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How to prevent rain water from pooling and entering garage?

shramika
Finding My Feet

How to prevent rain water from pooling and entering garage?

Hello Lovely People ! 

My second post and need some life saving advice 😀 I recently renovated the side and back yard of my house. I decided to put a concrete all around my house. On one of the side yards, the space is pretty much covered with concrete slab along with pebble stones. 

The sad part is , when it rains heavily I see that the rain water collects on the concrete slabs and it’s slowly seeping into my garage . 
This was informed to the squad which renovated my house while they were working . 
As a remedy they installed some black pipe with a small hole which can collect the rain water from side yard and flush in our backyard grass ! This idea didn’t seem to work well with heavy rains . I see that the water is now collecting on the concrete .

 

I am not looking to do any DIY to fix this , but any suggestions on what can be done to fix this asap ? Should I call a plumber or some building structural team ? I don’t know the term but is there a DIY which is advised ? I’m looking for more of a permanent quality solution even if I have to invade the concrete slab .. please need real bad help ! 

 

Thanks in advance 

 

 

attaching the pics 

130FB800-5CFE-4CB4-B54C-C85F996ECDE1.jpeg

85403538-E0E0-4C6D-9F21-849EBF6DE3B9.jpeg

Akanksha
Retired Team Member
Retired Team Member

Re: How to prevent rain water from pooling and entering garage?

Sorry to hear about your rainwater issue, @shramika

 

It's been a busy time on the site and our resident Bunnings D.I.Y. expert @MitchellMc will be happy to provide some advice as soon as he can. 

 

Let me also tag our ever-helpful members @Jewelleryrescue@Tyro@CSParnell and @TedBear to see if they have any thoughts in the meantime. 

 

Akanksha

 

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CSParnell
Amassing an Audience

Re: How to prevent rain water from pooling and entering garage?

@shramika @Akanksha that's a shame they didn't check the levels on setup or mis judged them.

The only suggestion I have which is not an easy fix by any means is to cut a box drain along the door of the Garage, put a pit drain in the left hand corner to flow it into and maybe out besides your garage so you don't have to cut the concrete all the way back to the grass to put a drain pipe in? 

 

You may get away with just a box drain but if it was me I would put a box drain in front of that door so I would not get water flowing under the door.

Else a bloody good water tight door seal but water being water it always finds its way to the lowest point.

 

Hope that sparks some ideas I'm sure others will have some good ideas as well that's the beauty about this forum:) 

Jewelleryrescue
Kind of a Big Deal

Re: How to prevent rain water from pooling and entering garage?

Hi @shramika

 

You say they installed the plastic Pipe in  photo ?  Its just sitting there maybe they came back.

 

That plastic hose  should be dug in  at a minimum level  at or below with the path and as the water wants to flow past the building away from camera   point of  view,the pipe  with slots should run besides  the building under that little fence infill and past it further down hill.

Plan B

I would make a  concrete bump in front of the door (assuming it swings inwards) Shaped like a speed hump high  enough to divert water to the side strip near fence.  I made one  under a color bond gate to stop my cats being pestered by other cats simple to do.

Dave-1
Home Improvement Guru

Re: How to prevent rain water from pooling and entering garage?

Afternoon @shramika 

Ouch 😕 Water issues always cause headaches. Feeling your pain.

A few questions of course :smile:

Do you have a photo of the area without water over it? 

What is under the white bebbles? 

Does the concrete slab slope away from the house/garage?

Does the white pebbles run the length of the house?

 

Without seeing a photo Im already thinking of installing a dish drain instead of the pebbles. Remove them and replace with a drain like @CSParnell has mentioned but the length of the low point or the whole path even so as to accomodate the storm instances. The black pipe has holes along its length? Its more for draining a area that may be waterlogged but not for storm instances 😕

 

You may be able to find a stormwater pipe that you can attach the drain to. Just make sure it isnt a sewage pipe/inspection point is all.

 

Dave

CSParnell
Amassing an Audience

Re: How to prevent rain water from pooling and entering garage?

100% agree

TedBear
Kind of a Big Deal

Re: How to prevent rain water from pooling and entering garage?

Hi @shramika , if that's the solution offered by your outdoor renovators, I'd suggest never using them again.

I think the best solution for this situation would be to remove some of the slabs in the middle of the area (or any convenient place away from the house walls and fence) and install a soakwell, with its top about 250mm below the surface. A small one should do that area. It will have a slab as a top, some dirt over that, then your original slabs will sit back over that at ground level.  You would install a grate to sit in the lowest area and feed that into the soakwell with a suitable sized pipe (to match the inlet holes in the grate and soakwell sides).

You could also add a grate at the doorway, just to be sure that any water that gets near that is disposed of.

(Don't add the grate directly over the soakwell as this will compromise the strength of the top and could cause a fall-in. That approach is only for large, commercially made, concrete soakwells.)

Trying to get rid of water from a hard surface using a slotted pipe is not a sensible approach (but you now know this of course).

If you are not doing this yourself then whoever is, will know what I mean and why. If they don't, get someone else.   

(I have used this setup in my own paved courtyard for years & no more water in the garage.)

MitchellMc
Bunnings Team Member
Bunnings Team Member

Re: How to prevent rain water from pooling and entering garage?

Hi @shramika,

 

From where the water has settled, it appears that at least the concrete slopes away from the house. I'm not sure if you have really clay-based soil or if something on the other side of the house is preventing water from draining away. I feel the best approach would be to first install a box drain next to the path, as illustrated by the blue rectangle below. This should capture the water and resolve the issue. The box drain must then be connected to your stormwater. If that doesn't resolve the issue, but I believe it will, cut the concrete across the front of the doorway and install another box drain there as illustrated with the green rectangle.

 

Another option that will most likely work is to install a drain pit in the corner marked with the yellow star. This appears to be the lowest point, and if the water is collected from there it won't build up and flood the area.

 

Please let us know if you have any questions.

 

Mitchell

 

 

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