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thegogetter222 · 06-05-2012, 08:16 AM

gotcha, thanks again. My plan is to fill both drains with concrete and level off the grade with treated plywood using tap screws to keep it in place. I'll eventually lay the whole floor with 6mil sheeting and lay my locking laminate on top of the barrier. Install trim around the edges where needed.

Next point of review is the proper way to enclose the garage door openings. One will be completely enclosed and the other used a the new main entrance.

Thanks again guys

nealtw · 06-05-2012, 08:33 AM

There will always be a chance of water under the floor, I would leave the drains open under the floor. How are you going to stop wind driven rain from entering under the wall at the front? When building a wall under the original header, there is a chance that a moving floor can lift the header. Cut the studs an inch to short and add a block to the side of them to make them long enough. This will give the wall a crush factor so any damage in the future will be kept in this area and not above.

thegogetter222 · 06-05-2012, 09:19 AM

Thanks Neal, are you talking specifically under the garage door framing when you recommend a "crush factor"? The rest of the garage is already framed and insulated. There has been times where water has backed up significantly through the drains and into the garage... so sealing them is in my best interest. I'll need to make the water barrier around the garage door framing my area of focus for this concern.

Thoughts?

nealtw · 06-05-2012, 11:19 AM

Directly under the door is where water could get under the slab and freeze, I wouldn't be to concerned about the rest. If water has backed up in those drains, concrete may not be the best plug, perhaps you could makeshift some fitting that could be glued in.

BridgeMan · 06-09-2012, 02:59 AM

If this is going to be a living space, I don't think freezing should ever be much of an issue--you will be adding a source of heat, yes? And simply plug the drains by filling with contiguous concrete when you pour the floor-leveling concrete, while making an effort (regrading the exterior surface drainage, adding bentonite subgrade cover, or whatever) to eliminate the source of the drains back-flooding as well.

nealtw · 06-10-2012, 09:15 PM

I have to dissagree with Bridgeman here. There is no protection in a garage floor against water entering below the slab, adding heat to the room dose not help the area under the wall at the front which will be insulated. There is a reason frost protection standards are in effect for foundations.

BridgeMan · 06-11-2012, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nealtw

I have to dissagree with Bridgeman here. There is no protection in a garage floor against water entering below the slab, adding heat to the room dose not help the area under the wall at the front which will be insulated. There is a reason frost protection standards are in effect for foundations.

So tell us, nealtw, do you really think the OP's garage has no footings? I strongly suspect that is not the case. Unless Canadians build homes with attached garages differently than in the U.S.--that is, ending the footings at the junction of the house and garage? And then, provided it has perimeter footings (continuous across where the main door used to be), what makes it any different than the thousands (millions?) of homes built on concrete slabs with perimeter footings? Do they all have wet floors?

The 4 that I lived in (25 years in NM) never had floor water problems. Guess I was just lucky.

nealtw · 06-11-2012, 04:27 PM

Bridgeman: The foundation wall that joins the two side of the garage seldem if ever is poured full height to the floor, often it is feet below the floor, perhaps that's different in different places, do you want to throw out a gareentee? I would bet that if he drilled thru the floor at the area of that wall, he would find sand at about 6" deep.

BridgeMan · 06-11-2012, 08:49 PM

Maybe it's a regional thing. I've inspected more than a few homes with cracked (and several that were cracked and heaving) garage floors. Apparently built as you described, with no footing or stemwall projection to support the floor once its base material settles. However, a conscientious builder will make the footings and stemwalls continuous, in compliance with the IRC. Section R403 of that Code states that "all exterior walls shall be supported by continuous, solid . . .concrete footings . . . " (with no provision for ending the footings at door locations, which would make them intermittent or discontinuous). Of the 3 residential foundations I've designed for high-end homes in central Colorado, the local AHJ required that garage stemwalls/footings be complete perimeter structures (no breaks at the main or any other door). I'm surprised that's not the case in Canada, where deep frost could do a lot of floor damage in unheated garages that happen to have moist subgrades.

nealtw · 06-11-2012, 09:55 PM

Well continues wall yes, to height of floor not so much. Evan if the wall is there right under the the floor of the garage, as you are aware that joint is not water proof, of evan water resistant. Now with a driveway level or close to the level of the floor and a crack between driveway and floor. Can you really say water can't cause a problem down the road.
The reason the wall isn't brought to full height is that there some feet of fill inside the garage below that floor and no matter how much compaction is done some settlement is often found and if the front is sitting on the wall other problems are created.
When the wall is directly under that floor we are required to put in rebar attaching the floor to all the walls of the garage but not enough rebar to build a suspended slab so guess what happens when the soil settles.
Check your code on a garage conversion like this it will call for work on the foundation wall and ask yourself what problems they are trying to solve, just incase.