Garage Floors & Drainage

In theory a garage is for your car but very few people have room in their garage as they use it to store things and for activity centers that don't fit in the house. You might have a ping pong table like my home in California where we don't have basements. A homeowner handyman is likely to have their workshop in the garage or maybe a gardening center for tools and getting seeds started in the spring.

When you're storing lots of stuff in the garage, you want to be sure everything is safe so a drain might be needed if you occasionally get water in the garage. This article outlines several drain covers available for a garage floor (most drain covers are for bathrooms or industrial/commercial applications), so here is what I was able to find for one of my handyman customers.

What Customer Needs for Their Garage

Our customer wants melting snow to drain, to avoid the mess and potential safety hazards. This means small amounts of water so one or two small holes is probably adequate. Other customer stories indicate some homeowners want to wash their car in the garage and need more drainage, i.e. this typically requires tunneling to the outside, and building a drywell (taping into house waste lines is illegal in most areas).

Last year we renovated bathrooms at Portsmouth's Seacoast Repertory Theater. I searched for drain covers locally and found that my local plumbing supply house, Granite Group, didn't have what I needed. I went to Home Depot but didn't like my options so the next step was …

The web is really an incredible tool, and I've found web based businesses provide excellent service. This is in contract to retail stores that have added an online presence, to compliment their traditional retail store fronts. After visiting more than 20 sites, I was most comfortable with www.PlumbingSupply.com.

Here are the options for a floor drain cover, which ideally comes with some type of flange or other support to hold it level with the floor where the hole underneath may extend 1 to 2 feet.

This cross section (left) illustrates Plumbing Supply's snap-in drain, which includes a flange or lip to support the drain but after looking at several products, I realized it was time to call the company as they have more product details than I can assess on the web. This is also a great way to test the quality of the company. The people should listen to your questions, take time to understand the problem you want to solve and ultimately help you pick the right solution. If you're not happy on the phone, then you need to search for another company.

When I explained the customer's concern that the drain covers needed to be sturdy enough to drive over, Zach told me the best options would be found on the page with “adjustable floor drains.” Here I found iron floor drain covers and drainage systems (basket to trap debris which can then be cleaned out) that are rated to 2400 lbs, exactly what I think we need.

I'm now ready to forward the information to my customer. He can select and order the drain he likes or my technician can quickly review the options and select one and our office will order. We pride ourselves on providing customer with this type of flexibility.