water under doors

[suzukiwarrior]

i just put up a 30x40 with 3 doors 9+8 and every time it rains i get water running under the doors and the builder told me you will get water under them and i said no just fix it what can i do to try to fix it????

 

[BillK]

Warrior,

I hardy ever get any water under the doors of either of my garages. I would suspect that most of the problem is because of the type of seal used at the bottom ? Close the door and see if you can slip a pc of paper under the seal. You should not be able to.

Also, if the water is "running" under the door then it sounds like the concrete slab is sloped in the wrong direction. The one on my attached garage is actually sloped a little to the outside, and the one on the detached garage is perfectly level, not water under either in the worst rains. Also, how is the driveway sloped ? It should be away from the garage at least slightly. Unless there is a river outside, they should stay dry.

 

[mtwaterguy]

Hard to tell without more info. Do the doors have a seal at the bottom? If not some needs to be added. If they do then they probably need to be readjusted.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Does the slab turn down at the door, going out, or is the slab flat, no ramp, no slope or anything like that from the outside face of the door to the edge of the slab?

Charles

 

[Matt M PA]

The problem with garage door seals (or so I was told) is that they really aren't made to keep running water out.

When my garage was just completed...it rained pretty hard. Now, I had no gutters, either. (I do now) I bought a garage door seal that glues to the floor from JNK Products. I put one under each door. These glued down to the cement and the door shuts upon this. Fixed the problem.

I do a slight amount around the edges, which I assume seeps under the siding and the edges of the door if we get an absolute downpour..but it takes quite a ibt.

 

[rburke65]

Well, water doesn't run uphill,so.......either have to raise the garage floor or lower the area outside the garage......I would think. Better or more drainage?

 

[slicktoptt]

If your slab is flat at the doorway you will have to put down the glue down thresholds like Matt M is talking about and or get gutters.

I had the same problem and did the thresholds and that cured most all of the problem. Then I had gutters put on the house and that has (short of a hurricane or sideways rain) solved the problem.

 

[Gary S]

I always have water under my door seals when it rains because my garage faces into the previling wind that blows when it rains. However, the water doesn't run into the garage because I sloped the floor when I built the garage. My garage floor has 1" of slope toward the doors for every 4' of floor. When you build, slope the floor toward the doors and the water will run out by itself from under the doors even if the wind blows some under the seal.

 

[porschedude996TT]

I had the concrete contractor create a pocket in the concrete that the door drops into. The outside of the pocket is the same level as the outside concrete apron around the building and slops away. The inside level of the shop floor is about a 1/2 to 5/8" higher that the bottom of the pocket. So the door is lower than the floor. Even is wind drive the rain in under the seal or at the end of the seal the water can't get up to the floor level. I can take a picture if it would help???

You could put in a continuous drain across the threshold of the door. I have seen this used when the approach to the door is higher than the garage. It would run across the outside of the door and channel the water to a lower elevation.

 

[blkhonda1991]

i just put up a 30x40 with 3 doors 9+8 and every time it rains i get water running under the doors and the builder told me you will get water under them and i said no just fix it what can i do to try to fix it????

a little water is acceptable, but if you are getting running water under the door and your builder said thats going to happen he did something wrong.

 

[must8657]

i bought these: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00008WFT7/?tag=atomicindus08-20

i haven't installed them yet so i can't review.
jason

 

[Daniel Dudley]

A picture of the outside would be very helpful.

 

[suzukiwarrior]

i got time for some pic

 

[suzukiwarrior]

two more pic i hope this helps i talked to a buddy and i see what he did wrong did not push on the door for the weather strip and the door moves in and out with the wind

 

[mustangmccance]

If your slab is flat at the doorway you will have to put down the glue down thresholds like Matt M is talking about and or get gutters.

I had the same problem and did the thresholds and that cured most all of the problem. Then I had gutters put on the house and that has (short of a hurricane or sideways rain) solved the problem.

I have the same problem, I have thought about doing this on my garage but my concern is in the winter when I bring my truck inside and all the snow melts off it. now I just use a squeegee and sweep it out the door. that would be a lot more difficult with those thresholds wouldn't it? how do you manage that problem?

 

[Torque1st]

Tighten the doors up so they do not move (they are adjustable). Put a gutter up. Right now half the roof drains right in front of the doors. Put a weatherstrip around the doors and make sure you have a good bottom seal. Make sure your drive slopes away.

 

[Blstr88]

I've got 2 8' doors on the front of my garage and a smaller door on the side. The front doors are great but the smaller side door has the same problem. My driveway outside the door is DEFINITELY sloped AWAY from the door (the slope is very obvious) and I still get water seeping underneath when it rains. The entire garage is brand new, as are the doors. Infact to lock that door I need to stand on the handle a little to squash the seal down enough to lock, thats how new it is...and it still leaks. The only thing I can figure is that I have no gutters and the water falls straight down and splashes onto the door. You dont have gutters either it looks like? I'd say look into a strip of gutters for that section of the roof...I've got someone coming next week to install em so I'll let ya know then if that helps.

 

[Torque1st]

88- Those soft seal doors are a security problem if you just lock them with a knob lock. They can be easily unlocked with a credit card. The deadlatch on the knob lock can drop into the latch opening and then the latch can be forced back in. The way to stop that is to provide a hard stop in addition to the soft gasket and/or a deadbolt.

 

[mad57]

http://www.garage-doors-and-parts.com/garage-door-weather-seal.html Try browsing this site there might be something that will work for you.

 

[slicktoptt]

I have the same problem, I have thought about doing this on my garage but my concern is in the winter when I bring my truck inside and all the snow melts off it. now I just use a squeegee and sweep it out the door. that would be a lot more difficult with those thresholds wouldn't it? how do you manage that problem?

I live in Florida so I don't deal with snow. Water and dirt sweep right over the threshold. Not that much of a problem for me.

 

[mustangmccance]

I live in Florida so I don't deal with snow. Water and dirt sweep right over the threshold. Not that much of a problem for me.

well that is good to know. I mean obviously I use the squeegee on the water once the snow melts off the truck so no difference there. I just bought a couple of them and I will give it a try. thanks.

 

[Daniel Dudley]

Tighten the doors up so they do not move (they are adjustable). Put a gutter up. Right now half the roof drains right in front of the doors. Put a weatherstrip around the doors and make sure you have a good bottom seal. Make sure your drive slopes away.

That's it. You don't have any really serious design flaws. Nice garage.

 

[suzukiwarrior]

well i just had gutters put up today so we will see if it will fix the prob....i hope it workes if not i will have to start over and get a threshold

 

[onewaydave]

I have the same problem. The cause is mentioned above. Short eves allow rain to fall on a flat or sloping into the garage door sill and wind blown rain onto the same. That little lip of floor outside the door should slope away from the interior.

Fix. Glue down a rubber lip found at the big boxes. But that is a temporary fix and will need periodic replacement and it interferes with rolling dollies in and out, etc. Or put up a portico (if that is the correct term) over the doors to keep rain off the bottom of the door.

In my case I used this obvious design flaw as an excuse to put a 36x20 lean-to type portico across the front of the shop to keep the rain, snow and ice away from the doors. Well, yes I could use it as covered work space in nice weather, too.

Dave.

 

[tcianci]

As I have mentioned in previous posts we usually put a 1x1 angle iron across the full width of the door, flush with the interior face of the stem wall. The slab is even with the top of the angle iron and the surface that the door sits on is 1 inch lower and flush with the driveway or apron. If your garage is already built, this is a tough thing to implement. Garage door bottom gaskets are good for drafts at best and do little to keep water out of an improperly designed garage opening. Gaskets are good for draft control, caulking is good for making a paint job look good. The only way to effectively deal with rain is to SHED and/or BAFFLE the water, roofs work like this, flashing works like this and a properly designed door opening should work like this. I have examples of the angle iron door detail that have been in use for over 30 years, no leaks, no puddles, no wind driven rain.

Many garage floors are purposely pitched toward the door. I have implemented the angle iron fix by cutting and removing the first 4 to 6 feet of the floor, installing the iron and then re-pouring the floor at the new level. Taking out enough old floor will allow you to still maintain somewhat of a pitch toward the door, just not as steep. In one instance we just took out 3 feet and the section of new floor we installed was actually slightly pitched away from the door but the customer never had another drop of water coming under the door again.

 

[onewaydave]

Thanks tcianci, I hadn't thought of cutting out and re-pooring to fix. Yeah, must8657's gasket didn't help much for me as it still just wicks the water in. But since I'm going to add an apron, i'll cut and re-poor and slope corectly this time.