Why does nobody talk about putting a drain in the floor of a home garage?

Helped my buddy finish his garage last month and he skipped the drain to save money. Now he's got a puddle from melting snow off his truck that won't dry up. I work night shifts so I see my own garage in daylight maybe twice a week and I still made sure to put one in when I built mine 3 years ago. Cost me maybe $200 extra with the concrete work. Has anyone else dealt with wet floor problems after skipping this?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_robin3mo ago

See I gotta push back on this a little. I've had a garage for about 10 years now and never put a drain in, and honestly it's never been a big deal for me. The melting snow and wet car stuff just gets pushed out with a squeegee or I throw down some cheap kitty litter to soak up the puddles. Takes me maybe 5 minutes every couple weeks during winter. A floor drain can actually be a pain if you live somewhere with cold winters because it can freeze up or let cold air and critters in through the pipe. Plus if you ever spill oil or paint thinner or something flammable, a drain just sends that straight into the ground or your sewer system which is a whole other headache. Your buddy might be fine just grabbing a push broom and dealing with it that way.

park.adam3mo ago

Kitty litter works fine until it doesn't. Drains beat squeegees when you're in a hurry.

the_felix1mo ago

Actually I gotta call out one thing real quick, because that thing about flammable liquids going into the ground or sewer? You're right that it's a problem, but floor drains are usually plumbed to a trap that goes to the main sewer line, not straight into the ground. In my old house the garage drain just ran outside onto the driveway though (which is super common in older homes), so that's definitely a whole different mess if you spill something. The critter thing is real though, I had a mouse come up through mine one time and it scared the crap out of me when I walked in.

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