Wet floors can be very disturbing, especially in areas we frequent, such as commercial garages. Even in your attached garages, the wet garage floors can be detrimental and may cause significant injuries to you and your family members.
As a result, your garage should always be habitable, ensuring its floor is clean and dry. However, what if you have just moved into a new home with an existing garage that does not allow all the water to run out? This could be a significant turning point, especially if the builder assured you of the contrary.
Never worry. Floor drains are handy and would solve your ingrained concern. You can install a floor drain to help keep your garage floor surface dry. You can install the floor drains during the initial construction, or if you overlooked the drains or getting into a new home with no drains, you can fix them on pre-existing concrete as long as you don’t interfere with the structural strength of the premises.
Can I put a floor drain in my garage? Yes. This would be a no-brainer if you can pull it off when your garage floor holds water on its surface, as it reduces the risks of slips and protects the floors from damage due to a humid environment.
Stay tuned to learn how to effectively go about the process of putting a floor drain in your garage.
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Can I put a floor drain in my garage?
Yes. The surest and most effective way to channel water from your garage is through the drain. You can have the drain installed during construction, or if you missed it, you could still have your floor re-designed to accommodate the drain. You can let the drain follow a runoff outside or attach it to an existing sewer line. However, retrofitting should be done in conformity with the regulations of the relevant authority.
How to install a floor drain in your garage
Depending on your floor size and the depth of your pocket, it will be easy to choose between the two most common drain types in the market: the trench drain system and the slot drain system. The former is cheaper and easy to install but also comes with its share of challenges.
Let us say you choose the slot drain system as an improvement of the trench drain with essential gains in terms of safety, maintenance, and ease of cleaning.
The process of installing a slot drain system can be simplified in six primary steps if you are constricting a new drain system and four when building the drain in an existing system.
In both cases, you will have to use the same tools.
Tools that will needed during the construction of slot drain
*Duct tape
*Rubber mallet
*Silicon sealant
*Measuring tape
*Chipping equipment
Procedure for fixing floor drain in a garage during construction.
Step 1: Site preparation
In this stage, you need to identify the most suitable location for the drain. Digging a wide trench could be tiresome, but with the help of a chipping machine, you should excavate a trench wide enough to allow room beneath the drain and its sides. Lastly, in preparation, you should also install drain channels in continuous trenches bedded on a concrete foundation.
Step 2:Pipe connections
You are required to connect drain channels and drain pits at this level. You must ensure that pit walls are reinforced to avoid side wall collapse, and the reinforcement is dependent on the amount of liquid you intend to collect. The more liquid, the stronger the support should be.
Step 3: Drain Connections
After installing the drain pit in the trenches, you need to assemble the flange of the deepest section of the drain channel and the drain pit. Assembling should be done using silicon sealant to avoid leakages. You also need to ensure that all the remaining drain sections are bolted using the flanges.
Step 4: Final preparations
Strictly ensure that you cover all the slot opening in the setup using duct tape. By doing this, you guarantee that there will be no spillage into the drain during concrete pouring; this will also save you future maintenance costs concerning unblocking the system.
Step 5: Concrete pouring
This is the most critical stage in the whole process, and you should do it with great care. Concrete spillage into the system would cause blockage; ensure this does not happen. The best way to do this is in two stages: first, you need to slur the concrete to secure the drain body. After setting in, you can pour the second batch up to the desired slab level. Ensure the use of a pencil vibrator to assist in the removal of air voids.
Step 6: Final step
After the complete set of concrete, you are now able to remove the duct tape, ensuring a continuous open slot; this is the drain passage.
At this point, you have now installed a floor drain in your garage during the construction process.
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What if you overlooked this during the initial plan and only realized later that you need one in your garage? No worries. The retrofitting process is much simpler, just like a new installation. The only procedure added to retrofitting is identifying the suitable location.
For retrofitting, you must identify an area where water pools naturally. This represents the spot where you will locate the drain.
Upon determining your drain spot, always the low point in your garage floor, establish whether you will connect the drain to your building’s sewer line. Various municipalities do not encourage this practice, so you must first consult with the relevant authorities beforehand.
You should mark the drain and cut that marked area. The excavation in this process could be exhaustive, as it is done on pre-existing concrete, which is why you will need an extra workforce or a machine. The rest of the stages remain the same, as discussed earlier.
The Purpose of Floor Drain
So what is the purpose of a floor drain? You might be wondering why to go through all the trouble in putting up a floor drain, be rest assured the best way to maintain your garage and avoid future expenses is by having a floor drain.
If you live in areas holding excess water, floor drains will be important in preventing excessive rainwater from penetrating through the cracks and causing structural problems, helping preserve your garage floor’s integrity. The water on your garage floor can cause massive foundation problems, forcing you into unplanned repairs. With proper drainage, you can avoid standing water on your garage floors and issues with your foundation for a long time. Though drains installations can be expensive but structural repairs would cost you more.
The floor drains are essential for automotive protection in your garage space as they help eliminate the excess chemicals and water in your garage floors that can corrode your car parts. As a result, the drains prevent puddling chemicals. Besides, the risk of slipping in the garage is also eliminated.
Excess water on the floor can offer a breeding ground for mosquitoes, leading to sickness. You would not want to spend money and time in the hospital for something you would have avoided.
Challenges of installing a floor drain
Nothing comes without challenges, floor drain has its own, but this should not discourage you from having one. All the challenges you will experience with floor drains have simple solutions.
One of the primary challenges you will likely experience with the floor drains is clogging and blockages. This can happen due to debris from the vehicle’s tires or the driver’s shoes. To avoid further problems, you need to sort this out immediately. You can do this by using a spinning blade to cut through.
The second problem associated with the floor drain is the foul smell from the drain line. This odor smell is mainly caused by ignoring blockage; thus, the smell is caused by clogging, which is why you should ensure periodic system maintenance. The outside sewer backups can be nasty, especially when the drain is not done correctly and the sewer flows back through your system to the garage. In this case, you will need the assistance of relevant authorities and professionals to offer a solution.
Can I put a floor drain in my garage? Frequently asked Questions
Can you add a drain to the existing concrete?
Yes, it is possible to add a drain to existing concrete; all you need is to identify the appropriate location, mark according to your desired size of the gutter and excavate. While doing this, consider not interfering with the existing structural strength.
How do I get rid of water in my garage?
Stuck water in your garage can be messy and can pose a danger to you and your family members; that is why it should get you worried. Constructing a floor drain helps in solving this problem. It would help if you always considered having a floor drain to channel water out.
Why does my garage floor get wet when it rains?
Clay soil has the poorest drainage, and water clogs the ground for some time whenever it rains in such places, which might dampen the floor. To avoid this, you can consider using quality mortar cement during construction, or you can as well incorporate the use of the Damp Proof Course (D.P.C).
How much does it cost to install a garage floor drain?
The cost of installing a garage floor drain may vary depending on the drain type, the floor’s size, and the quality of the material used. Therefore it is reasonable to compare prices from various sales outlets and also about your location.
The video below shows how to fix a garage floor drainage
Conclusion
Should I put a floor drain in my garage? Yes. Floor drains protect your automobiles from damage by stagnant water or chemicals on the floor surface, unable to move due to poor drainage. The drains also remove excess water from the sewer lines, preventing the unprecedented slips that can cause injuries to you and your visitors to the garage. The stagnant water can also form insect breeding sites that can translate to diseases.
As a result, you need to consider floor drain during your garage construction as this would save you future unnecessary costs due to structural maintenance. Nonetheless, if you might have overlooked this during the building, you can still be able to install the floor drain.
Always ensure your garage is non-hazardous by clearing the floor free of water and removing unnecessary tools and equipment.