garage floor drain

[mondo]

I'm needing to put a drain in my garage floor, water rushes in during heavy rain. I'm considering a sandpoint type drain but am wondering what problems it might cause draining the water under the cement floor. The floor wasn't poured properly and the terrain is extremely flat around the house, don't have a lot of options. any help appreciated.

[pushkins]

I'm not sure what your reference to a "sandpoint drain" is I know what a sandpoint well is.

If your looking at drilling a hole deep into the ground and allowing it to fill with your garage water that would be akin to a dry well or a sump pit.
What is the water table like around you, is it high or low ? last thing you need is to be close to that and have it permanently fill with water.

Have you considered a drain across the water entry path that pipes water to the street, could be a simple channel drain or a french drain ?

[paul52446m]

I'm needing to put a drain in my garage floor, water rushes in during heavy rain. I'm considering a sandpoint type drain but am wondering what problems it might cause draining the water under the cement floor. The floor wasn't poured properly and the terrain is extremely flat around the house, don't have a lot of options. any help appreciated.

Don't know about where you live, but in my area a believe it is against the law to have drain that goes into the ground. They don't want oil , gas and antifreeze
going into the ground. Even if they tie to a city sewer, they have to have clean out separator built into them. Just like a com. garage. Paul

[mondo]

A sandpoint well is where the idea came from only a drain about 4 feet deep is what I planned filled with pea gravel or something similar. I hadn't considered water table but I hope at 4 feet that shouldn't be an issue. I considered a trench drain in front of the garage, but ice build up in the winter might be a problem and with the ground froze not sure in the winter it would work. would there be any issue with the foundation? The drain would only be about 3 foot from the footing. As far as regulation we're out in the middle of nowhere no regs or inspector to worry about.

[pushkins]

If freezing ground is an issue most definitely don't dig a hole inside the perimeter of the garage, also pea gravel if far too small to act as a drainage medium, just a small amount of silt will render it useless.
What is the soil in your area like, clay, sand ?

[mondo]

Judging from my garden at least 2 feet is good black dirt. I'm afraid of why, but the garage doesn't usually freeze, although I see your point if it ever did.

[pushkins]

It's not just the possible freezing that's a worry (though that is a huge one) it's the point of actually bringing water to a point under the slab/property. In all cases the best course of action is to take the water away from slab/foundations, for example downspouts directed away from foundations.
If there are no low areas where you can direct water to drain safely away to (downhill etc...) then a sump type pit is about your only option. A simple perk test of the soil is the best place to start, dig a hole 2'x2'x2' deeper the better, add a measured amount of water 5 gallons or more and time the amount of time it takes to absorb into the ground. This will give you an idea of the hole size you will need to dig to accommodate the amount of water entering your garage.
In any case the pit will need to be filled with drainage gravel.
Depending on how much water enters your garage a system like a septic system might work well, drain at garage to a buried tank connected to a simplified leak field.
How much water do you estimate you would need to cater for ?

[mondo]

Thanks for the tips, I'll probably just buy a new shop vac for now. The other options are more involved than what I can afford right now. I'm glad I checked before I started to drill.