Fix Garage Slope

acerunner

my house, like most houses in this neighborhood, has a 2-car tandem garage that slopes inward to a floor drain. The previous owner had built an addition into the back part of the garage, making it a 1-car. However, the addition now covers the floor drain. The garage is still sloped inward but no floor drain for water to drain into. Modern code says garage should be slope outward.

What is the best way to fix this?

Jim F

Get access to the original drain if possible. Why would the PO ever do such a thing. Another option might be some sort of drain drench across the driveway outside the garage to prevent water from entering. Reversing the slope sounds expensive.

acerunner

please clarify what you mean by get access to the original drain?

I don't know exactly where the drain is. but its somewhere under the sleeper floor of the addition. I don't want to tear that up. I don't suppose there's a way to allow water to drain underneath the floor.

The only options I can think of is install new drain, or reslope the floor. both of which sounds expensive. The drain trench idea doesn't solve the problem of dragging water in when you drive into garage when its raining. The driveway is sloped away, so I'm not so worried about water getting in that way.

Yoyizit

Cut a drain groove and add a 12v pump and a float switch to pipe the water elsewhere?

Gary in WA

The floor drain is REQUIRED by Code to drain a gasoline leak safely away outside or out the vehicle door with sloped non-combustible floor. You cannot add electrical to this system.
Page #4, top right—older versions are as I stated: http://www.codecheck.com/cc/images/CC5thEdSample.pdf

Check with your LOCAL Building Department or Fire Marshal.


Be safe, Gary

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Yoyizit

How 'bout a non-electric pump, powered by compressed air or an insulated rotating shaft?
Or by an explosion-proof brushless motor?
How do cars get away with an electric fuel pump?

Gary in WA

I think the idea is to remove the liquid fuel before or while a fire is active. Older codes accepted drains, have not seen current ones or researched them...... Anyone? A house fire, especially in the garage (location of majority of electrical panels), would stop any power to a motor or air compressor. Anything other than Code would/should be approved by local officials. Invent it, patent it, save lives, I'm all for that! I enjoy thinking "outside the box" too, and it keeps the gray matter fresh....

Be safe, Gary

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