Water in garage from cars...what to do?

[KWentling]

Interesting thread. I have no solution. I just built a garage this past fall. Not finished with the inside yet and I'm not going to park in it until I can get the floor sealed (too cold now) to avoid the salt caused spalling. I asked the contractor that poured my floor what he recommended. He said flat because if sloped to the door, your doors may freeze down. By the way. This pour was done inside stem walls. He chalk lined the walls and used no grade stakes. It was poured using a pumper. Floor was 30'x42'. He poured a strip along the walls, hand floated it to the line, went out about 10' toward the center, and using the transit, floated about a foot wide strip to grade, filled in between and struck it off to the hand floated strips. I was a little concerned on how flat this was going to end up, but it turned out great. I shot various spots with my Robo-Lazer and I didn't find any place off more than 1/4". Most was less than 1/8". It pooled rain in places but I would expect that in any floor. I haven't poured an apron yet, and was thinking of putting a grate drain right in front of the doors to have a place to push water to. I put a floor drain (day-lighted) in my shop and it also has floor heat so water in there isn't an issue. Can't afford to heat both so didn't do the floor heat in the garage. Might regret not putting in floor drains though.

Kim

 

[irvingj]

Guess I do like many others... first, knock off as much slush & stuff as I can outside. I go over the car by kicking sideways with a rubber boot and then using a dedicated snowbrush for the rocker panels' undersides & wheelwells. Inside, I normally don't keep the garage heated, so melting isn't a huge issue.

I learned the hard way, however, about allowing for sufficient air circulation. I've seen rust-colored water literally dripping off the undersides of cars in a closed-up garage, just from condensation. I always keep a couple windows open at least a little bit, open wider if it's really wet. That seems to help a lot. Now that I have a heater in the garage, I'm seriously thinking about some sort of powered exhaust fan for occasional use.

I have a push squegee for really heavy stuff (mostly in the spring), or use a shovel. I also use a wet vac fairly often. I know that if I let stuff drain toward the garage doors, they'd freeze down in no time, so I keep that area clear & dry.

I was also talked out of a floor drain when I had the garage built... but wish I had one now! Just another thing to deal with in the cold Northeast....

 

[harpoonalt]

I miss the old drains, pull the cap and away it went. Has anyone just cut a hole, add a grate and let the water percolate down? My concern as was mentioned by someone else, is what the long term consequences would be from the water under the floor?
More info: Ours is a 3 car garage, not heated (mistake) but it is insulated and never freezes if we keeps the doors closed. The squeegee would get rid of the water but I use a wet dry vac to prevent ice sheets outside the door or having the doors freeze down. We do knock the snow off but just the melting snow from under the car adds up. I put the stone in the garage myself, and there is about 12" of 3/4" stone with well draining gravel under that. There are no perimeter drains around the house and we never have water issues as our whole meadow is gravel. Actually, the developer said the land was more valuable as a gravel pit than house lots.
The car mats might work if they contained the water. Last choice would be to send it towards the doors. Also, interested in the drilling of holes as that sounds promising maybe with a floor type drain cover for it. Just trying to stop the having to splash thru water to come in the house (dog doesn't like it either). Worst case scenario is that I continue to vac it away, but that just gets old.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Do what most people with garages do.....
Park outside and store junk in the garage. :laughing:

 

[JDgreen227]

Interesting thread. I have no solution. I just built a garage this past fall. Not finished with the inside yet and I'm not going to park in it until I can get the floor sealed (too cold now) to avoid the salt caused spalling. I asked the contractor that poured my floor what he recommended. He said flat because if sloped to the door, your doors may freeze down. By the way. This pour was done inside stem walls. He chalk lined the walls and used no grade stakes. It was poured using a pumper. Floor was 30'x42'. He poured a strip along the walls, hand floated it to the line, went out about 10' toward the center, and using the transit, floated about a foot wide strip to grade, filled in between and struck it off to the hand floated strips. I was a little concerned on how flat this was going to end up, but it turned out great. I shot various spots with my Robo-Lazer and I didn't find any place off more than 1/4". Most was less than 1/8". It pooled rain in places but I would expect that in any floor. I haven't poured an apron yet, and was thinking of putting a grate drain right in front of the doors to have a place to push water to. I put a floor drain (day-lighted) in my shop and it also has floor heat so water in there isn't an issue. Can't afford to heat both so didn't do the floor heat in the garage. Might regret not putting in floor drains though.

Kim

Your contractor did a heck of a level pour if he got that close to 1/8 inch for that size slab. And you are really smart not to put any salt on concrete that new. We poured a level floor for my garage back in '89, size is 24X36, I wanted to use wire mesh in the concrete but my dad said because it's a hard packed sand base you don't need reinforcement as it will never crack. Dad was WRONG about that. Last time I will EVER pour a slab with no mesh. The cracks are chipping off at the edges and some are as wide as a pencil.

 

[KWentling]

Your contractor did a heck of a level pour if he got that close to 1/8 inch for that size slab. And you are really smart not to put any salt on concrete that new. We poured a level floor for my garage back in '89, size is 24X36, I wanted to use wire mesh in the concrete but my dad said because it's a hard packed sand base you don't need reinforcement as it will never crack. Dad was WRONG about that. Last time I will EVER pour a slab with no mesh. The cracks are chipping off at the edges and some are as wide as a pencil.

Yep. I wouldn't have believed it could be done that way and come out that close. It was obvious these guys knew what they were doing. They had it poured and bull floated in less than 2 hours, including wait time on the second truck. I think there were 6 of them during the pour and 2 stayed to finish mine while the others left for another pour. There may be someplace off more than 1/4" but I didn't find it in my random checking. My floor has #3 rebar on 2' centers so it should hang together. Its got control joints sawed too. I filled them with SL1 caulk so they won't collect water, freeze, and pop out chunks.

 

[MNBobcat]

We're in Minnesota and keep our garage at 60F all winter. So we would get snow melt that led to standing water in the garage. There were 2 areas where it puddled. I tried running a fan thinking air movement would eventually dry it out. No dice. Too much water.

This fall I had a cement guy come out and estimated removing about a 16 x 16 section of concrete, installing a drain and then sloping the concrete towards the drain. We were then going to outlet it to daylight outside the garage. Problem...that area would freeze and likely not drain at all. So then I thought about an underground french drain. Either way, lots of work. Estimate came in at $3,500.00. Yes, I could do the whole thing myself and save money but I have enough other projects.

I did, however, finally find a solution! I went to Home Depot and bought a wet vac that holds 16 gallons. Every day after the wife leaves (she is the only one parking in the garage) I take 5 minutes and vacuum up the water. About 2 hours later, the floor is totally dry. About once a week I throw the vac onto the rack of the ATV and drive out to the field. I remove the drain plug and wait a couple minutes while all the water drains onto the ground.

Yeah, its not as nice as having a drain but it was also a $125 fix versus $3,500. Also, even if I had put the drain in I would still end up with standing water from parking the ATV or the snow blower in the garage. Those would not sit over the drained area. My garage is about a 2 1/2 car and short of removing all cement and sloping it there is no way to get that whole thing to drain.

For me, its not a big deal to vac once a day and it only takes a couple minutes.