Whose idea was it......

[bigtiller]

....to plumb the garage floor drain into the basement sump pump? I never did understand that. Gasses heaver than air and dangerous liquids have a direct route into the basement where the burners on the furnace and water heater can ignite them. But the bigger reason for this thread is our house smells like a hot pepper canning factory.

A glass gallon jar of jalapeno peppers was dropped beside the garage floor drain and some of the liquid went down the drain. Luckily, we have hot water plumbed into the garage and it was rinsed out, but it lingers.

So why is it common practice to plumb it this way?

 

[aczlan]

Cheaper to build than a separate drywell?

Aaron Z

 

[MossRoad]

I haven't seen a garage floor drain in new home construction in decades and the few old ones that I have seen were drained to the outside. Nowadays, around here at least, they slant the floor down to the overhead door and a small rim around the edges to direct liquid away from the walls. Any water or snow melt off the car drains towards the overhead door. I'm surprised they'd plumb a garage floor drain into a house with the possibility of bringing gasoline inside. Doesn't sound right.

 

[bigtiller]

I haven't seen a garage floor drain in new home construction in decades and the few old ones that I have seen were drained to the outside. Nowadays, around here at least, they slant the floor down to the overhead door and a small rim around the edges to direct liquid away from the walls. Any water or snow melt off the car drains towards the overhead door. I'm surprised they'd plumb a garage floor drain into a house with the possibility of bringing gasoline inside. Doesn't sound right.

I have heard of, but never seen one like yours. Doesn't the door freeze down to the floor?

 

[stuckmotor]

Bigtiller,
Are you sure it's common practice or did the builder have a brain fart?

 

[bigtiller]

Bigtiller,
Are you sure it's common practice or did the builder have a brain fart?

To clarify, I'm talking about and attached garage. Unattached garages drain to a dry-well or open air. They have been building them like this for a long time..... as i said earlier, I've never seen or heard it done any other way in this part of the country.

 

[k0ua]

To clarify, I'm talking about and attached garage. Unattached garages drain to a dry-well or open air. They have been building them like this for a long time..... as i said earlier, I've never seen or heard it done any other way in this part of the country.

It may be in your part of the world, with very low temps they ARE afraid of the drain freezing up. In the garages I have owned, the drain went outside, and in my present house/garage, it is built like Moss said, Just a 2 inch concrete lip all the way around keeps any slush off of the drywall, and it tilts to the outside door which is sunken about 2 inches. We don't seem to have freezing problems, but we are a heck of a lot warmer than Iowa.

 

[MossRoad]

I have heard of, but never seen one like yours. Doesn't the door freeze down to the floor?

Never has. On cold days the snow doesn't melt off the car. On warm days, the snow melts and the water runs out the door. Also, on warm days, if there's a particularly large amount of chunks from the wheel wells, for example, we'll just scoop em up with the snow shovel and toss them outside into the snow bank.

 

[stuckmotor]

To clarify, I'm talking about and attached garage. Unattached garages drain to a dry-well or open air. They have been building them like this for a long time..... as i said earlier, I've never seen or heard it done any other way in this part of the country.

I see now. This must be a cold climate thing. Down here foundations don't have to be very deep and people seldom have basements.

 

[bigtiller]

Never has. On cold days the snow doesn't melt off the car. On warm days, the snow melts and the water runs out the door. Also, on warm days, if there's a particularly large amount of chunks from the wheel wells, for example, we'll just scoop em up with the snow shovel and toss them outside into the snow bank.

I don't know what the difference could be. I see we are at about the same latitude so the weather should be about the same.