The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Do it Yourself Discussion! => Topic started by: emaren on October 31, 2013, 08:23:58 AM
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When it rains, one side of my garage floods. If it's just a light rain, it doesn't happen, but a steady or hard rain will do it because the water doesn't have time to drain off without branching out to low spots. The covered walkway next to it isn't wet and the planting area between the walkaway and next to the flooded area also isn't wet. So the water is coming in from the garage door area in the spacing cracks in the concrete. So I realize that side of the garage has probably sunk a bit and the main problem is that it's now lower than the concrete outside the garage, but it's pretty expensive to get the house jacked up and I can't do that myself.
Have any of you had any success filling the spacing cracks with anything to keep water from flowing in them? If so what did you use?
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A recent episode of Ask this Old House addresses this issue. Available free on PBS.org. Basically involves putting a drain in between the garage and driveway. A somewhat big project DIY project but possible if you are handy.
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Can you just pour some new concrete to bring the sunken section back up to grade?
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I'll google that pbs episode. Pouring new concrete is possible, but not a do it yourself option for me.
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Would it be possible to cut a channel in the concrete across the garage door to lead the water away? Or insert a French drain across the doorway? It is normally easier to help water on its way than try to block its movement.
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The drain is something I definitely am going to price out as I think that is ideal. After I figured out how to word the problem in google, lots of things popped up. People have had success with drains and speed bump type blocks. I just have to price it out to see what will work best for me now. Although a speed bump might be annoying it will likely be do it yourself as opposed to the drain.
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I'm not sure you need to rule out DIY drainage. Would it not be possible to hire the kit to cut the slot in the concrete? After that it is probably just manual labour.