Making a Floor Drain in Garage ?

[wawajake]

Has anyone had any luck making a floor drain in a existing concrete garage floor that was not designed with one ?
Now that I have a Kubota and a ATV melting the leftover snow on the floor , it is running all over with no place to go.

I live in the cold north , the garage has a floating slab with probably 4 or 5 inch concrete floor . The insultated garage is heated every few days with woodstove.

I figure at least if I had a floor drain , I could squeegee the water to it. Now I sweep it out the garage door , where it freezes in not the best place.

I figure bust up the floor in a 2ft circle at most , hopefully don't hit too much rebar. Then remove a couple feet of dirt put in some good draining gravel with a 4 inch ABS pipe to level of floor , fix the concrete floor with 4 inches of Concrete mix sloped to pipe . Done
but will I have frost problems ? Should go deeper , not at all ?

jake

 

[schmism]

my uncle put in a trench drain in his. Rented a handheld 14" concrete saw (dimond blade) and cut 2 slots 4" apart then just busted up the slab with a sledge.

FYI trench drain

 

[F.L. Jennings]

A floor should be sloped to a floor drain. If you do not pipe the collected water away from your bldg. slab, you are asking for trouble if the water amounts to much. If you just make a gravel filled "well" under a set in drain, it will collect surrounding water also and probably lead to slab damage in the future.

 

[2manyrocks]

another option--Wet vac the floor and dump it elsewhere?

Or make a flap in the siding somewhere and squeeze it out there.

Busting up the concrete in the cold doesn't sound like an appealing job right now. Would agree that you should make a cut in the concrete to control the break out if you choose that route.

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm confused.

Are you thinking of digging a hole in middle of your floor and letting it fill up with snow/water from your tractor?

Moisture is the biggest enemy of any structure. The goal for all buildings is to get rid of moisture and keep it out. Unless you dig the pit very deep, and I'm not sure how deep that would have to be, you are just adding moisture to an areas that you want to keep dry.

Have you considered tunneling under the slab with a pipe attached to a hose? The up sizing the pipe to 3 inches for a drain? Four inch pipe would be better, but not really needed. 2 inch should work and be easier to install, but still not as good as three inch.

Cut a hole in the floor where you want the water to drain and then dig a trench outside so that it lines up with where you cut the hole. Run a 3/4 inch PVC pipe with the hose under you slab until you get to the hole. Sometimes you have to add pipe together, but that's easy with glue. I've gone under driveways and found shower drains in the middle of homes this way. It's just a matter of going slow and letting the water do the work.

After the pipe is in place and the drain hooked up, pour concrete to patch up the floor and in no time the moisture will disappear from under your slab. Then you will always have a good drain that won't add any more moisture to the soil under your slab.

Eddie

 

[schmism]

to be clear my uncles drain is connected to 4" corrugated plastic and daylights out the back of the hill behind the garage. He stopped his cuts about 2' short of the outside wall and just tunneled out under the slab footing for the last 2 feet.

he has a large floor squeegee he uses to move the water to the drain as his slab isnt specifically sloped toward it.

 

[LBrown59]

to be clear my uncles drain is connected to 4" corrugated plastic and daylights out the back of the hill behind the garage. He stopped his cuts about 2' short of the outside wall and just tunneled out under the slab footing for the last 2 feet.

he has a large floor squeegee he uses to move the water to the drain as his slab isnt specifically sloped toward it.

I had thought about just sloping the floor to the front and just letting it drain out the doors.
What ya think?
Pros \ cons.

 

[philbuilt]

How about a shallow grid with a side drain grove. Place it under where you park the tractor. You can buy a diamond 4.5" grinder wheel at HD or one for a skill saw. 1/4" groves 1/4" deep. Here in Maine your not suppose to install floor drains in a garage due to the possibilities of oils and such finding there way into the drain. Heres a sketch of my thoughts.


Good luck
Phil

 

[wawajake]

Lots of great ideas and warnings too...considering my slab is on a sloped grade,icould try the access from outside of slab in the spring, but for now I will buy a wet vac.Thanks guys