leveling a garage floor

[rmlawren]

Hi All!

I am new here - stumbled upon the board from Google while looking for ideas for my garage. Here is the problem the I have (I did find some related topics on the board, but nothing seemed to fit my situation exactly).

We recently moved into a newer house (only 5 years old) but the guy who did the cement work in the garage did a really bad job. The floor is very un-level, but it is also chipped in a lot of spots (looks like old barn cement floor). It also does not have any draining system and with my wife parking her car in the garage in the winter, the floor gets messy pretty quickly.

So two questions:

1. I have seen that there are floor levelers, but also hear that they tend to crack a lot. Any experience with using them over a large space ( it might be 3/4 inch max in some areas).

2. Since there is no drain system, anyone ever break out a area and put a drain in?

Thanks for your thoughts!

If needed, I can get some pics of the floor as it is hard to explain in writing.

 

[Katesdad]

A good concrete overlay is what you need. I used to install elitecrete.com stuff.
I think you could probably find some overlay from butterfield and install it. Its all about the prep.

As far as the drain it will also need a pipe to get somewhere. It can be done its just very involved.

 

[Torque1st]

Knock the floor out and get a good contractor to come in and place a new one.

You could place a small slope on the floor to let water drain back out the door. A slope can cause problems and water can freeze around the door preventing it from being raised on cold days. I think it is best just to get the floor as level as possible and use a squeegee and a broom to remove any mess. Make sure the new concrete has a sealer on it.

 

[Kevin54]

Knock the floor out and get a good contractor to come in and place a new one.

You could place a small slope on the floor to let water drain back out the door. A slope can cause problems and water can freeze around the door preventing it from being raised on cold days. I think it is best just to get the floor as level as possible and use a squeegee and a broom to remove any mess. Make sure the new concrete has a sealer on it.

X2. I've seen overlays poured in cold climates that do not last more than one season. Too thin. A bonderizer is used between the two, but it doesn't seem to last in our area. I'd do the same as Torque suggested. Get someone with a skidsteer and a jackhammer attachment. Saw around the perimeter, and jackhammer out the rest. It wouldn't take long. And have new concrete poured properly.

 

[AlphaGarage]

There are products that can level out vast areas of un-level concrete. Wolverine Coatings TrowelEase 1161 is one such product. It's a self priming 2 part epoxy that you add sand into and apply directly to the substrate.

There are 2 main considerations involved, cost and application skill. The patch kit comes with 50 lbs of sand, so it can get pricey on shipment, of course we can also ship just the liquids, and a good, clean sand can be locally sourced. But it's probably better suited budget wise for floors that have spots that need to be leveled, not entire floors.

For the application skills one needs to be able to trowel level the material, not to difficult to trowel a small low spot, or good sized divot, but as the guy who did your floor initially found out, it can be tricky to properly level bigger areas.

As far as the drain, of course it's possible, but depending on the particulars of what's needed it can be somewhat involved. Especially if you want it tied into a waste line. or the slope and grade of the site aren't suitable, it can be a challenge to getthe drained water to where it needs to go.

Pictures, measurements, and details might help garner more specific answers for your situation. Plus we're a picture lovin' bunch here!

 

[rmlawren]

Thanks everyone for the thoughts.

Like Kevin54 mentioned, I am worried about doing a overlay on the cement as I live in Michigan with 4 full seasons (currently it is -4 outside without the windchill).

I don't know the exact measurements of the area, but I will find out. It is a basic two & 1/2 car garage, but one side of the garage is taken up by the house, so you can't fit two cars in it (this is why I just built a 30 x 40 garage this summer for my shop).

I will see if I can snap some pics tonight and post them up.

As far as the drain tile goes - I am not that worried if I cannot get something installed,I can push the water out by hand, it would just be nice to have a smooth, somewhat level surface.

 

[rmlawren]

Ok guys, here are some pics of the garage. Sorry I could not get the whole garage in a pic, but it is too cold to open the garage door.

As you can see in the pics, it looks like there were two times that the cement was poured (as there are two sections) and you can see how "chiped" the one section is. There really are not any low spots, but the floor is really wavy.

Not sure if I would be able to get away with grinding the surface and then coating with something?

Sorry, the garage is a mess I got my pole barn built, but still need to move a few last things.

 

[redbluebug]

Tell us more about Wolverine Coatings TrowelEase 1161. This may the ticket for my garage floor .

 

[Torque1st]

If you have it replaced there are companies with crews that can finish that to a chalk line and be smooth and level. I have seen other crews that could not get it smooth or level to save their souls...

 

[Kevin54]

Looks like the typical cold climate floor around here Currently I have about 25lbs of grit laying on mine from the crappy roads. Grinding and coating would get you smooth to where you could squeegee water with no problem. You could always cut a control joint from the back to the door to stop water from running to the corner. I wouldn't try to pour over it to level it. It looks like there is a pretty good size hump at the garage door left hand side or it is low in the center which is a benefit to you. I don't know what it would cost you as far as tearing out what is there and repouring. A friend of mine has a badly cracked floor in his garage with the driveway higher than the floor. He sold the house and the new owners had it cut and jackhammered out in less than one day with a Bobcat. The next day the floor was poured. Around here, Bobcat work like that runs $40-50 an hour. So you would be looking at $400 to take the floor out in our area. I would imagine prices would be around the same where you are at if you do some shopping around. concrete...that varies all over the place it seems.

 

[rmlawren]

Looks like the typical cold climate floor around here Currently I have about 25lbs of grit laying on mine from the crappy roads. Grinding and coating would get you smooth to where you could squeegee water with no problem. You could always cut a control joint from the back to the door to stop water from running to the corner. I wouldn't try to pour over it to level it. It looks like there is a pretty good size hump at the garage door left hand side or it is low in the center which is a benefit to you. I don't know what it would cost you as far as tearing out what is there and repouring. A friend of mine has a badly cracked floor in his garage with the driveway higher than the floor. He sold the house and the new owners had it cut and jackhammered out in less than one day with a Bobcat. The next day the floor was poured. Around here, Bobcat work like that runs $40-50 an hour. So you would be looking at $400 to take the floor out in our area. I would imagine prices would be around the same where you are at if you do some shopping around. concrete...that varies all over the place it seems.

Yeah, the center is a little lower then the sides (you can see where the water/snow/salt is piling up). I don't need it to be perfectly level, but if I could get a smooth surface and epoxy the top then I would be happy. Not sure how much less expensive that would be from just tearing it all out and starting over.