Garage Water Problem

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debramyers

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We are looking for a fix for this problem. We get water in the garage whenever it rains or the snow melts too fast. We have dug a deeper basin to hold the water at the entrance of the garage but it still floods. We have a few ideas how to help stop the water, but this is very frustrating and i would never purchase another house like this. It should never pass a inspection. We were told that the water does not drain into the sump pit because they do not want the fuel emmissions from the vehicles that land on the driveway to be pumped into the house. If anyone has any ideas please share... Thanks
 
I have never liked these setups. I don’t like the hill I don’t like a car in the basement I don’t like getting the snow out of the trench and I really don’t care for the drainage issues. If there is a natural slope to the property and you could get water to drain away by gravity that might not be too bad. If not you have to pump it away. Sounds like you already have a sump in the basement and you might have to add another for this water.

If it were mine I would add a bulkhead door setup and fill it all in and not use it as a garage, but I don’t think that’s what you were asking.

Most of the time you are better off starting a new thread than adding to an old one.
And welcome to the site
 
Welcome to the site. Usually we see exterior drains seperate from interior but if your are tied together then you should not mix the two, driveway drain should not go into the house.
Do you have a perimeter dain around the outside of the bottom of the foundation?
Are you sure it connects inside the house?
If you have a pump in the basement, where does it pump to or, what is it connected to and where?

Short of any good answers a drain for the driveway with a sump and pump to pump away from the house or connect to same drain system but outside the house.
 
Pump it elsewhere with a 12v pump. At this low voltage the electrical code may not apply.

To size the pump you need to know max rainfall rates in inches/hour for your area
and
the 'catchment area' (how many square feet of surface feed the basin)
and
what vertical height you need to raise the excess water to dispose of it.

A small pond pump controlled by a float switch may be enough.
 
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Wuzzat? said:
Pump it elsewhere with a 12v pump. At this low voltage the electrical code may not apply.

To size the pump you need to know max rainfall rates in inches/hour for your area
and
the 'catchment area' (how many square feet of surface feed the basin)
and
what vertical height you need to raise the excess water to dispose of it.

A small pond pump controlled by a float switch may be enough.
Click to expand...



What if the poster lives in the Snow Belt and moisture can accumulate and stored above ground as most people I know don’t drive down those things at all in the winter months thus no plowing. He would have to know the max snow build per season and then the rate of melt per hour and factor that into your snow melt equation. As to voltage of a pump. How will he keep a battery charged? I think there are battery backup sumps on the market. Might be an idea.
 
I cannot see the pics on my computer ... but the problem is relying on only one water pickup point. What about several slit drains horizontally across the driveway? They can intercept the water successively up-stream and carry it sideways to a larger sump or where ever. This stops the rush of water to the bottom of the garage door because you have multiple pickup drains instead of just one.

Easy to saw cut across the existing driveway and install. Hookup on the side to a common collection sump.

Good?

DRAIN.jpg
 
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/or/snow/?cid=nrcs142p2_046155

You run the pump from a small transformer powered from house voltage. This is a hundred-dollars-in-parts gamble (+ labor cost to route a pipe) with a high likelihood of success.

I'd only go with battery backup if the flooding is correlated to power outages and then you'd need a DC pump, float/trickle charger and a deep cycle battery.
 
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I have never understud this rule. You're not allowed to have a drain in the garage because gas could get in the system, but it is ok to to drain the driveway into the perimeter drain where it could vent up thru the down spouts. If the sump in the basement is a sealed unit I might consider hooking up this drain.

Thoughts?
 
nealtw said:
I have never understud this rule. You're not allowed to have a drain in the garage because gas could get in the system, but it is ok to to drain the driveway into the perimeter drain where it could vent up thru the down spouts. If the sump in the basement is a sealed unit I might consider hooking up this drain.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Fumes in a closed space where there may ignition sources vs. fumes into the open air which quickly dissipate?

Post the text, there may a logical fallacy in the way it's phrased. I know for sure this happens in the NEC.
With 80 or so fallacies it's hard to miss all of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies
 
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The whole concept of a garage below street level does not make sense. I had a car slide down a driveway into the street when warm rubber tires eventually let gravity do it's thing.

Since the OP did not bother to post important facts, he either did not buy the house 5 years ago or got trapped in it after a good snow/ice storm.

Dick
 
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