Garage Drain/Sump with Heated Slab - Is It Necessary??
 

Would a person need a sump/drain in a garage with a heated slab and radiant heat??

Vehicle runoff in winter in the concern. Don't want water pooling everywhere. Vehicles will not be washed inside.

I've heard conflicting ideas that it's just not necessary - having a heated pad and a heated building the water will just evaporate quickly. True??

Plan on running a de-humidifier and building will have an exhaust fan, so shouldn't run into humidity problems.

Thoughts?? Interested in hearing from those that have a heated slab (in addition to either radiant heat or forced air).

Do I need a sump ?? Thanks AO.

Personally I wouldn't put a slab in without a drain. Hate to kick yourself for not doing it afterwards.

your drain wont cost a lot If your doing those other renos. It would be silly not to spend the extra $1000 on the drain.

The drain in my garage is my favorite feature. I wouldn’t want a garage without it. In my experience, no the water won’t evaporate as fast as you bring it in.

If you're heating the slab and using a condensing boiler to do so you're going to need a drain for that because the boiler will produce exhaust condensate that needs to go somewhere. Of course this depends on your selection of heat source but I'd not build without a floor drain and sewer.

It’s a must even with no heat you will get lots of the vehicles, I have a drain and no heat she need to be emptied very couple of weeks, I use pail and toss outside

I can’t imagine how big a nuisance it would be to park in the garage within no drain.

I think you’d regret that choice

I have no drain in my 40x50.
My garage is always heated to 18c.
If there is water laying I put it out with a floor squeegee.
No issues at all in 13 years. Not a single crack anywhere.
Not required.

Of course it isn't necessary, lots of garages don't have drains.

My garage is heated and I have no drain. The snow melts off the car and pools. I bought those giant mats that you can drive your car onto and they collect the water. Every couple of days I shopvac an entire vac full of water and have to dump it.

I wish I had a floor drain instead.

Yup. Mines only 24' x 24' but this is all I do.

100% do the drain. I have a radiant tube, which is great but after a day of winter driving there’ll be gallons of water on the floor. Needs to be squeegeed every single day, and extremely annoying if you want to work in there or do something like an oil change.

Lights aren't necessary either....but a pretty nice option to have.

Neither is a toilet and hot water.
I wish I had done that in hindsight.
And attic trusses, having another 40x50 storage space would have been incredible.

Infloor Heat
 

I have a 4 bay garage +/- 2100 sq/ft

All in floor radiant

Drain in each bay goes out side to the bush (I live in the country)

Automatic fan is good

Just washed floors today

With out a drain where is it going to go??(Squeegee on to your pad??)

I put an electric tape in the portion of the drain that freezes

Plug in the heat tape when ever starts backing up or if I am going to wash floor

You do understand an exhaust fan is a huge cost. It pumps all your warm air out. Why not shut your heat off and leave doors open. (Sarcasm) . Heated slab you def want either a floor drain or a well sloped floor.

Right, cause lots of garages don't have lights.

None of my garages have had drains. Guess I don't know what I'm missing. Snow melts, water evaporates, floor is swept.

For sure. I have floor drain, sump, toilet and hot water. Could never go without now. My last shop I built I did a floor drain but no water or sewer. Life lessons. Nice to pass those lessons on to someone building now

Floor drain comes in pretty handy when you have an animal hanging off the front end loader and doing cleanup with the hose

Ever hear of a heat recovery ventilator? They're an excellent option for such circumstances, its a heat exchange process that heats the incoming air with the outgoing exhaust.

If your building in red deer you’ll have the sump run into the storm drain. I don’t ever have to pump mine out, there’s about a 1m deep trap for solids I have to shovel out once a year (or so) but the fluid just runs out the 3” pipe and I never have to think about it.
I suggest hot and cold water on the garage too.

Thanks for the input fellas.

Floor drain it is.

So let's talk sumps/pits, whatever.

What are you guys using?? They just drain outside on the ground, or into the city's storm drainage ???

How big of a sump would one need ??

Something like this would be ideal, no ?? Build to suit.

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-other-servic...ationFlag=true

This is on an acerage so not 100% on the legalities & technicalities of what I'm allowed to do with the sump/drain setup in RD County.

Cheers.

I would run a trench drain piped over to a dry well if you're rural. Its just going to be seeing snow and ice melting off your vehicle which would be going into the ground anyways. Of course if your MD requires otherwise I would follow that requirement. I like the epoxy or polyaspartic floor coatings for a nice finish if you're going to get fancy.

A dry well is essentially a hole dug deep and wide and filled with gravel, then some landscape cloth and 12"+ of soil above it to conceal it. One could handle runoff from ice and snow melting off a vehicle.


https://www.zurn.com/products/trench...r-trench-drain

At the farm is a 32x32 shop with infloor heating. No floor drain and it’s just fine, water evaporates and soaks into the concrete fast. When we finish cleaning game with the hose. We squeegee the water out the man door, we don’t mind the little ice it makes. We only drive in and out the big door. I’m sure a sump or drain would help but having concrete soak in water for years after only makes it stronger. No cracks in the shop slab, except one side at the door dips lower then the rest from the tractor in or out, but no cracks.

I have a 26x26 heated garage with a slab I did wish I had a drain even if it was a plastic 45gal drum and let the water collect in there and then once in a while pump it out. I also did wish that the slab would drain toward the middle instead of to one corner underneath the work bench.


Now what I do is I squeegee the water out the door. it works but the water still seeps to one corner.

I have a drain in my garage floor with out any floor heat.
I find just driving in the city you bring into the garage snow and salt they but on the roads .So the water in the drain never freezes because of the salt .

They have sloped floors, so the water runs towards the door.

Grizz

And freezes it shut....

Hasn't happened yet. I do run forced air though so the water doesn't stick around for long.

Have had garages with no drain, some sloped properly towards the door, others not well sloped at all. I have used the floor matts to control water and they do work.

Also have had garages with various drain systems. Would never build a garage that did not have a drain and properly sloped floors. Preference is for drain that goes to storm sewer or drains out to a dry well but even if it went to a barrel that had to be pumped, some sort of drain is WAY better than no drain.

The door freezing shut does not happen to everyone, but I've seen it so I know to plan for its prevention....