Water coming thru garage door and puddling. How to fix?

[Neilk]

Hi,

Every time it rains, which has been A LOT lately, water will run under my garage door and puddle in the corner. It's obvious that the corner is a low spot in my garage. The guys at Home Depot sold me 2 bags of concrete and said to pour it over the affected area and even it out so water won't puddle.

Any other suggestions? I was also thinking about putting some in front of the garage door and sloping the concrete away from the door. The water apparently only comes through the right side of the garage.

Any tips welcome.

Thanks,
Neil

[gr8fl4porsche]

I am going thru the same issue right now. Add in a black Targa and that could be my garage. The problem is water flow. Water is flowing towards the door. Only real fix is to add a trench drain in front of the door opening to catch the water before it gets to the door.

This is not an easy or cheap project. Requires saw cutting out a section of concrete, trenching, installing a drain system which needs to connect to some other drainage system, and then pouring concete.

[masraum]

Maybe adding a small lip of concrete just inside the door, sort of like a really tiny speed bump. That should keep the water from flowing into the garage.

[Neilk]

Randy,

Thanks for the reply. Fortunately the garage is about 1"+ higher than the driveway. Unfortunately, a small part of 4" area just in front of the garage door is angled so water flows into the garage instead of out of it.

[masraum]

Like this.



Outside the door would funnel more into the garage, but inside should sort of seal it out. Or even a small one directly under the door would probably work.

[M.D. Holloway]

sandbags

[75'930cab]

Originally posted by masraum
Like this.



Outside the door would funnel more into the garage, but inside should sort of seal it out. Or even a small one directly under the door would probably work.

You can do that but use asphalt if you don't mind the look. You can buy asphalt in bags at all of the big hardware stores and it's very easy with no mixing.

[Moneyguy1]

Does your garage have gutters?

[Aerkuld]

I seem to remember that my father did something similar to masraum's suggestion in our garage in the UK but used a long strip of wood, or aluminum to go across the width of the door and screwed it to the floor. It doesn't need much just to stop the water.

[javadog]

Aerkuld has the answer. Use a piece of aluminum, say 1/4" by 2", the full width of the garage door. The thickness of the aluminum piece is related to how low the concrete is where the water is coming through. Obviously, the lower the concrete, the thicker the aluminum needs to be. Cut it to fit tight on both ends. Pre-drill both the aluminum and the concrete for countersunk-head tap-con screws. Put a continuous bead of a good quality caulk or sealer underneath it when you screw it down. Make sure there is another bead of caulk on the outside and along the sides. I'd center it under the door.

JR

[MBAtarga]

Depending on how much height you're trying to make up for, this is your solution.

Garage Door Threshold

[Porsche-O-Phile]

The "correct" solution (but also very expensive) is to re-grade the front of the garage so it slopes away at a minimum of 1/8" per foot. The cause of this can be anything from crappy residential contracting to settling on the other side of the building to winter heaving (due to footing being placed too shallow - probably not in your climate however) to seismic activity.

I'll assume for a moment that busting up part of your slab, excavating around the front of your garage with a backhoe and pouring/doweling a new slab isn't an option here, so based on that I'd recommend one of the strips mentioned above, with a neoprene or rubber seal on the bottom of the garage door. That will probably eliminate MOST of your problems. If you use a rubber strip, make sure the ends are sealed up well (where it buts up against the door jamb), otherwise you'll just create a dam with big infiltration points at the edges and rot out your door jamb. Good luck.

Edit:

Alternatively, you might eventually look at installing a small trench drain in front of the door - it would still be a little bit of money since you'd have to install it, patch and trench for the drain pipe, and connect to something underground. It would also depend on how close that location is to a sewer line, but it would permanently solve the problem for you. Just another thought.

[Aerkuld]

Originally posted by Porsche-O-Phile
The "correct" solution (but also very expensive) is to re-grade the front of the garage so it slopes away at a minimum of 1/8" per foot...

I was going to suggest raising the back of the garage so it slopes down hill but then though that attaching something across the floor just inside the door was easier.
The Garage Door Threshold looks like the commercial version of my father's remedy.