How can I keep water from runimg into my garage?

Question

It runs down the drive way ,when it rains

Answer 1

You didn't say what your drive was made of. I'm going to assume it's asphalt or concrete.

The simplest solution that comes to mind and that you might be able to do yourself is to get some asphalt patch (Lowes carries one made by Sakrete) and make a ridge, like a speed bump to divert the water. Aside from the obvious drawback of the bump, if you can't construct this in a manner that diverts the water away from your house, you would likely be causing future problems with the house foundation or basement.

A better but more involved solution would also involve digging a dry well, which is essentially a large pit that is filled in with gravel, rather than dirt, for the water to drain into. This may be what poppyman5 was thinking of, as if you did this in the drive you might also want to put a grate over it to carry the weight of the vehicle, rather than having the gravel settle below the rest of the drive.

How to construct a dry well has already been adressed in Yahoo Answers:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060930224657AAfmXdA

Answer 2

Water runs downhill.... you have to modify the surfaces around your garage so that the downhill flow direction is not towards your garage.

If you don't want to re-grade the whole thing, you can create a riser in the doorway or gutter in front of it that would create a downhill path to divert the water away from the doorway, and off to a slope that will allow it to drain away from the area..

If what you do blocks the flow but doesn't re-direct it, you have created a dam and pond next to your house. This translates to- foundation damage.

Answer 3

You could install a trench with a grate and a drain, to catch the water before it enters the garage.

Answer 4

You could jack up the garagee and pour a layer of concrete or asphalt to make the garag higher than the driveway.

Answer 5

tear down tha garage