Whose idea was it......

[bigtiller]

....to plumb the garage floor drain into the basement sump pump? I never did understand that. Gasses heaver than air and dangerous liquids have a direct route into the basement where the burners on the furnace and water heater can ignite them. But the bigger reason for this thread is our house smells like a hot pepper canning factory.

A glass gallon jar of jalapeno peppers was dropped beside the garage floor drain and some of the liquid went down the drain. Luckily, we have hot water plumbed into the garage and it was rinsed out, but it lingers.

So why is it common practice to plumb it this way?

 

[aczlan]

Cheaper to build than a separate drywell?

Aaron Z

 

[MossRoad]

I haven't seen a garage floor drain in new home construction in decades and the few old ones that I have seen were drained to the outside. Nowadays, around here at least, they slant the floor down to the overhead door and a small rim around the edges to direct liquid away from the walls. Any water or snow melt off the car drains towards the overhead door. I'm surprised they'd plumb a garage floor drain into a house with the possibility of bringing gasoline inside. Doesn't sound right.

 

[bigtiller]

I haven't seen a garage floor drain in new home construction in decades and the few old ones that I have seen were drained to the outside. Nowadays, around here at least, they slant the floor down to the overhead door and a small rim around the edges to direct liquid away from the walls. Any water or snow melt off the car drains towards the overhead door. I'm surprised they'd plumb a garage floor drain into a house with the possibility of bringing gasoline inside. Doesn't sound right.

I have heard of, but never seen one like yours. Doesn't the door freeze down to the floor?

 

[stuckmotor]

Bigtiller,
Are you sure it's common practice or did the builder have a brain fart?

 

[bigtiller]

Bigtiller,
Are you sure it's common practice or did the builder have a brain fart?

To clarify, I'm talking about and attached garage. Unattached garages drain to a dry-well or open air. They have been building them like this for a long time..... as i said earlier, I've never seen or heard it done any other way in this part of the country.

 

[k0ua]

To clarify, I'm talking about and attached garage. Unattached garages drain to a dry-well or open air. They have been building them like this for a long time..... as i said earlier, I've never seen or heard it done any other way in this part of the country.

It may be in your part of the world, with very low temps they ARE afraid of the drain freezing up. In the garages I have owned, the drain went outside, and in my present house/garage, it is built like Moss said, Just a 2 inch concrete lip all the way around keeps any slush off of the drywall, and it tilts to the outside door which is sunken about 2 inches. We don't seem to have freezing problems, but we are a heck of a lot warmer than Iowa.

 

[MossRoad]

I have heard of, but never seen one like yours. Doesn't the door freeze down to the floor?

Never has. On cold days the snow doesn't melt off the car. On warm days, the snow melts and the water runs out the door. Also, on warm days, if there's a particularly large amount of chunks from the wheel wells, for example, we'll just scoop em up with the snow shovel and toss them outside into the snow bank.

 

[stuckmotor]

To clarify, I'm talking about and attached garage. Unattached garages drain to a dry-well or open air. They have been building them like this for a long time..... as i said earlier, I've never seen or heard it done any other way in this part of the country.

I see now. This must be a cold climate thing. Down here foundations don't have to be very deep and people seldom have basements.

 

[bigtiller]

Never has. On cold days the snow doesn't melt off the car. On warm days, the snow melts and the water runs out the door. Also, on warm days, if there's a particularly large amount of chunks from the wheel wells, for example, we'll just scoop em up with the snow shovel and toss them outside into the snow bank.

I don't know what the difference could be. I see we are at about the same latitude so the weather should be about the same.

 

[MossRoad]

I think we get a lot more snow here, due to the lake.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

my garage floor is sloped to the door, was required here. I have never had enough runoff for the water to get to the underside of the door, that could freeze it down.

 

[bigtiller]

When I open the door, if I have 3" or more of snow against the door and drive in or out, the snow will fall where the rubber threshold meets the floor. That is all it takes for the door to freeze to the floor just a tiny bit. After many cycles, the threshold will be loose. So before the door gets closed i shovel the first 6" away from the door so it won't freeze down.

I think my problem is to much heat or maybe to little heat. I heat my garage continuously to 42 degrees. That seams to be enough to melt frost, ice and snow on the door but not enough to melt the snow under the rubber threshold.

That is why i would have concerns with forcing water under the door and not down a drain.

 

[MossRoad]

I think there's your problem. Our garage isn't heated. I don't know anyone that has a heated garage, for that matter.

 

[Egon]

Check the local building codes for an attached garage. Even the type of door may be regulated.

 

[fidowanttobe]

Code up here is plumbed to the septic. The floor drain in my heated tuck under garage is a box aprox 2'x2'x2' deep with a trap outside the box. Lots of silt in the bottom before it stops up, then I vacuum it out. Unheated detached garage has drains to the outside that is not to code as they wanted it to the septic also but grandfathered. Those doors always froze down even tho they face south and east. Now I spray the thresholds with "Incredible Orange Spray On Anti-Ice" and it helps tremendously. My $0.02

 

[k0ua]

I suspect you northern guys, face a lot of things we "pinapple crew" down here don't even think about.

 

[KennyG]

My garage has floor drains that go to gravity drain system and the sewer - no sump. I have no idea if it would meet code now. Some places simply do not allow garage drains because of the oil/gas potential. Others require an oil separator in the system. A few years back I helped someone pour a garage floor. He put in the drain and skimmed over it with concrete for the inspection, then chipped it out later. It was the only way he could have a garage drain.

 

[fidowanttobe]

GASP! Surely you jest! He fooled the government?? I really don't understand their thinking sometimes. Like I am going to use my floor drain as a oil changing/anti-freeze pit. Not to mention, dump my old gas down there too.

 

[bigtiller]

Check the local building codes for an attached garage. Even the type of door may be regulated.

There is no building code here. The people don't want to pay for everything involved with making and enforcing one. But the local contractors follow the code, as best as they can recollect, from the next county over and buildings are pretty high quality even without any government help.

Funny thing,,, I live in the country. So I applied for a county building permit to build my house. They said I don't need one, I need a city permit. So I applied for a city permit and was told I didn't need one. I knew I couldn't build a house without one. I got the attention of the city manager and asked him what is wrong with this picture. It took him 2 days to get it all straightened out with the city and the county.

I had to go to the city to get a county permit and a copy went to both governments. That may be another reason we don't have a building code.