– to keep rain from running under my garage door into the garage.
Moved into late-70’s ‘kit-built’ (I believe, looking at some of its curious construction detailing) house about two years back. Looks like fill under garage slab wasn’t compacted much (if at all!) so slab has cracked & settled some with one section sloping towards house to the south. Add to that the fact that the slab extends about 5 or 6″ in front of the garage door, when it rains & wind blows from the east (like right now) I get water under door & pooling in garage. Nuisance mostly.
I added wood shim (cedar, ripped to taper) to door edge soon after moving in then installed hardware store door seal for better air sealing but water’s the recurring issue.
Anybody ever seen a wide enough metal or plastic ‘drip edge’ kinda z-shaped product or fabrication installed in a situation like this? My thinking is if I can find or make something properly shaped to secure to outside bottom edge of door, that extends out over edge of slab an inch or so, rain wouldn’t tend to run in nearly as bad.
If I can improves things 75% or more I’ll be happy.
Replies
You could possibly get the slab "mud jacked" to level it out. Or simply grind down the exposed slab edge so it slopes away.
No Easy Fix
Water flows downhill. Period.
Your only real solution is to rip up the garage apron and have it re-poured ... sloping AWAY from the house. Since you mention that the slab has settled, you MIGHT be able to simply pour some more concrete atop the old one, to the same end: making the floor uphill of the opening.
Well, OK, there's a less satisfactory approach - install a gutter and drain within the garage to pipe the leakage away.
I would try a rubber garage threshold first. Easy to apply and will direct the water away from the door.
Something like this: Sensible-Solutions-3016-16-Foot-Threshold Other brands and styles avaialable as well. Usually available at a big box store
Also, if there is room, grinding a slope on the outside edge of the pad would help.
Thanks All!
Given me some options.
Reno, as thorough as your suggestions are, they ain't gonna happen on my budget. Unless maybe I win a lottery soon.
Cat I was unaware such a product existed! Need to suss out how it'd stand up to being driven across over time but looks good at first glance.
Grinding a slope in slab's outside edge I can do, maybe once seasons change & it dries out some. That I'd not consided either as there's not much drop between it and the concrete driveway out front put in 5/14. Before that I had asphalt-over-clay lunar landscape to contend with 24/7/365.
$13.99 will buy you a 7"
$13.99 will buy you a 7" diamond blade at harbor freight, good enough to cut 2-1/2" deep twice across a 16 ft concrete drive. Dribble gardenhose onto blade path while cutting, use a double insulated sidewinder.
One cut 1" out from garage door, 2nd cut anothe foot away. Cutting rate is about 4 to 10 inches per minute depending on what the aggregate was. 10"/min for limestone, 4" for granite type aggregate. Use LOTS of forward pressure on the saw. Bust out between the saw cuts with sledge. 8# sledge about best if you are 200# or more, 6# if you are lighter or make your kids bust it out - wear goggles obviously.
A few $1 split bags of conc mix at the big box and pour yourself a trough in front of the garage and drain to wherever is downhill or to a downsput drain.
Now go to the scrap yard and buy some steel grating for the top of th trough - eiterh leave a concrete lip inside for the steel to rest on or have 1/4" ears overlap drive.
Total outlay - couple of hours and under $40 total.