Will gutters help this?

[BellyUpFish]

Well, I thought my newly constructed 24x24 was leaking.

Turns out, it's just getting water under the doors. Hung out during some rain the other day and verified it..

There are no gutters on the building, would they help?

As you can see, there is some upslope towards the doors, not enough I guess..



Inside the shop..



Suggestions?

 

[bjmac]

Had the very same problem. Broke down and installed trench drain across the front of the garage. Problem solved. Gutters won't cure your problem. Your water is coming from your driveway.

 

[BellyUpFish]

Had the very same problem. Broke down and installed trench drain across the front of the garage. Problem solved. Gutters won't cure your problem. Your water is coming from your driveway.

Yeh, that's kinda aggrivating, but I'm thinking I'll let the builder fix it.

We've got a 1 year warranty on the house and all work done. Seems to me like this would fit. They should have sloped the driveway better.

 

[CNGsaves]

You could try adding heavy duty rubber seal at bottom of garage doors.

I'd also go ahead with gutters on garage to match the house. I thought you were in TX so rain is pretty scarce lately so you might even consider some free water storage out back of garage.

Best solution would have been lip in concrete that garage door would drop down a bit.

Good luck as top 2 solutions will be cheap compared to trench cut into concrete if you go that route. Still will have problem of where to route the water with underground PVC pipe, etc.

 

[BellyUpFish]

You could try adding heavy duty rubber seal at bottom of garage doors.

I'd also go ahead with gutters on garage to match the house. I thought you were in TX so rain is pretty scarce lately so you might even consider some free water storage out back of garage.

Best solution would have been lip in concrete that garage door would drop down a bit.

Good luck as top 2 solutions will be cheap compared to trench cut into concrete if you go that route. Still will have problem of where to route the water with underground PVC pipe, etc.

I'm in Alabama. We get a pretty good bit of rain, especially in the winter months.

A better slope towards the garage would have been ideal.

While I'm not too concerned with the cost, at the moment, of the trench, I'm not too excited about digging a hole in my brand new driveway either. Our warranty should take care of that. I guess we'll find out what the builders word is worth. He's been great so far.

We have a "30 day" meeting with the builder in the next would weeks to sort out anything we have found in the past 30 days we don't like so far and this is on the list.

Figured I'd let you experts take a peek and see what could be done to rememdy it. I was hoping it was gutters, looks like I was wrong..

 

[ilovevocs]

Does the garage slab step up at all at the door?

 

[Modifieddriver]

Gutters will help but not cure what you have here.

Looks like standing water, or the low spot about 8-10 feet from the O/H door.

You can try to grind the concrete from the door seal to the driveway. You need about 1/8" fall per foot to get the water to run.

Your concrete guy didn't know his business, if they did, this wouldn't happen. I've seen this on many buildings.

Also try less tension on the door when closed. Sometimes too much pressure causes it to deform.

 

[BellyUpFish]

Does the garage slab step up at all at the door?

Nope..

Looks like standing water, or the low spot about 8-10 feet from the O/H door.

You can try to grind the concrete from the door seal to the driveway. You need about 1/8" fall per foot to get the water to run.

Your concrete guy didn't know his business, if they did, this wouldn't happen. I've seen this on many buildings.

Also try less tension on the door when closed. Sometimes too much pressure causes it to deform.

Yeh, definitely standing water, granted the pic was taken in the middle of some rain, but still..

I'll talk to the builder and see what he wants to do.

I think the best fix is a drain trench. That might be hard to get accomplished without him trying other - seals, thresholds, etc - methods to solve the issue.

Aggravating..

 

[Milton Shaw]

You can get a rubber seal that glues to the floor that should stop the water from coming in. Clean the floor good and dry fit the seal mark its location and then raise door and glue down. They work great to keep water from entering under the door.

 

[BellyUpFish]

Yeh, I've been reading about them. I'm sure I'll give that a shot before we go digging drainage trenches..

 

[NUTTSGT]

Nice little garage but you're going to have a continuous problem with water coming in unless there is some drainage across the front of the doors. I just scanned through the build of your garage and looked at the pictures. I wouldn't have built it like that and not sure what your builder was thinking.

I would have poured a short (formed when the floor was done)stem wall or laid a single course of block to set the walls on. The bottom plate of your walls is set right on the floor and doesn't even appear to be PT lumber. It also appears that the driveway is virtually level with the garage floor. Even having gutters with a driving rain, I think you're going to have water in there. Hopefully, the O/H doors don't face the prevailing wind.

Good luck on the gutters as I hope it solves your water problem, not much can piss you off having water coming in every time it rains. I was there at one time.

 

[SMKS]

Nice little garage but you're going to have a continuous problem with water coming in unless there is some drainage across the front of the doors. I just scanned through the build of your garage and looked at the pictures. I wouldn't have built it like that and not sure what your builder was thinking.

I would have poured a short (formed when the floor was done)stem wall or laid a single course of block to set the walls on. The bottom plate of your walls is set right on the floor and doesn't even appear to be PT lumber. It also appears that the driveway is virtually level with the garage floor. Even having gutters with a driving rain, I think you're going to have water in there. Hopefully, the O/H doors don't face the prevailing wind.

Good luck on the gutters as I hope it solves your water problem, not much can piss you off having water coming in every time it rains. I was there at one time.

+1 to all of this.

Not trying to rag on the OP, but I agree with the above. Our garage (built in the 1990s) was built with a very small step up from the driveway level to the garage floor, so water can't run in, in most cases. As the poster above notes, it appears the boards are right on the floor. My garage has a short concrete wall that's part of the foundation. The building walls rest on this concrete riser. So, on the rare occasions where water can get it, it doesn't touch the wood part of the walls, just the short concrete risers the walls sit on.

EDIT - attached are a couple pics, since I'm probably doing a bad job of explaining.

There's a depression in the floor around the garage doors, so it's very difficult for water to run into the garage.

The walls rest on part of the foundation that's raised up an inch or so, so water that gets in or is spilled doesn't contact the wood that makes up the walls.

 

[rlitman]

The rubber seal will keep water from getting in, but it will also keep water from getting out.
When I pull my snowblower into my garage, it is nice to know the concrete slope will let the water run out under the door. That won't happen with a glue down rubber seal.

 

[BellyUpFish]

+1 to all of this.

Not trying to rag on the OP, but I agree with the above. Our garage (built in the 1990s) was built with a very small step up from the driveway to the garage floor, so water can't run in, in most cases. As the poster above notes, it appears the boards are right on the floor. My garage has a short concrete wall that's a few inches tall that's part of the foundation. The building walls rest on this concrete riser. So, on the rare occasions where water can get it, it doesn't touch the wood part of the walls, just the short concrete risers the walls sit on.

Not ragging on me, I didn't build the thing and don't have enough experience to know 100% what's good or bad.

The only thing I can do now is move forward..

Right now, my plan of action is to tell the builder I'd like to try the seals. If they work, I'll be happy and we can move on.

If they don't work, we'll go down that road when we get there.

The builder is one of the most reputable in the area, was very kind in changing anything we wanted, even after it was completed, so I guess I'll get to find out what sort of strength the warranty has....

 

[BellyUpFish]

The rubber seal will keep water from getting in, but it will also keep water from getting out.
When I pull my snowblower into my garage, it is nice to know the concrete slope will let the water run out under the door. That won't happen with a glue down rubber seal.

If I ever own a snowblower, I'll be storing it in a completely different garage. I don't even think you can buy one locally.

I can't think of an instance where I'd be getting enough water in the garage to concern myself with getting it back out of the garage..

 

[Zeke]

I agree that gutters will help, but the rain that falls on the drive will run back if the slope is wrong (which you say it is). Installing a trench drain is the thing to do. They will need to saw cut and grout it in. And, it needs a place to drain to away from the garage.

My experience with better seals if that they leak somewhere, usually the corners. And if it does seal and you open the door, the water standing at the seal will rush in. There jus shouldn't be a puddle right in front of the door.

 

[BellyUpFish]

Yeh, the pics are a little deceiving. There is a puddle about 8' from the doors, but no puddles directly in front of the doors, which is why I thought the run-in was coming under through a wall, rather than the doors. It normally gets over the the wall and appears that is where it is coming from, but after watching the rain, I realized this is not the case..

 

[Zeke]

Yeah, I see it now. Looks like the concrete guy tried to put a swale in the drive out about 6-8'. But the grade is too high and puddles the water. Could you put a yard drain in there on the right hand side?

BTW, nice looking house, but man are the codes different between where you are and where I am.

 

[BellyUpFish]

I could try and put a drain in. Would that help with the seepage into the garage?

 

[goldmach1]

Gutters will help and when you show the pictures to the builder maybe they will put the gutters up for free.

 

[BellyUpFish]

Maybe.

I guess we will see.

 

[mister honey]

+1 on the Tsunami Seal across the door opening.

I added small dams of butyl rubber caulk at the very corners of the seal to stop any water entering at those points.

Very satisfied with the results!

You should still have gutters to drain any roof runoff away from the structure.

Mike

 

[jimindm]

Gutters would help. Even the slightest amount of rain would result in a downpour as water runs off the roof. Dripping feet away from the structure. They are on your house for a reason, they should also be on you garage.

You can tell from the picture that the bottom courses of brick are wet. That is most likley due to splashing of roof water and not blown rain. That may causes other issues in time. Especially if you have a walk in service door.

 

[Chevy72pu]

There are also seals available, that attach to the bottom of the door, instead of glueing to the floor. These are really nice when you are cleaning the floor and need to push debris or out water out of the doorway. The contractor could cut a channel in front of the doors, dig down a foot or so and fill it with gravel, then top it with a metal grate. That should solve the run off problem as well as where to direct the run off.

 

[mirrorimg]

So what happens if the water gets high enough to reach the bottom of the door, or a few inches further and you need to open the garage door? If you put a threshold there to seal the water out, its going to pour over it once you open the door.

I have the same issue, but my home is not a new construction. My driveway slopes towards the garage and near the doors there is a slight upward slope. There is no where for the water to run so it would enter the garage doors when I first moved in. I resolved much of the issue by installing a french drain in my yard at the lowest point in the valley. This takes much of the water away.

 

[BellyUpFish]

Yeh, I think there should be some gutters up there.

Maybe a combination of gutters and a seal will work.

 

[BellyUpFish]

Just a quick update..

I ordered 20' of Tsunami seal from Home Depot and installed it and have had no leaking since.

 

[Automatic Slim]

looks like the builder forget to put a light on the oustide of the garage, either porch or sensor. would seem appropriate, no?


glad the t-tape worked.

 

[e-tek]

Glad you updated. I have the same issue - on either end of my shop! You did the right thing - cause it worked! But gutters would NOT have helped that, even it you put one over the door! The rain is sitting on the supposedly flat garage pad, but of course it's not flat, but sloped slightly towards the door.

Mines not bad enough that it's MADE me do something, but the Tsunami Seal is also what I would do.

 

[BellyUpFish]

looks like the builder forget to put a light on the oustide of the garage, either porch or sensor. would seem appropriate, no?

Yeh, I don't know if he forgot, he just didn't put one in.

No biggie, I need to put some up. I thin ill put one over each door and maybe one over the man door. I need to pull some wire to the house so I can control it with the other outdoor lighting.

 

[rsevilla]

We had a similar problem when we had our house built. The water was not running in from the driveway though. In our case the rain would hit the garage door, run down the door and run under the door. The slab was not pitched correctly. The builder saw cur the slab, drilled and pinned and re-poured a new 12" wide section of floor from just inside the door to the outside, this time pitched correctly. We live in upstate NY so we did not want to deal with rubber glue down seals.....