off and install a tar backed membrane that would extend below the slab then re-install the siding over and you should be water free.

You could also lower grade of the ground around the slab to more or less raise the entire structure up over the ground. But that would be the most expensive.

 

[mmhouse]

I'd probably install perf drain pipe around the perimeter as afx suggests as long as you can get some slope on it so it will drain away one direction or the other.

Is the water just coming from the surface? Does the garage have gutters? They might help. It tough to tell exactly what's going on from your photos.

 

[bczygan]

Water flows with gravity. Anything you do to make a drainage trench next to the slabwill need to be lower than the slab, but much more importantly, it will need to slope down and away and reach daylight somewhere away from the garage to allow water to drain away.
A temporary fix would be to tack some plastic sheeting under the first course of siding and run it out and away from the wall, beyond the RR ties.
The RR ties are creating a well for water to pond in. I would remove them and any material next to the wall and then waterproof the wall. Then put in a drainage system below the floor level, sloped to daylight, and then slope grade away from the building wall for positive drainage.

 

[ddawg16]

Nice looking lawn.....

I agree with afx.....except that you need to do both....

What is more of a concern is the potential wood damage that has already taken place. After you get the siding off....inspect the wood for any rot.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I'm curious here for another picture. In the first picture, top right corner, you can see what appears to be another 4x6 timber of whatever they are. Is this a built up area between something ? If it is, that may be creating part of your problem.

The yard looks nice but it may need to be dug up and lower in this area is filled it. Only an idiot would fill an area in and make the ground level higher than their garage foundation.

If you could post up a few more pictures of the entire area, we could probably help out more.

 

[Kevin54]

When my dad added an addition to his house he basically did the same thing and had massive amounts of termite damage and water rot over the years. What the contractor did when he repaired it was put flashing up a foot or so on the wall then dig down below grade and continued the flashing over. The only difference was he has to pour concrete over the top of that. So what you may be able to do is remove your bottom pieces of siding, put flashing in that goes well below grade, tile and gravel. I would make sure though that you treat for termites all around just for safety sake.

 

[Steevo]

bczygan nailed it.
You can dig trenches and lay perforated pipe (use the big stuff, not 2" ABS), but just dropping pieces of pipe in a trench does nothing to improve drainage unless one end (downhill end) leads away from the area you want to remove water from AND exits somewhere that it can safely discharge the water to.

My FIL's shop is built similarly, and had teh same issue. We had to grade the entire surrounding area such that there were 2' of slope away from the building on all sides, and then those valleys slope to the lowest end of the yard. When snow piles up against the shop walls and blocks the drainage slopes, water still runs under the walls.

 

[Steevo]

The sump pump/well idea is a good one if there is a slope constraint, but get that gravel down below the top of the slab anyway.

Oh, and paint that doorjamb.

 

[trust]

Is that real grass or synthetic? The only grass I see that looks like that is synthetic, not trying to be a smarta.., I know that the synthetics require some compaction under the installation which may be part of the problem as well. Depending on whether significant rainfall is the norm or an exception and if you have a basement or not you could do simple vertical holes with perforated plastic pipe filled with coarse gravel. I did this with a driveway that has about a 12-18" dip in the middle that would result in about a 10-12' diameter lake 3-6" deep in the summer and that much ice in the winter. Simple lined verticle shafts at each end of the V have taken care of it. BUT I say againBUT I do not have significant amounts of moisture to deal with, do not have a basement and it was not against the house. In fact, I dont believe we have had measurable precip since March or April although that is unusual.

Bottom line is that you need to do something to give water a preferrential path away from the house, inspect and repair any existing damage, and ensure that future moisture can continue to move away from the house.

Good luck

 

[SmokeyDP]

Pretty much said before in this thread but I'd kick out that 4x4 a few more inches, install a french drain(perforated pipe wrapped in fabric, connect any nearby gutters into the drain, divert to the street, then pour the rocks back into the ditch.

 

[dadsEH]

why dont ya build a porch roof?

 

[Kevin54]

Depending on location, tile and gravel itself may not work without proper flashing. The OP says the garage is heated, but he gives no location. So there may be snow that also lays up against the building in the winter. If water is coming in, I would say heat is also leaking out due to the wall being built on a slab. I would be concerned about the sheeting underneath the siding possibly starting to rot. Also if water is running under it may also be wicking up the sheeting, bottom plate, and insulation if there is any. The proper way would be to flash all along that wall well down below ground level, then add tile and gravel.