Summer of the garage

[Fuzz]

I remember looking into it, but I think city bylaw is that it has to be connected to waste services. Which was impossible for me. You can't just drain into gravel. And since you need the city to inspect, unless you plan on cutting it in afterwards, well...But take a look if you want, my info could be wrong.

[stang]

I have one and love it, but live rural and no one cares where it ties in.

[CroFlames]

I'd be potentially building in the city. The builder said yes, it connects to your home waste services, and that is still allowed in Calgary. Apparently cities like Airdrie and others have banned them as they readily clog and people are #######s and readily dump chemicals down.

If it drained to out to my backyard or something like Stang, I'd 100% go for it. I'm hesitant given it ties into the sewer pipe and fear a clog and a disastrous repair.

[Fuzz]

I assume you could get a drain with some sort of filter you could wash out.

[Geraldsh]

Would a sump/pit work for you? Basically a hole in the floor 2’x2’x4’ deep that feeds the sewer line. When the mud fills to the outfeed line call in a vac truck to clean the pit.

[rohara66]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Bumpity bump.


Anyone have a floor drain in their garage? If building new, should I add them?

I feel like I can just as easily open the big doors and clean out the floors. I'm kinda worried the thing will get clogged with gravel and dirt and cause big problems.

We have 2 in our garage and they are connected to the sanitary lines.

There is a p-trap in the basement for them (so you could clean them out) but I haven't bothered yet. I always sweep the garage out first before doing my spring cleanup to avoid too much gravel/junk going down the floor drain.

Also they are awesome, all the winter sludge drains away and the garage is not super humid all winter long like I've had in previous homes. Plus the garage slopes to the center (not to the o/h door) so no more garage door getting frozen to the slab or having tons of salt runoff onto the driveway.

[CroFlames]

Since this is the all purpose garage thread now...


If you are pouring a slab and plan on doing a nice epoxy finish later, should you insist the contractor put a poly sheet under the slab?

I understand this is now code for basements, both for radon and moisture, but I don't think it is for garages. I plan on adding a natural gas heater to the garage, and basically keeping it between 5-10 degrees, maybe more when I'm working in it.


Maybe that's just for below grade stuff? So many questions.

[Fuzz]

I had to do one under my pad, because it had to be engineered, and the engineer called for it. My concrete guy swore and said he hated installing the stuff, and engineers always call for it. So expect a bit of resistance. I'm not sure if you can do less than 10mm, it was what was spec'ed for mine. Fortunately the concrete guy had some leftover from another job he wanted to get rid of so gave it to me for cheap.


As for it being required, a lot of what I read said it really helped. My epoxy hasn't had any bubbling or hot tire pickup. It's been great, would highly recommend it.

[Shin Pad]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Since this is the all purpose garage thread now...


If you are pouring a slab and plan on doing a nice epoxy finish later, should you insist the contractor put a poly sheet under the slab?

I understand this is now code for basements, both for radon and moisture, but I don't think it is for garages. I plan on adding a natural gas heater to the garage, and basically keeping it between 5-10 degrees, maybe more when I'm working in it.


Maybe that's just for below grade stuff? So many questions.

You should absolutely have some sort of vapour barrier below the slab. If you don't, the moisture from below the slab migrates through the concrete and it will delaminate the epoxy finish. I would recommend using something better than poly. Look at W.R. Meadows "Permanator" or Stego Industries LLC "Stego Wrap". The both come in 2 thicknesses - 0.25 mm and 0.38 mm. If you are using an epoxy finish, you should go with the 0.38 mm. Make sure you install it in accordance with manufacturer's recommendations - ie - termination seals, penetration seals, joints, etc. It will be more expensive than poly, but if you don't want any delamination problem, then you should consider a product like one of these. In the overall cost of the slab, it will be a minor expense.

[speede5]

^ THIS.

Do not pour a pad without. Whomever built the garage in the place I currently have did not and there is always moisture coming up through the floor. Every tub or matt stored on the floor will be damp underneath, in spring it pops up all over the place. I want to epoxy my floor but I won't bother as it is just going to cause other issues.

I've poured basement floors and pads before and always use it, it's not that hard and if it's causing your contractor issues maybe he doesn't really know what he's doing in the first place. My last garage build had heated floors so I use barrier and insulation. God I miss that garage.

[calgarywinning]

Originally Posted by Shin Pad

You should absolutely have some sort of vapour barrier below the slab. If you don't, the moisture from below the slab migrates through the concrete and it will delaminate the epoxy finish. I would recommend using something better than poly. Look at W.R. Meadows "Permanator" or Stego Industries LLC "Stego Wrap". The both come in 2 thicknesses - 0.25 mm and 0.38 mm. If you are using an epoxy finish, you should go with the 0.38 mm. Make sure you install it in accordance with manufacturer's recommendations - ie - termination seals, penetration seals, joints, etc. It will be more expensive than poly, but if you don't want any delamination problem, then you should consider a product like one of these. In the overall cost of the slab, it will be a minor expense.

How do you mitigate after the fact?

[Shin Pad]

Originally Posted by calgarywinning

How do you mitigate after the fact?

If you are dealing with a slab that is already in place and there is no vapour barrier below it, there are moisture reduction products you can use that are applied to the top of the slab, such as Planiseal EMB as manufactured by Mapei, which would mitigate the moisture from the slab and would allow you to install your finish flooring over it. This product is and epoxy based product so it should be compatible with the epoxy flooring, but make absolutely sure that they will work together before you install it (check with the manufacturer of the epoxy flooring to make sure the moisture barrier product is ok to use with their epoxy flooring and check with the moisture barrier manufacturer to ensure that it is compatible with epoxy flooring).


Note: this is a two part product, so you need to be very careful in the mixing and application - make sure you apply it within the pot life of the material.


If you have already installed the epoxy over a slab without a vapour barrier below it or without the moisture reduction barrier on top of the slab, there isn't much you can do at that point.

[calgarywinning]

Originally Posted by Shin Pad

If you are dealing with a slab that is already in place and there is no vapour barrier below it, there are moisture reduction products you can use that are applied to the top of the slab, such as Planiseal EMB as manufactured by Mapei, which would mitigate the moisture from the slab and would allow you to install your finish flooring over it. This product is and epoxy based product so it should be compatible with the epoxy flooring, but make absolutely sure that they will work together before you install it (check with the manufacturer of the epoxy flooring to make sure the moisture barrier product is ok to use with their epoxy flooring and check with the moisture barrier manufacturer to ensure that it is compatible with epoxy flooring).


Note: this is a two part product, so you need to be very careful in the mixing and application - make sure you apply it within the pot life of the material.


If you have already installed the epoxy over a slab without a vapour barrier below it or without the moisture reduction barrier on top of the slab, there isn't much you can do at that point.

Time to get the pictures out from the garage build to see.

One could grind down the epoxy back to the concrete, apply the Planiseal and then re-do the epoxy at great cost I suppose.

Thanks for the great knowledgable response.

[Shin Pad]

Originally Posted by calgarywinning

Time to get the pictures out from the garage build to see.

One could grind down the epoxy back to the concrete, apply the Planiseal and then re-do the epoxy at great cost I suppose.

Thanks for the great knowledgable response.

Is the existing epoxy finish delaminating? If it isn't too bad, I would just leave it. But yeah, grinding down the epoxy to the concrete would be a big, messy job.

[Wastedyouth]

Team, it's mortgage renewal time. Rates are at an insane low.

Has anyone ever rolled a reno/upgrade (garage package) into a mortgage renewal, and if so, how does it work?

[Twitchy15]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

Team, it's mortgage renewal time. Rates are at an insane low.

Has anyone ever rolled a reno/upgrade (garage package) into a mortgage renewal, and if so, how does it work?

I would be interested in this response as well. Our yard is sloped so it will be fairly significant to build a garage. We still have to decide if its worth it or if we should move down the road.

[fundmark19]

Originally Posted by Twitchy15

I would be interested in this response as well. Our yard is sloped so it will be fairly significant to build a garage. We still have to decide if its worth it or if we should move down the road.

There are a few lenders that allow you to refinance with improvements which will allow you to do this.

[BsFaninCGY]

I'm starting to think about heating my garage and am wondering about gas. My garage is on the side of the house with an alley along side it. As such, the gas line comes in from the alley directly behind the garage. I'm wondering, will they be able to tap in right off that line, or does it have to come from the house?

What I'm beating around the bush about is: how much of my yard would have to be dug up to add gas to my garage for heating purposes?

Also, any other suggestions to make working in the garage in temperatures like today tolerable?

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Well you need a meter in the loop here so you'll probably have to run it from the house as I assume it's next to that. When I trenched gas for the garage I believe it they were able to T right after the meter and not perf the house envelope.

Honestly trenching wasn't that expensive - unless you have a deck or poured concrete above it - it's just about someone hand bombing it. (bonus if you can get machinery in there to help)

Honestly once you get forced air gas heat - the garage is comfy. I can flip it on from its 3 degree setting to 20 and have it toasty in like 8 minutes. The only other things I can think about are to focus on insulation and air leaks:
- consider the insulative abilities of your garage door. If it's a wooden one from the 80's it'll leak like hell
- make sure the seals all around the garage are as tight as possible
- ditto for the man door
- You'll need a special low temp thermostat if you want to set it at 3 C
- good lighting will make you think it's warmer

[speede5]

Your going to have to trench one way or the other, what they prefer to do in SK is to move the meter to the garage and then feed the house but you can't reuse the line thats already in the ground anyway. This won't cost any more and get's your meter off the house which is nice, cleans things up.

As for heat I haven't gotten to the point of adding gas yet and I'm using a little 220v 5000w heater I picked up at peavey mart, I keep it on the lowest setting so things don't freeze and crank it when i go to work. It's just enough to make things bearable although I wear boots to keep insulated from the floor. It's not cheap (200 a month probably?) but it wont break your bank if it's only for a season. 24x36 well insulated garage.