Barndominium/Shop or "real" House?

[Carl_NH]

It's nice to be able to wash salt off vehicles in winter, and if your cleaning motors or oily equipment a separator in one bay drain would be a good idea.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

It's smart to take lots of pictures of what you are doing. It seems like it would be easy to remember where everything is, but in ten years, those pictures will be priceless!!!

Agreed! I am almost a year and a half post build and I have used my pictures and videos more times than I can count.

 

[ETD66SS]

The ditches sure dried out nicely. It's smart to take lots of pictures of what you are doing. It seems like it would be easy to remember where everything is, but in ten years, those pictures will be priceless!!!

I have a pretty big library of pictures from the day I bought this property 22 years ago until now. There are quite a few things I wish I had more pictures of, especially from the years I didn't have a smart phone.

 

[LouNY]

I would definitely go with the floor drains, nothing like tearing the weather seal off the bottom of a door because it froze down to the concrete. I'd also go with a separator basin of some type with a removable cover not only for grease and oils but also for the sand and dirt that will accumulate and then lie in the bottom of the drain lines.
Either one for each inside or one larger one outside.

 

[WinterDeere]

I would definitely go with the floor drains, nothing like tearing the weather seal off the bottom of a door because it froze down to the concrete. I'd also go with a separator basin of some type with a removable cover not only for grease and oils but also for the sand and dirt that will accumulate and then lie in the bottom of the drain lines.
Either one for each inside or one larger one outside.

Center drains in each bay are definitely the way to go, as Lou says. But I hear that a lot of local authorities have made it damn near impossible. I know some put the drain and then concrete over it for inspection, opening it up and finishing the job after inspection.

 

[ETD66SS]

Center drains in each bay are definitely the way to go, as Lou says. But I hear that a lot of local authorities have made it damn near impossible. I know some put the drain and then concrete over it for inspection, opening it up and finishing the job after inspection.

I even contacted the soil & water conservation dept. in my county today to ask about floor drains. They said as far as they know, there are no regulations for residential, only commercial. The DEC website talks about waste water, but the min quantity is 1000 gallons per day to require a permit, and that is when the drains are connected to a city sewer system. I don't know how many years it would take for snow and ice melt off of vehicles to account for 1000 gallons. And that I don't believe is considered waste water, it's the same stuff running off the roads being collected by ditches when the snow melts...

So I feel I've done my due diligence in terms of whether or not I am allowed to have floor drains that exit to daylight.

Only thing I don't like is all the authorities I have contacted state "as far as I know"... Can't get anything in writing, but I do have emails & text messages. I see no permits for floor residential drains on the DEC website to even apply for.

I think this may be at the town inspector level if they want to make it an issue, my building inspector is not making an issue out of it.

 

[civilian]

Parking area of snowy cars, how is it heated, or not. Floor heat helps it dry out. That is what I have along with floor drains. Because each drain is for one car and one door, the floor just sloops to the drain under the car area. Back wall along the work benches is flat. Jon


Also to add, my drains flow out the building to a type of dry well. Septic stone in a pit where the drain pipe stops and critters can't get into. I do not rinse car off in garage, Adds too much moisture into building. I rinse outside in freezing weather with hot water, then put car in garage to dry. Jon

 

[WinterDeere]

Parking area of snowy cars, how is it heated, or not. Floor heat helps it dry out. That is what I have along with floor drains. Because each drain is for one car and one door, the floor just sloops to the drain under the car area. Back wall along the work benches is flat.

I have four garages, two of them being two-bay each where I park vehicles. The one with center drains has nice flat floors all the way around the perimiter, which is great for work benches or parking machinery. But the one that slopes toward the doors is terrible, as the slope from side wall to door is extreme near the doors, meaning every tool chest or workbench must be shimmed level.

Of course, you can guess which one is my primary workshop, where I'm forever doing that.

 

[ETD66SS]

It was a backbreaking day today. But got all the garage drain plumbing installed:

Even though I had the ripper on the 4610 tractor to break up the compacted stone & hard fill, there was still a lot of manual labor. Lot of pick axe and shovel work.

I'm going to be using Sioux Chief 832 4" adjustable drains.

I didn't have a ton of elevation to work with. I set the drains to be 1" below the finished floor, with another 1/2" adjustment downward if the concrete contractor want's them lower for some reason. From my research a 1" depression sloping to the drain in an ~8ft x 16ft area should be enough for ice melt off of vehicles.

 

[WinterDeere]

First time I've ever seen a subsoiler used indoors!