Garage floor & water.. Need suggestions.

Thanks for all the great responses!
I agree with the point of drainage first. But I don't see how to do it on our property. On the east side, ground slopes gently uphill, with the property line 3' from the wall.On the south side, ground level is at the top of the block wall and slopes steeply uphill away from the garage wall. On the west side the ground is generally flat and tends to already hold water. Towards north the driveway is level with the garage floor, the drive having a very slight slope to north allowing it to drain to street.
I did direct the downspouts into a drain tile, which was placed under the driveway when it was poured, the tile routed to the street 85' away.
Any type of drainage would have to carry that water all the way to the street, as in a buried tile.
As I sit here I'm wondering about raising the garage structure, busting up the existing concrete, and repouring the floor at some 6" higher with poured concrete walls. hmmm Any thoughts?

Edit; Geez, what am I thinking. I need to tackle the drainage regardless...
 
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Before getting into demolition,

In my barn foundation, the west side is at the top of the foundation with a downwards slope to the foundation. Due to a 4' buildup of the public road, surface water all drained towards the foundation causing an eventual failure of the foundation. I had the foundation rebuilt, partially with a poured wall and partially with block., filling the block with concrete.
To reduce surface water impact, I sloped the soil away from the wall creating a ditch about three feet out which drained water around the building to a lower elevation. To prevent erosion of the soil near the wall, it is covered with concrete slabs. You could do the same for your situation with the ditch starting on the south side sloping down to the east side and north to street level. Laying a plastic liner several inches below the surface and covering with course gravel will help to prevent water from diffusing down and weed growth. You could also lay drainage tile near the bottom of the wall to pick up any water which seeped through and direct it towards the street.
 
Drainage, drainage and more drainage is the only way to control the water heading down the hill. Rent a trencher, cut a trench away a couple feet or more from the wall as your FIRST line of defense and lay in some big O as we call it around here. Back fill with coarse gravel completely wrapped with silt/soil barrier cloth. Lay cloth in the bottom of the trench with enough cloth to wrap the gravel, put in the tile, gravel almost to the top, cover the gravel with the cloth and a light covering of gravel to the top of the trench. This will capture the majority of the water headed your way. The next step is to install drainage board on the walls and drainage tile at the base, just like a basement and either use gravity or a sump pump to pull the water away. We live on the side of a hill and this is what solved our problem with water entering the basement.
Pierre
 
I'm also at the bottom of a hill and when I wanted an extra garage in the back yard I asked the cement guy if we could do a block wall up about three feet and back fill to eliminate excavating so much soil to build on. He wasn't too keen on that plan due to drainage and possible water on the floor etc. I took his advise and had a nice flat spot dug out and built a retaining wall about 4 feet back from the garage with enough width extra to park our camper beside the garage. Behind the retaining wall is fabric gravel and a 4 inch perforated tile that runs to my front yard. Believe it or not at times that tile runs full like someone has a faucet turned on. I personally never expected that, more like a trickle. I now do not under estimate the way water moves.
 
Smart to have that break with the retaining wall where you can park!

I always tell people, that water is the GREAT EQUALIZER. It erodes mountains down to level, corrodes everything that man can make to nothing, drowns everything that lives on dry land and the list goes on!
Pierre
 
As many have mentioned, ground must slope away from any building and starting ground elevation should never be higher than slab elevation. Dirt work is needed to remedy your situation along with excellent drainage.
 
Well I started looking into the details of draining my property, and good news/bad news.. The good news is that the property line is actually right against neighbor's garage wall, which means I have space to work with in getting the surface contoured for drainage! The bad news is.. the property line is right against neighbor's garage wall, which means he's been making use of that extra space all these years! :confused 3: I'da done some things different had I known that!
Anyway, looking at digging in several drain tiles, with fabric and gravel. But are these tiles at all effective while the ground is frozen? These tiles will be anywhere from 12-24" deep in the drain field area, and as little as several inches where it transports to the curb. (I am in NW Iowa, where I believe the frost line is ~ 30" deep.) Should I also incorporate surface drains in the mix?
 
Before you dig anything....

Any change of water flow could damage neighbor's place so you could get into some trouble.

Also of concern is most zoning require setbacks meaning nothing can be built on the line but some places have built houses right on the line one side to make it wider on other side...stupid.

So first action is visit the building department to get crystal clear understanding of where property lines are and to seek remedy if neighbor is using yours.

Confirm if his building is legal because if not then less worry about flooding it.

Discuss process with the engineers as it is their job to help you.

Sounds like your building is at the bottom of a hill so you will need to get very creative to make it look like an island and it will not be cheap of labor but there could be some easier to do options to lesson it for now to allow use and time to determine better options.

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I agree with your good pointers TQ, thank you! And yes, the neighbor's garage is built right up to the property line. And yes I plan to have the boundary professionally located before I start doing anything.
But my question now is: How effective are the drainage tiles (french/curtain drains) while the ground is frozen, when placed relatively near the surface? Can anybody comment on that angle? And, should I consider surface drains as well?
 
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If the ground is frozen then noting is going to flow through the ice.

Any type of piping that is above the frost line must slope such that it does not have standing water.

No clue what your structure looks like or the amount of water that flows buy as mentioned by others look at DIVERSION as getting water to flow past and not allow to stand helps greatly.

Look above the building and create culverts or small rises to cause water to go away from the building.

If ground is wet it is easier to dig so plan on digging it out.

Our suggestion would be to consider building same as retaining wall and it will need a drainage system but that is engineering specific to your place.

Google is your friend so search and read up on retaining wall drainage for ideas to discuss with the building department.

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