adding a garage drain

[Moon]

I'm thinking of adding a drain for my attached garage. Wish I had thought of it when building ...but to late for that now.

I have a gravel drive right up to the apron of the garage. I'm considering just putting the drain there. I prefer not to tear up the garage floor ...and putting a drain out past the apron would suffice, i think. I plan to have this gravel area concreted at a future date, so now would be the time to add the drain.
I'd like it to be three to five foot wide with the big grates ...maybe one in front of each garage door, but utilizing the same drain pipe.
Have any of you ever added a drain for your garage after the fact? What am i missing?

Thanks,
Moon

 

[bczoom]

Moon,

What area are you trying to drain?

If your garage itself, iIs your garage floor perfectly flat or does water puddle in a particular area?

When I bought my house there was no drain in the garage floor. Since I had access to the floor from below, I drilled a 2" hole through the concrete at the lowest point and connected up some schedule 40 to drain.

If I didn't have access from below, I would have considered cutting a 4-6" wide trench through the concrete to the outside and put in a grate all the way to the exterior.

Brian

 

[Moon]

The floor is pretty much flat, no tilt or puddling. I like the 5" - 6" drain all the out idea. good thought. i'll have to see how hard that would be. I do not have access underneath the garage floor, thats why i was thinking of doing it at the apron.
hmmm you got me thinking!
just what i was hoping for. Has anyone put one in this way? Looking for all the tips I can get.

Thanks,
Moon

 

[bczoom]

Moon,

Just thought of something else. If you do trench and put the grates through your garage floor you may want to put under the car(s) as opposed to between them. A grate will always think "FEED ME" whenever they see Mrs. Moon walking through with high-heels on.

Brian

 

[Moon]

Thanks Brian...thats another good point. And yup, she does wear those high heels. If I kept it narrow (5 or 6"'s) at least it'll be easy to step over.
I hate cutting into the concrete, but ....i'm considering it.
Do they sell a U shaped thing-a-ma-do to put in the trench, or do you have to make a trench out of concrete?

Moon

 

[bczoom]

Moon,

Don't know if they make a thing-a-ma-do.

If they didn't make one, I would make some kind of whatch-a-ma-call-it.

Some things/options I'm pondering.
In whatever you make, it has to have a ledge to hold the grate up to floor level.
These trenches will become weak points in the concrete. Any issues with this? What's the base? Freezing?

The option that's sticking out as possibly the best (in my simple mind):
1. Cut your trench (I'll let you figure out the best way /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif), let's say 5-6" wide and 3" (or so) deep.
2. Take a piece of 3" schedule 40 and cut it the long way to make a basin for the water.
3. The pipe is then laid in the center of the trench.
4. Concrete under and on the sides to the top edge of the pipe. The sides then become the ledge for the grate.

You'll have to do some measuring/shimming for drainage and to set the height right for the grate but it doesn't sound too bad.

If this is going out and under the garage door, stop the grate a couple feet short and cover the pipe with concrete to current floor grade. I would then route the pipe into some outdoor drain to get from under the concrete (and slow mice from coming in).

An easier way but would look funny...
Dig the trench
Put 2x4's on the sides for the ledge for the grate.
Get some rain gutter and put in as the trough.

Brian

 

[LarryD]

Poly Trench Drain

Somthing like this is probably what you're looking for. You can doo a search for Poly Trench Drains and get a bunch of hits.

These are usually cast in place with the concrete placement but if you saw the trench a couple inches wider than the drain and pack in non-shrink grout, that would probably hold it. Or you could get real crazy and use an epoxy based "mortar".

 

[chim]

The only water we've had in the garage was in the Winter when the vehicles came inside and dropped the snow/slush they had picked up on the roads.

At our first place, there were no drains, so I simply drilled three or four 3/4" holes at the center of each of the puddles. So little water was involved that I wasn't at all concerned about causing problems. A couple quarts of water once in a while certainly wasn't going to cause the slab to cave in.

When we built our current house, I installed a small floor drain centered under each vehicle space, and had the concrete sloped to it. When the icebergs fall, they melt and run under the vehicles. The floor outside of the vehicle footprint is usually dry....................chim

 

[Junkman]

When I built the original garage back in 1982, I put in a center floor drain that tied into the perimeter drain of the foundation. When I added the second garage to the house a few years ago, I was planning on installing another floor drain and tying it into the other one. Before I even got the permit, the building inspector warned me that no floor drains were allowed according to the state building code. As a result, I don't have a drain in that floor. Even the contractor that did the concrete work said that he wouldn't pour the floor if there was a drain in it. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[Moon]

Larry D, Thanks for the link. Good stuff.

Chim - I wanted the drain for a couple of things. The primary reason for my question is that I'm leaving two large dogs loose in the garage. One is the Great Dane 9 month old pup I've mentioned in another thread. I've had to spray down the garage floor a couple of times over the last week and a half. Sure would be nice to have a drain to push the water to instead of pushing the water off the garage apron and makeing a puddle. This is why a drain just off the apron would probably suffice, and be easier to install.
Where the gravel meets the apron, the gravel is higher. This causes the puddle effect.

Junkman ....you got me curious. Why in the world would a city / state forbid you from installing a drain in the garage? Do they think a person would be more likely to dump oil or hazerdous waste down a garage drain? Sure seems extreme to me to have such a law on the books.

My brother had a garage built, insepcted and all with drains included. So, I'm guessing Ohio does not have such a law on the books. No permits needed in my area to do this, thank goodness.

....okay, the other reason I'd like a drain in the garage is because of my brother. He was able to wash his car and truck in the garage during winter time. I had to spend 6 bucks a shot to get the salt / crud off my vehicles. I liked the idea of being able to keep the vehicles clean without spending so much on auto car washes. Since mine is not designed with the drain sloping to the center, even with a drain I would probably make such a mess of the garage that I would not do it that often. So, I'm leaning to putting the drain outside at the edge of the apron.

Thanks all,
Moon of Ohio