Installing drain in garage?

[Matt_L]

How hard would it be to install a drain in my garage so I can wash indoors?

[Twista616]

hard...assuming your garage is concrete...your going to have to tear everything up...install the drain/s, then repour the concrete and make sure it slopes to the drain...total cost...alot, its very labor intensive!

[Matt_L]

Yea thought so. Any other options? One irritating thing is water pools in the middle (off center) of the garage from melted snow, drippage, etc. I thought if I could solve that problem and wash inside it would be great.

[imported_ZimRandy]

Don`t forget to consider whether or not the local city or county will even allow drains. In some areas, garage drains are not allowed.



Drains after the fact aren`t real functional, as the slab needs to have the proper grade to allow the water to run towards it. If the slab is flat, then you will still have to push all of the water to the drain with a squeegee.



Try one of the high end squeegees that are made from a folded over `foam`, not the hard rubber style and push it out the door.



Randy

[Domas]

I have a drain in garage, did it myself. I don`t wash in garage, but it helps a lot when you park the car from heavy rain or snow.

[imported_Picus]

A few things I learned having just done this. First, it can be a pain depending on your garage. Second, it can be an even bigger pain depending on your city. The permit for a garage drain into the storm sewers here is $1600. You can run an ABS drain without tearing up all the concrete, but you`ll need to find the storm sewer and map out the most efficient route to it; tear up where the drain will be, tear where the sewer is, run the ABS, connect...and if you`re lucky and have a straight shot you`re done. I was lucky, the storm sewer runs under my garage.



On the grading, if you have better than 4" of concrete you can cut a scupper to the drain, which is essentially a little trough that runs at a 3-5 degree slope to the drain, so even if you don`t have a graded pad it`ll drain properly.



Another, way less expensive option is to do the scupper thing minus the drain. I`ve seen a lot of people put two long 2 inch wide by ~1" deep troughs the length of the garage; grade them toward the door and it will carry water out. The only issue there is when you get to the door you have to put the water somewhere where it won`t freeze or run a tracer line.

[Domas]

Couldn`t you connect the drain to the sewerage? (the same you dump water from sinks, toilets, showers).

[Matt_L]

Thanks good info.



BTW how long does it take for a post to show up in the car detailing forum? I posted a while ago and still not showing.

[imported_ZimRandy]

Couldn`t you connect the drain to the sewerage? (the same you dump water from sinks, toilets, showers).

That is the sticky part for many cities. They don`t want oil, antifreeze, etc. going into the municipal sewer system. They may even want expensive grease or fire traps, too.



For my shop, all the inspector wanted to see was the "drain to air", meaning they want to see the outlet above ground. After the final inspection, most people just bury it into a hole filled with pea gravel like a drain field. (I`m in a pretty rural area!)



Randy

[Mobilejay]

I don`t have a drain in my garage and I wash my car in there all the time just to get out of the sun. Just use ONR and your fine, no need to spend the money on a drain.

[jsantoro]

No drain either but wash regularly in the garage all year long. What I did was pick up the roll out floor covering. The original Parking Pad® garage flooring mat — Rib-Channel Surface This works GREAT to channel everything out the door including salt, rain, etc.. I actually picked it up at Sam`s club for $140/roll. Used three rolls total and was able to cover the main part of the floor wall to wall. It was about 6` short but doesn`t matter as that is where my workbench and a few other things go. Simply roll it out, cut it to fit and that`s all. It`s not perfect but does the job quite nicely and looks much better than the bare concrete. Good cheap solution!!

[imported_Picus]

Couldn`t you connect the drain to the sewerage? (the same you dump water from sinks, toilets, showers).

As mentioned above, in most non-rural places the city tries to have strict control over what enters the sewer system. Of course you could dump oil down your sink drain, but the idea is that you`re generally not going to. Putting a drain to the city sewers in the garage is pretty much (to the city) a guarantee that you`ll be putting chemicals into the system. Storm sewers are normally a better option anyway, at least around here they are much easier to connect to.



Another option would be to add a weeping tile to the outside of the garage, then connect to that.

[Domas]

Well, I live in a country, and I`ve just connected my garage drain to the house`s sewerage (sinks, showers, etc.), don`t know anything about laws, but I think you better dump detailing chemicals to the sewerage, where it gets cleaned/filtered later, than dump it to the storm drain, where it ends up in rivers uncleaned.

[eddie926]

+1 for washing in the garage with Optimum No Rinse. I do that frequently and it doesn`t get all that much water on the floor. Whatever`s left, I squeegee out the door with a floor squeegee that I got at Home Depot. Works great. Doesn`t require a drain.



If you were planning to do conventional washes in the garage, you have more than the drain to think about. You`ll also need to think about waterproofing all the stuff that could get wet from spraying a hose in the garage.

[Setec Astronomy]

Storm sewers are normally a better option anyway, at least around here they are much easier to connect to.



Another option would be to add a weeping tile to the outside of the garage, then connect to that.

It`s the opposite around here...NOTHING can go into the storm drains, they are even trying to control the leaves, because the storm drains go right to the rivers. In the sanitary you are allowed a lot more because it goes to the treatment plant, but they really try to limit what you are putting in there, as you noted.



A weeping tile? What the heck is that? Actually, I can imagine what it is...wouldn`t that freeze right up in winter?