How to Slope Garage Floor So Water Runs Off It

LESLIE: Sue in Iowa wants to know how to slope garage floor. How can we help you today?

SUE: In the winter, the runoff from whatever snow is on it just pools on the floor in the garage. And I was wondering if there’s some way to slope the garage floor without completely rebuilding the garage.

TOM: Yeah. I mean you can add an additional layer of material to the garage floor and slope garage floor from high to low. The type of product that you would use for that, I think, would probably be a concrete resurfacer. This is a formulation that’s designed to adhere to existing concrete.

Take a look at the QUIKRETE – Q-U-I-K-R-E-T-E – concrete resurfacing product. Mix it according to label directions. You may have to make it a little thick in order to get it to build up on the high side and then slope it down. But it’s going to be a project because a garage floor is pretty big. So it’s going to take a bit of time and investment of a bit of money to get all the materials together and certainly, if you’re going to hire somebody, that, as well. But I think you could accomplish what you want to do, which is to get the slope away.

Now, the other thing that you could think about to slope garage floor, if you don’t want to go through the trouble of resurfacing, is there are a number of garage floors that are out there. And some of them are tiles that actually sit up off on top of the garage floor. They’re very often used in workshops where people are spending a lot of time on the floor. And you can drive a car over them.

And they have sort of a pattern to them – a tread pattern to them, so to speak – so that the water wouldn’t necessarily lay on top. It would sort of be there but it wouldn’t be sort of pooling like you’re seeing now. So there’s a couple of options for you and hopefully, one of those is the good solution.

SUE: Now, the QUIKRETE, that’s something we could do ourselves? Or do we have to hire somebody to do that?

TOM: It depends on how handy you are. It certainly is a do-it-yourself project. I know that QUIKRETE is very good about having step-by-step instructions on their website. So when you go to QUIKRETE.com, look up the materials on resurfacing concrete. They usually have project guides there with a materials list and photos. And it’ll tell you exactly how to do it, OK?

SUE: OK. Thank you very much. That’s most helpful.

TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.