Under deck drainage system....?

[Raze]

I know this doesn't sound garage related but hang with me...

I have a high deck, around 14' off the ground with a poured concrete slab underneath. I've been contemplating building out a secondary garage or hot-tub spot. I've been concerned with how to make the deck water-tight but still breathe to prevent rot or mold/mildew and I came across these under-deck drainage systems like dekdrain, underdeckoasis, underdeck, dryspace, just to name a few. Does anyone have any experience with them, installation, maintenance, words of wisdom?

example:

 

[wnstwolf]

Raze, No experience other than pricing everything out with similar idea. WOW no cheap solution. Inthe end I put the project on back burner. I did see the Deckdrain system installed on the Hometime show and it was given good marks by them for what that is worth. Of course that is one of the more expensive ways to go. I hope others respond with info from after install I may get motivated...

 

[Mercy]

We used one of the systems (whatever was at HD or Lowes) on our last house under a 16 x 16 deck that was about 5' off the ground. We kept the kids bikes and such under it. It was great, except installing in a short space, and I did feel I needed to rinse it since food and stuff dripped through the deck and would sit there. No complaints, would do it again.

 

[Kalmar]

A much lower cost, DIY solution is to look at non-vented aluminum soffit. It's tongue and groove and each panel can lock to the next and often you can get it in exact custom lengths and colors. As long as you slope it away from the house and run eavestrough to catch the runoff water it works very well. Just a thought.

 

[rlitman]

Interesting. I was originally picturing corrugated plastic roofing, but that's probably an even better idea.

 

[Raze]

Excellent ideas and responses, yeah the biggest downside is cost, and not having good access for rinse/cleanings or mildew treatment (though wet&forget works great if there was access) but I could literally get a 16x30' garage out of it if I did something like this, or a nice spot for a hot tub. The other option I considered is a carport tent...

 

[GGB]

We installed the Underdeck product two springs ago, and love it! Not an inexpensive project-$2000 more or less, but well worth it. It's not a difficult install, and all in all a pretty slick system. It's nice to be able to sit under the deck and stay dry while watching the rain.

In our case, we might have done a little better job sealing with silicone at a couple of places as we have a couple of minor leaks, but that's our fault, not the product. I can still go back and make the fix, but it's pretty minor and just not a big deal.

At the outside of the deck, I didn't really want to install a gutter because I didnt' want to deal with the downspouts. I just let the runoff go out at the end of the deck stringers, and it hasn't been an issue. We had also screened in the deck railing I built to match the deck railing above, and if it's raining that hard from the east, we'd get wet anyway. If I ever decided to do glass instead of just screen, I'd probably consider installing the runoff gutter.

Let me apologize for the picture quality-I just used my Iphone to get this done.

GGB

 

[Raze]

Ggb: Awesome!

 

[GGB]

Thanks!

I should mention that if you were installing this at the same time the deck was being built, you could really do a slick job along the perimeter of the house with appropriate flashing. But again, I'm not unhappy, and more importantly, my Bride is happy!

GGB