Concrete "speed bump" for leaky garage door

L

LawKrime

New Member
Hi all,

I'm hoping to get some advice/feedback for an idea to fix a leaky garage door. I have no building experience, but I'm a fairly hands on / practical person so I'd like to give it a go.

Basically, our garage sits 6 inches or so below road level. When the rain comes down heavily or for a prolonged period, the drainage channel can't keep up, and the water washes over it and under the garage door, flooding the garage. I've considered installing a rubber door seal but for a number of reasons I am 99.9% confident it'll be a waste of time. One of which is that water will still get in through the small gaps at the bottom of the garage door tracks.

Without raising the entire garage floor level, my thinking is to try installing a kind of raised bump just under the garage door. I figure I'd find some bricks, lay them down in a single row on top of a line of concrete and "build" a kind of shallow "speed bump" up around the brick.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Any suggestions on how and with what to mix the concrete for this kind of job? It has to be solid, unlikely to crack and be able to prevent water passing when dry. It also has to be loose enough that I can get it in to the small cracks and crevs especially at the bottom of the door tracks but also workable enough that I can shape it around the brick (or other scaffold?).

Sorry if my lingo / understanding is off. Any advice would be incredibly appreciated!

Nick
 
Six inches drop is not sufficient to cause a flood unless it’s a very long drive. If you are still using the garage for parking a car, any speed bump will make parking tricky.

I Would investigate why a full width drain cannot cope. Is it partially blocked ? My other long term solution would be porous drive that will soak up the water.
 
quasar9 said:
Six inches drop is not sufficient to cause a flood unless it’s a very long drive. If you are still using the garage for parking a car, any speed bump will make parking tricky.

I Would investigate why a full width drain cannot cope. Is it partially blocked ? My other long term solution would be porous drive that will soak up the water.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your response @quasar9. To answer your questions/queries - the garage fronts directly onto a one-lane residential road (about 3ft off), so a very short if not non-existent drive. The drop is therefore relatively steep, and rainwater falling onto the road funnels directly and quickly down towards the garage door, being the lowest point. Even when the drain is not full, the water sweeps over it due to the slope. I've removed debris from the drain several times as best I could/reach, it made little difference in heavy rain. We did not install it, so I can't be sure, but from what I can see and understand I think the channel is connected directly to some kind of soakaway.

We are not using the garage to park cars, so that's not a problem. Even if we did, our cars would be fine with a shallow bump.
 
Using a permeable surface (e.g. gravel ) and free-draining sub-surface could solve the problem (you can get plastic retaining linked squares for gravel on a slope which will easily cope with a 6" fall). Any water NOT soaking into the ground would be slowed to a trickle - which your channel drain should be able to cope with.

I've also used a pump with a floatswitch sunk into the ground in a dustbin to drain the water that used to back up at my in-laws' house...which was then discharged via a pipe to a drain...
Take a look here for ideas too: https://peppershomeandgarden.com/sloping-driveway-drainage-solutions/
 
You're not allowed to discharge water from your drive onto a road so why should road water come into your drive?

A word or 3 to the council called for.
 
If you have come to the conclusion you are not able to deal with this outside your garage & you are determined to form a barrier, then use insitu concrete
Use two pieces of timber as formwork 3" or 4" high & 9" apart, fill with concrete 6:1 ballast/cement. Should stay in place better than bricks.
As for ramps each side, you don't want one permanent on the road side as that would enable the water to wash up & over.
Make yourself some short ramps for the wheels out of timber, that you can place in postion when required.
 
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stevie22 said:
You're not allowed to discharge water from your drive onto a road so why should road water come into your drive?

A word or 3 to the council called for.
Click to expand...
I agree that the council should be contacted, if it is a main road it will probably be the County or Town council, if it's a minor road the Parish council may have responsibility. If you discharge rainwater from your drive onto the highway, you are charged on the water rates or water bill. so it must follow that if you are disposing of rain water from the highway, you should be able to make a charge on the Council for it's disposal.
 
It doesn't "follow" at all!!
Your water rate assumes by default
that the water authority WILL be required to dispose of rain water from your property, via its drainage system. If you can prove that NO water from your property is disposed of into their drains, i.e all the water falling on your land is disposed of into soakaways on your land, then you can get a REDUCTION, (discount) on your water rate.There is no provision for "charging a Council, or anybody, for discharging water onto your land". No Council (Parish, Town, Borough, City, District or County) has any authority or responsibility regarding where rainwater goes or how it's disposed of.....that is exclusively the province of the Water Companies. End of story.
Now can we get back to the poster's problem, which is exactly the same as my own problem which has recently been dealt with on these Forums.
 
Granfernewtown20 said:
It doesn't "follow" at all!!
Your water rate assumes by default
that the water authority WILL be required to dispose of rain water from your property, via its drainage system. If you can prove that NO water from your property is disposed of into their drains, i.e all the water falling on your land is disposed of into soakaways on your land, then you can get a REDUCTION, (discount) on your water rate.There is no provision for "charging a Council, or anybody, for discharging water onto your land". No Council (Parish, Town, Borough, City, District or County) has any authority or responsibility regarding where rainwater goes or how it's disposed of.....that is exclusively the province of the Water Companies. End of story.
Now can we get back to the poster's problem, which is exactly the same as my own problem which has recently been dealt with on these Forums.
Click to expand...

It is a factor if there is a pavement between your driveway and the highway.
 
Granfernewtown20 said:
It doesn't "follow" at all!!
Your water rate assumes by default
that the water authority WILL be required to dispose of rain water from your property, via its drainage system. If you can prove that NO water from your property is disposed of into their drains, i.e all the water falling on your land is disposed of into soakaways on your land, then you can get a REDUCTION, (discount) on your water rate.There is no provision for "charging a Council, or anybody, for discharging water onto your land". No Council (Parish, Town, Borough, City, District or County) has any authority or responsibility regarding where rainwater goes or how it's disposed of.....that is exclusively the province of the Water Companies. End of story.
Now can we get back to the poster's problem, which is exactly the same as my own problem which has recently been dealt with on these Forums.
Click to expand...
Thank you, your description of the charging system for rainwater generated on the owners property is correct. However, this rainwater is generated off the owners property and is being funnelled onto it. It would help our OP if you outline the solution used in your issue. It's not so much the discharging of water, but the nuisance it causes. Has it always been like this or has the road surface level been built up recently to cause this issue.
 
My problem was dealt with very recently... https://community.screwfix.com/thre...oss-garage-door-aperture.265313/#post-2123192
I haven't yet implemented a cure but from extensive research online I've come to the conclusion that the internal rubber strip approach is better.
The potential leakage around the door frames and tracks can be dealt with using this system.....see the suppliers literature on this point.
The highway authority is responsible for ensuring efficient drainage of its roads under "normal" conditions, but there is no provision for charging them for water flowing onto your property unless their actions are negligent. That would be a matter for a civil court to decide. And that is why damage to your property from ingress of water from outside (including floods) should always be covered by insurance.
An addition to my previous post ... You won't get a discount if your property is higher than the outside roads and some of your surface water drains naturally onto the highway to be disposed of in road drains.
 
DBCDIY said:
Using a permeable surface (e.g. gravel ) and free-draining sub-surface could solve the problem (you can get plastic retaining linked squares for gravel on a slope which will easily cope with a 6" fall). Any water NOT soaking into the ground would be slowed to a trickle - which your channel drain should be able to cope with.

I've also used a pump with a floatswitch sunk into the ground in a dustbin to drain the water that used to back up at my in-laws' house...which was then discharged via a pipe to a drain...
Take a look here for ideas too: https://peppershomeandgarden.com/sloping-driveway-drainage-solutions/
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for the suggestions @DBCDIY, I'll have a good look and think about these other solutions. Gravel on the slope within retaining squares could be possible. The distance between the road and garage door is very narrow though, and it looks like a patch has been excavated in exactly that spot to install the channel drain and soakaway. So putting gravel there might not impact the rate of drainage at all. I've uploaded a photo which I really should have done at the start..).

There is also a telegraph pole off to the side of the garage door which means I can't go too far that way. Water could then in theory bypass the gravel and build up around the side of the garage, but tbh I don't think enough to cause further issues.

I'm not sure where the nearest drain is but because it is a private road I'm not sure there is one. At least, I haven't seen a manhole cover anywhere.
 

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Yeah, that could be possible I suppose, though as replied to @DBCDIY there is a patch excavated in that area, presumably to install the existing drain and soakaway. So a new drain at the junction would have to drain into the same soakaway, which if already saturated might not make a difference.
 
BuildingMad said:
If you have come to the conclusion you are not able to deal with this outside your garage & you are determined to form a barrier, then use insitu concrete
Use two pieces of timber as formwork 3" or 4" high & 9" apart, fill with concrete 6:1 ballast/cement. Should stay in place better than bricks.
As for ramps each side, you don't want one permanent on the road side as that would enable the water to wash up & over.
Make yourself some short ramps for the wheels out of timber, that you can place in postion when required.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot @BuildingMad, this is really clear - perfect for nervous newbie :confused:! If it ends up that the other external solutions are not viable I will be following your advice. If I'd like to add a ramp on the inside of the garage, is it reasonable to do so using the same concrete mix after the main raised portion has set?
 
LawKrime said:
Thanks a lot @BuildingMad, this is really clear - perfect for nervous newbie :confused:! If it ends up that the other external solutions are not viable I will be following your advice. If I'd like to add a ramp on the inside of the garage, is it reasonable to do so using the same concrete mix after the main raised portion has set?
Click to expand...
Not really workable below 2" thick & will eventually crack & break away below that thickness; sharp sand & cement mortar 3:1 will be more workable thinner than 2" but will probably eventually break away.
 
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Bob Rathbone said:
Thank you, your description of the charging system for rainwater generated on the owners property is correct. However, this rainwater is generated off the owners property and is being funnelled onto it. It would help our OP if you outline the solution used in your issue. It's not so much the discharging of water, but the nuisance it causes. Has it always been like this or has the road surface level been built up recently to cause this issue.
Click to expand...

Cheers @Bob Rathbone, and also @michael862, @Granfernewtown20 and @stevie22. Clearly the responsibilities are not straightforward to figure out.

I can add some information to all of this. We moved in a couple years back. From what I can gather, the lane used to be mud/rock. The previous owners and the residents pooled together financially to privately lay a tarmac lane. This was laid down after the garage was built. The garage is at the end of our back garden and is level with the garden and house, but as mentioned lower than the lane. The previous residents must have had the same problem, because there is a clear excavation patch between the channel drain and lane which was presumably done to install said drain and soakaway (see pic). Even though the road was laid after the garage was built, I expect the council/parish has nothing to do with this scenario?
 

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Granfernewtown20 said:
My problem was dealt with very recently... https://community.screwfix.com/thre...oss-garage-door-aperture.265313/#post-2123192
I haven't yet implemented a cure but from extensive research online I've come to the conclusion that the internal rubber strip approach is better.
The potential leakage around the door frames and tracks can be dealt with using this system.....see the suppliers literature on this point.
The highway authority is responsible for ensuring efficient drainage of its roads under "normal" conditions, but there is no provision for charging them for water flowing onto your property unless their actions are negligent. That would be a matter for a civil court to decide. And that is why damage to your property from ingress of water from outside (including floods) should always be covered by insurance.
An addition to my previous post ... You won't get a discount if your property is higher than the outside roads and some of your surface water drains naturally onto the highway to be disposed of in road drains.
Click to expand...

Thanks @Granfernewtown20 for referring to your own thread and potential solution. Indeed it sounds like you have an almost identical problem. I had previously flirted with the idea of using the rubber strips, I looked at a bunch of videos and reviews and found that by and large they did a decent job when water was relatively gentle and shallow, but could struggle if there was a sudden rise. The bits under the tracks were a weak point some of the people testing them had picked up on. But I'll check into what the suppliers lit suggests. I also hadn't seen deep kits at 40mm. That might change things! Partly why I got to the concrete bump idea was because the existing concrete under the garage door is a bit chipped/cracked, so if installing a rubber strip it would be better to have a flat surface, which I'd need to mix up concrete for anyway. Rubber can deteriorate over time as well, so I figured I'd skip that bit and try something more permanent.
 
LawKrime said:
Thanks @Granfernewtown20 for referring to your own thread and potential solution. Indeed it sounds like you have an almost identical problem. I had previously flirted with the idea of using the rubber strips, I looked at a bunch of videos and reviews and found that by and large they did a decent job when water was relatively gentle and shallow, but could struggle if there was a sudden rise. The bits under the tracks were a weak point some of the people testing them had picked up on. But I'll check into what the suppliers lit suggests. I also hadn't seen deep kits at 40mm. That might change things! Partly why I got to the concrete bump idea was because the existing concrete under the garage door is a bit chipped/cracked, so if installing a rubber strip it would be better to have a flat surface, which I'd need to mix up concrete for anyway. Rubber can deteriorate over time as well, so I figured I'd skip that bit and try something more permanent.
Click to expand...
If you keep looking you will also find a 50mm version. https://uk.garadry.com/collections/...s/garadam-garage-door-flood-barrier-seal-50mm
I must confess that this solution is relatively expensive which is why I haven't implemented it yet. Deciding which height to use is the problem.....keeping the cost down whilst solving the water ingress!!!
 
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