Garage floor drains
 

Finally getting ready to build my shop. Inspector is allowing me to install floor drains in shop but says I need an oil separator. I am piping floor drains to the side of building. So a separator will be outside of the shop and buried next to the building. Building is 40x65, and I can't imagine squeegeeing water from one end to the other, to get water out the garage door.

Has anyone fabricated something and if so, any ideas would be great. The inspector said a plastic 55 gallon barrel could be made to capture the water from the floor drains.
BTW I am on a septic system, and also do not want to contaminate it, or the ground.

Thanks
Sean

Re: Garage floor drains
 

Whatever makes the inspector happy ! Do you really plan on having water in all bays? I 'm just doing a floor now 32 x 54 and plan to have one drain to a sump pump. I hope to keep most of the floor dry and just sweep to clean. We are also on septic so it would mean doing a seprate system if I were to do a shower washroom at that point might be more concerned .---Trevor

Re: Garage floor drains
 

Have your floor poured as flat as possible. No drains, no pitch. Us a commercial mop and bucket. Can't build or set up race cars on a hill. Oil dry is criminal.

Re: Garage floor drains
 

I might just do away with the floor drains all together then.

The building is all open. No bays. A bathroom, sink and the trailer dump drain tied into the septic system.

I was just thinking if I washed a vehicle, or when snow melts off a vehicle it would be nice to have it go to a drain.

Less work on the rough in this way!

Thanks for the info.

Sean

Re: Garage floor drains
 

My inspector did not say I needed a seperator, but I could have a "holding tank" ie; septic tank with no laterals, pump out as needed.

Re: Garage floor drains
 

What I did is I poured the floors flat but I put a trough near the bay doors and I squeegee the water to them. I also put a trough at the end of the apron out front to direct the runoff away from the driveway. The discharge runs into my yard with no problems in the last 10 years. But I do not wash out oil based products.. Best thing I did for the floor was when I put a epoxy coating on it to make it easier to clean. Lowes sells the grates that I used on top to of the troughs to keep the floor smooth and not have to bounce over the trough when driving in and out.

Re: Garage floor drains
 

In my auto repair shops we have to use a pre-fab concrete vault about 5' by 10' by 4' deep installed in the ground that has a divider wall cast into it for the separator. They are commercially available through most plumbing supply companies that do septic systems I think. This is an added expense, potential source of an unpleasant odor, and additional maintenance for you. We generally clean up with a mop as my floors are smooth and don't even use the drains.

Have your builder/concrete guy put a slight slope to the overhead door for slush and car wash water to keep it from going under the benches and shelves. I would just forget the drain unless you plan on running water on the floor dailey.

Sounds like a great project to be doing, hope it becomes your dream garage.

Tracy

Re: Garage floor drains
 

Thanks for all of the responses! It was a busy and exhausting time with getting the rough in done with the weather that we have had here. Trenching for power, water and the plumbing to the septic tank was almost too much. I decided to eliminate the floor drains, more out of exhaustion and almost heat stroke than anything. Everything passed with flying colors and the building slab was poured last Wedensday. The slab is a slick finish, so cleanup will be easy. The concrete crew is finishing the driveway tomorrow.
Taking others advice from another thread, I have installed a floor sink in the building where the trailer will be parked to dump the tanks from the trailer. I can't wait to use that instead of dealing with dumping at rest stops or trying to find a place after a long weekend at the track.

Thanks
Sean

Re: Garage floor drains
 

We got our floor poured this week (hope the pictures show up) put the drain in myself , might be too big --- Trevor