When you notice water on your garage floor, there are several reasons that might happen. You may even have irreplaceable items stored in your garage that could be damaged due to wet floorings.
In addition, this may make it challenging for you to maintain your garage entrance dry regularly. Here’s what we’re going to reveal about why your garage floor is always wet!
Why Is My Garage Floor Wet?
1. Condensation
Condensation happens when water vapor in the air meets with a cool surface and turns into liquid.
That said, this can happen anywhere there is an excellent surface and an air stream, like a wall or ceiling.
Aside from that, it creates a difference in humidity, which causes water to collect on cool surfaces like your garage floor.
Worse, it can lead to unevenness in your garage floor and water damage to your vehicles if it pools too long.
Consequently, the condensation you see on your garage floor is expected, thus damaging and wetting your garage floor.
2. Underground Erosion
Underground erosion is caused by groundwater that seeps up through cracks in the ground, causing the water to pool on top of the soil.
Also, this can happen anywhere—even if there are no cracks in the foundation!
Along with this, any water leakage will cause the ground beneath your garage to erode and allow water to seep into your home’s foundation.
In that event, it can damage the foundation, which will weaken it and eventually cause it to crumble.
Overall, your floor begins to slowly erode and become weaker over time which causes a swamp flowing throughout your garage.
3. Incorrect Level Of Damp Proof
To prevent damage to the stone from splashing back during heavy rain, it is advised to place damp-proof courses at least 150mm below ground level and away from hard surfaces.
Typically, bitumen, slates, lead, pitch, asphalt, or low absorption bricks were used to create damp-proof courses.
Besides that, whether it’s from a leaky damp proof or a broken water line, the moisture level in your garage needs to be just right.
In that case, if you’re looking for why your garage floor is wet, it’s likely because it’s acquiring an uneven level of damp proof.
4. Salt Deposits
When water is present on bricks, concrete, stone, or other architectural surfaces, efflorescence, a crystalline salt coating, may develop.
In other words, it is made up of salt deposits left behind when water evaporates and has a white or grayish hue.
Due to this, salt deposits form in your concrete when the water evaporates from the surface, leaving behind a residue of minerals.
Therefore, if you’re noticing a puddle of water in your garage, it might be because of these saturated salt deposits.
5. Hydrostatic Pressure
Hydrostatic pressure affects the above and below-grade slab. Usually, a moisture source close to the slab’s base is the source of this pressure.
With that, in the absence of a reliable moisture barrier below, water might rise through the concrete’s pores.
However, this is unusual because typical residential garages have a stone base, if not a natural plastic moisture barrier, isolating the concrete slab from the supporting ground.
As a result, hydrostatic pressure from your foundation can rise through the concrete floor and damage any nearby materials by making them damp.
6. Faulty Gutters
Gutters are the tubes that carry rainwater away from your roof and into your downspouts, which then lead to the street.
Additionally, although your gutters are intended to keep water out of the garage, water will enter your floorings if they aren’t functioning correctly.
Also, a faulty gutter doesn’t have enough slope or drain to handle the amount of water coming down on it.
Therefore, the problem with this system is that it’s not very efficient—gutters can only move so much water before they get clogged up, making your garage floor sunken.
7. Lack Of French Drain
A French drain is a channel dug into the ground to divert water away from your home.
Further, it prevents water from collecting in your basement, which can cause mold and mildew growth and damage your foundation.
Unfortunately, it can lead the concrete to crack and chip, making it more vulnerable to damage from other elements like ice or firewood.
Above all, if there’s a lack of French drains in your area, water can leak into your garage through the flooring and cause it to become wet.
8. Uneven Landscaping
In order for the garage floor to drain, you need to create a drainage path on top of your asphalt or concrete floor.
That said, it can be done by adding a layer of gravel or other material that will allow water to flow through it into a drain below.
For that reason, when you notice what looks like puddles of water in your garage or basement after rainstorms, it’s likely that uneven grounds cause these areas.
Thus, if they aren’t regularly irrigated, specks of dirt can grow into cracks of your uneven floorings and cause leaks.
9. Roof Leaks
If you have a leaky roof in your garage, the water leaking out will run down to the floor and cause damage.
That said, traveling leaks indicate that the flows may have been there for a long time and require costly water damage repairs.
On this account, it may be caused by cracks in the sheetrock or because there are no good ways for rainwater to go away once it hits ground level.
Therefore, you have a significant issue if the leak has traveled from your roof through your garage floors, so it ends up pooling there instead of going elsewhere.
10. Foundation Leakage
Leaks in the foundation can cause water to come into the garage through small cracks in the concrete or other foundation elements.
Occasionally, it occurs when the soil below your house seeps through the walls or floor of your garage and leaks into the structure itself.
That is why, if you are experiencing water getting into your garage, it is likely that you have a foundation leak!
11. Tampered Floorings
Over-compacting the mixture might result in the separation of the aggregate components, which will weaken the concrete.
Moreover, many contemporary concrete mixtures are created utilizing admixtures that eliminate the need for ‘tamping’ or compacting.
Therefore, it is not advised to tamper with your garage floors because it could eventually cause them to become wet!
To know more, you can also read our posts on why epoxy garage floor, why your garage door keeps opening, and why your garage door won’t close.
Conclusion
While a leak’s origin can range, the most important thing is that you find it and fix it before it damages your garage floor.
After all, checking for variables like condensation and erosion in your garage’s floorboards can detect a leak before it worsens.
Ultimately, the most crucial thing to realize is that, as a homeowner, you are responsible for actively safeguarding your home from a damp or water-damaged floor!