Water under garage door

[daveyrach]

So I have a link garage attached to my 4 bed detached house, we moved in on 31st Dec 2011.

Since all this rain I have noticed that water comes under the garage door, there is a drain in front on the door about 6 inches square but is on a gravel part of the drive between 2 concrete strips (if that makes sense) so is next to useless.

Is there anything I can get or do short of digging the drive up and fitting a gully drain?

I can post pics when I get home if need be.

[maviczap]

How much water

I bought a garage door seal for my up and over door from Screwfix, helps a lot, so wind blown leaves as well

[The Guru]

...Is there anything I can get or do short of digging the drive up and fitting a gully drain?...

Pray for sunshine.. :notworthy:[-o<

[SoulKiss]

I suggest you check your facts.

It must be condensation, after all, we are in a drought you know !!!

[daveyrach]

Its a lot of water, its a big-ish garage big enough for my bike a workbench and LOTS of crap, if it was empty I'd say it's fit my 7-seater car in.

The water comes around half way into the garage luckily everything in there is off the floor except the SV so no damage to anything.

Wettest drought in history this is turning out to be

[dizzyblonde]

Make sure the drain ain't blocked??

[SoulKiss]

Wettest drought in history this is turning out to be

War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Downpour is Drought

[daveyrach]

Drain isn't blocked, trouble is the water doesn't go down it coz it's no where near where the water builds up and is surrounded by gravel

[dizzyblonde]

Have you got a gulley in front of your garage?
My dad dug a small trench in front of his, and fitted some concrete blocks with drain hole slits down the middle of them.

Mind you his drive is almost as bad as YCs....so had no choice.

[Stingo]

Why not dig the drive up and fit a gully drain?........erm.....taxi?

[pie_master]

Same thing happens with me - even though there is a 1 inch concrete lip (where the floor slab meets the tarmac) and a decent drain. I think that there'll always be a way for water to get in, even if you have got good drainage etc.

My solution is to pop an old carpet in there. It soaks up the odd bit of water plus you can roll it up to dry out - if it ever goes manky you just sling it - simples!

[daveyrach]

Might try this as a simple cheap solution:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GARAGE-DOOR-RUBBER-FLOOR-SEAL-Adhesive-HEAVY-DUTY-All-Sizes?item=180792822707&cmd=ViewItem&_trksid=p5197.m7&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D5%26po%3D LVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D8153394423227277067#ht_446 8wt_1139

As i said originally I don't really want to be digging the drive up for a couple of years yet, it is on the list of things to do as it could do with being wider anyway.

[keith_d]

It depends where the water is coming from.

1) If it's rain hitting the face of the door then running down the front and under the door either:

a) rotate the house so the garage doesn't face into the rain

b) modify the sill so that any water running down the door flows away from the house. Either by adding a small mortar lip, or taking an angle grinder to the front edge if there's already a lip.

c) Try fitting a rubber garage door seal (no guarantees on this one).


2) If it's water running down the drive and into the garage you may need one or both of:

a) lower the existing drain until it's below the level of the garage door

b) rake off the gravel then adjust the slope of the drive slightly so that water flows away from the garage door and into the drain. Then put the gravel back and compact it.


Hopefully one of the serious builders will be able to give you a better answer.

[daveyrach]

The drive slopes towards the garage, I think one of those seals will do the trick will try one out I think.

[daveyrach]

10709

10710

Pics of drain as promised, pretty pointless IMHO

[-Ralph-]

No wonder, your driveway slopes directly into your garage. Nothing short of a gully drain will sort it long term.

A rubber seal may help, but all that will happen is instead of running into the garage it'll pool up against the seal, eventually you'll get a day with a heavy enough flash of rain to breach the seal, and you'll have a garage full of water again.

It'll take less than a day to run a sthil saw across the concrete pathways to get a nice clean edge, then dig out a gully, bed it with pea gravel, drop in a section of perforated drain pipe, connected into that drain, then cover over with decorative gravel if your choice. Save yourself a lot of farting around trying things that don't work, give up one Saturday, and get the job done.

[daveyrach]

The driveway is being replaced in the next 18-24 months so onlt need something short term, I am going to mention when i get quotes about drainage as the drain could do with going all the way over to the house as we get pooling outside the front door as well obv because of the slope.

[timwilky]

Glad that you are replacing it, those dandelions are so unsightly. My wife would be giving me severe earache if I was to grow them. get some roundup on them before you seed your lawns with the horrors.

[daveyrach]

Glad that you are replacing it, those dandelions are so unsightly. My wife would be giving me severe earache if I was to grow them. get some roundup on them before you seed your lawns with the horrors.

Lol, there wasn't any there when we moved in, they seemed to have sprung up in the last few weeks, I blame the rain ;-)

[Owenski]

You need an ACO if the fall of the drive is towards the garage. You've got an outfall there (assuming that gully pot connects to your SW drainage).
Go to any builders merchenat and ask for 4 (900mm) lengths of channel drain.

http://www.cotterillcivils.co.uk/Images/Website/polypropylene-channel-drain.jpg

http://www.drycretewp.com/channel_drain.gif

[dizzyblonde]

^^^^^ Thats what i was on about!!!! But then yer a buildery engineer type and know all the right names :)

[Owenski]

civil engineer aye, i know good buildingz an-stuff lol.

FYI - Quick "bodge" would be to knock out about 12inch of that concrete from those tyre track strips and replace with a gravel, the water will permeate that instead of bridging the gap into the garage.

If you buy the channel drain stuff, bed it on concrete but surround it with mortar as opposed to concrete and you'll be able to break it out and reuse if you get the drive resurfaced.

[-Ralph-]

I'm no expert like Matt is, what I would say though is if using proper channel drains just check that gully pot does connect into your drain, and that drain has an accessible rodding point and U bend somewhere.

Channel drains are hi flow and designed to be used as part of a modern and properly designed drainage system. It looks like you have quite an old house which all kinds of bodged alterations could have been made to over the years. You don't want to create one problem trying to solve another, and go blocking up the drains deep below your garden or house, with leaves and stuff that have washed down through the channel drain.

The perforated drain pipe I suggested is a bodge too, it's only really designed to collect surface water and allow it to flow somewhere else, but it has the advantage of being cheap and doesn't allow leaves and stuff to get down your drains, only small particles and silt get down past your decorative gravel, and through the pipe, which will wash away (of course block the open end of the pipe with a cover).

I used field drain across the front of my garage in one of the wettest villages in Scotland, which then (unbeknownst to the buildings inspector) connected into the foul drain, and though strictly speaking something you shouldn't do, it's lasted 8 years without ever getting blocked, the particles getting through the pipe were nothing compared to what was being flushed down the toilet or the kitchen sink.

[Owenski]

lol expert, good one!

[daveyrach]

House is only 50-60 years old, drain must be connected to something as our heating system was drained and flushed thru into it.

[Owenski]

It may have been connected once, but drains collapse, tbh though for the volume of water you're diverting into it I wouldnt worry about where it goes. Even if the drain has collapsed it will soak away into the soils around the collapse. If you diverted the whole catchment of impermeable surfacing on your curtlidge then yeah ensuring the outfall condition would be adivised but for the sake of 3m worth of run off you'll be fine.

Bare in mind the general ignorance of your drainage systems formation, the sewers in your main road will be VERY old, they're not built to modern standards and most of them are combined (foul and surface water in one sewer). so not all drains lead to rivers and oceans, They go the sewerage works the water skim off is what makes it back in to the rivers/oceans, your poopy gets farmed and your water gets diverted.
Only in areas where you're very near a watercourse will your surface water outfall directly into it a waterway.

Sewer record maps are readily available via your councils planning office, before any construction we investigate the outfall. If its a domestic project and 100m down stream the water is combined in the main road I'll happily inform a client it will make no difference if they connect surface water into foul obviously my drawings cant show that but what my drawings show and the contractors do OFTEN differ, in fact they rarely represent each other.

[Owenski]

House is only 50-60 years old, drain must be connected to something as our heating system was drained and flushed thru into it.

Means nothing, your drains will be as old as the house, your heating system wont be. The outfall of the heating will be intuative to the layout of the house and Im completly certain no heating installation engineer would conduct a camera survey and suitablity assesmnet of your drainage before pouring gallons down it. In fairness technically he should have flushed it down a foul gully not a surface water one so he dropped bollock there too lol.
Honestly though dont worry about what you do, if it works then its as good a job as anyone else could do.

[-Ralph-]

In my case the conservatory and garage roofs were also connected into the same foul drain, along with the drainage from the sloping driveway, the patio, and the spouts protruding from the bottom of the retaining wall holding back the rest of the back garden. When it rained there was water ****ing down the foul drain a beauty!! :lol: There was no SW drain at the back of the house you see as it was a new build and all the house roof guttering downpipes were all at the front. The river Almond was 150yds away and all the SW drains went straight in there. The buildings inspector allowed the water from the roof of the 3x3 metre conservatory into foul as the alternative was extend SW drains all the way up the driveway to the back of the house, but you can imagine why I kept the rest hidden and covered over when he came to inspect it ;-)