Snow Melt and garage floor question

[twistsol]

Now that the new woodshop is finished and we can actually park cars in the garage that's attached to the house, I have a problem. Water from snow melt runs everywhere. The garage floor is inexplicably level and not sloped towards the doors. There are low spots in one corner and near the center at the wall away from the doors and near the door to the house. The garage floor is level with the basement floor. The snow and slush is creating a huge mess.

The normal solution is to put a trench drain near the doors to drain off water as it flows towards the doors, but because the floor isn't sloped this isn't an option. I tried a couple of CarPadz but those were torn up by the crushed limestone from our driveway that the cars tracked in and subsequently leaked.

I looked into the "right" solution which would be tearing up the concrete and having a new floor poured with appropriate slope and floor drains. This is a $6,000 option and not in the budget although it would allow me to insulate and add a vapor barrier under the concrete. I can't pour over the top of the existing concrete because the ceiling height barely allows the truck in as it is.

Any suggestions for a cheaper option? This garage is now only for cars and lawn equipment.

[steve-norrell]

We had the same problem with melting snow leaving puddles all over the garage floor. In the past, we just had to wait for the water to evaporate -- sometimes several days. I am not sure our solution would work in your case, but here is what we did.

The drainage problem was somewhat "solved" when we remodeled by having grooves cut into the old concrete leading to drains that were in stalled in an added-on new section. The grooves are about 3/4 inch wide and about 3/4 deep at their deepest. They lead to a new area where the concrete is sloped to a drain. We were lucky in that the sewer line was under the garage so adding a drain in the new section was relatively easy.

Perhaps there is a low spot spot where a sump could be installed.

Good luck. Regards, Steve.

[LCHIEN]

circulate air and add a dehumidifier to remove the pooled moisture. Just a wild thought.

[dbhost]

Okay the smart *** answer is...

Sell the house and move to one that has a sloped garage floor...

I would keep shopping around on redoing the floor. 6 grand seems kind of high for that kind of work...

[woodturner]

6 grand seems kind of high for that kind of work...

Not if it's a six car garage

FWIW, a two car garage floor, old floor removed, new substrate, new concrete is around $3K, and this is a low cost of living area.

[JimD]

I'm having a pad poured expanding my driveway by about the same amount as a 2 car garage floor including excavation that will cost less than $3K. The price also includes hauling off the dirt.

[Stytooner]

I say dam it! Dam around the room with some rubber threshold seal using some type of construction adhesive. This way the water never makes it to the wall studs.

Then use the shop vac when pooled and for light pooling areas, use a little floor sweep. If you can't throw that much money at the problem now to redo the floor, any solution will will be a small chore, but still much easier on the wallet.

A floor blower squirrel cage type fan will help especially if you use a shop vac.
It may even be strong enough to push it out the door before it has a chance to pool. Put it on a timer and forget about it till the next time.

[capncarl]

On my previous job we could not have any water standing because of slip/falls and sanitation concerns. The low spots that pool the water are really not that much of an elevation change, possibly less than 1/8 to 1/4 off grade as water will puddle on a level floor. Our repair was to bring in an industrial grade seamless floor installer. "Seamless" is their term. for an epoxy floor. This is not the stuff that they sell to make your garage floor pretty, it is good stuff. The floor is scarified or shot blasted and the flooring is troweled down, thicker in the low spots and hand worked to provide a slope to where you want the water to flow. It works great, you can drive your forklift on it the next day and your problem is over. The cost should be a lot less than chopping up the existing floor and possibly installing another concrete floor that has a low spot somewhere else. Avoid floor toppings and coatings that will not adhere to concrete at all costs because the problems that they cause are worse that the one you have.
capncarl

[Stytooner]

I have seen the epoxy stuff done in showers that had slope and pooling issues too, but I had forgotten about that. The stuff they used had tiny pebbles in it and it really looked good after they were done. It was a fairly thin coating. Maybe 1/2" at the outer edges down to about 1/8" at the drain. They used a special drain cover with that stuff that had a funnel inside to the old drain pipe.
It was not all that expensive either and the guys were done in just a few hours.
Good call on this Capt.

[Bob0244]

Epoxy suggestion is great

I agree with capnarl. I've worked with epoxies before and that stuff before, doing a 3-car garage floor at a friend's house. We spent the whole day (3 men).The job wasn't bad but then again, we were not pros.
If you can find a good, experienced applicator that is capable of applying the epoxy forming a slope, go for it. I'm sure it is your best bet.
I used to work for a company making the epoxy and some was used as leveling base under the tracks of the Montreal metro under construction at the time. 1/4" thickness was enough to support the weight of the train, so it will probably outlast your house...
This is applied manually (trowelled) so making a even slope would be the hardest part.
Good luck!
Bob

[rcplaneguy]

Garagejournal forums are a great resource, there have been many conversations on the same topic.

[rcplaneguy]

http://allgaragefloors.com/best-garage-floor-mat-snow/

[twistsol]

Thanks for all the responses. I think I'm going to go with a dam and fans for this winter. There is a dehumidifier that runs in the garage year round.

I'll look into the epoxy. I was unaware that it could be used to build up a slope. Since I wanted the floor epoxied anyway that may be the best bet.

On the framed wall between the house and the garage, the sheetrock is 3/4" off the floor and I used PVC trim with silicone caulk at the floor. There is still a little water discoloration on the concrete in the basement when it's wet, but at least no standing water coming in.

[capncarl]

In the mean time before you actually fix your floor it would be possible for you to use epoxy flooring materials to fill in the ponding areas. Locate the ponds and mark them, grind the pond to white concrete and pour the epoxy as self leveling. If water ponds there then the epoxy will pond there as well.
capncarl

[Condoman44]

The house we moved into in 2011 has an attached (by breezeway) two car garage. I asked the former owner if they knew what the strange cuts in the garage floor were, he did not know.

I now believe it is a method to get rid of some leveling issues with some spots in the floor. These cuts start shallow and increase in depth, maybe 1/8" to 3/4" and the terminate in a 3/4 inch hole. The hole I presume goes through the floor to the earth. The thickness of the cut is about that of the blade used.

That may be an option that costs little to fix the problem.