# Below grade attached garage, concerns



## new home owner (Sep 6, 2010)

im a new home owner, and recently purchased a house. the market is insane, and i possibly created a headache of problems for myself with my new purchase. i work with icf foundations, pads, driveways,etc. but am fairly new to construction myself. 
my house is a 1200 sq home with an attached garage below. however. the drive way slopes inward, under the house, about 5 feet low. it has drainage in front of the doors. and as far as i could tell it was working fine. inspection came up fine and no signs of water damage to be found, great. 
now im only 2 weeks in, and during the inspection noticed that the sump pit is extremely shallow. a 5 gallon bucket pushed into the pit, but cut in half. the sump pump, was held up by a piece of 1/4 inch ply wood. it was obvious that the pit was not made deep enough. 

this year has been the worst year for rain, after having years of a lack of rain. a downpour comes out of nowhere, and starts to run down the driveway against the doors, untill of course it pours around and into the garage (there is about a 1 foot step into the actual house) even after the pump kicked in, the water still raising. tips over the pump and shorts it out. meanwhile the water is raising up 1/4 every 30 seconds. up the step and into my basement. somehow the drain in the laundry room outside the door. was able to drain it away. but. my question obviously. is im looking to prevent any future problems. it seems extremely weird the way the drainage is set up, i understand this was an extreme condition, but its expected to rain constantly this month, and im trying to figure out the best possible solution for dealing with large quantities of water in the basement. is there a way i can install a channel to guide the water from the front of the garage to the back, and enlarge the sump pit without destroying my entire garage floor. i have come to terms that i will have water in the garage at many points in my ownership of this home. and the tall step dividing the house from the garage is significant to keep the water back, providing i had a powerful pump and deeper pit. 

has anyone else come across this style of home. again, its almost built like a bungalow, it has a 2 car, attached garage, retaining walls down the driveway approx 5 feet, the garage itself sits lower than the rest of the basement. the pit is at the back of the basement, its 6 inches deep in most areas, where the weeping tile is draining, and than a bucket pushed maybe 6 more inches down. literally the basement HAS to be flooding for the pit to be of any use. other than dealing with water from the weeping tile. there is a floor drain as well in the garage, and in front of the doors. and as far as i can tell, the front door drains, and garage drains tie into it as well.


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## Nathan (Jul 21, 2003)

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