Howdy,
I need to pour a new garage floor over the top of my current garage floor.
I'd love to talk to someone that actually knew something about this
stuff... I'm a rank novice.
Details:
I have an existing 22'x22' garage that has a cement floor. That floor is
unlevel, cracked, and on the order of 4" or so lower than the driveway
leading up to it. Consequently, when it rains enough, the water leaks
into the garage, to the tune of about 5" or 6" deep. As the garage is
attached, the water then proceeds down into the basement. It also isn't
so hot for tools and such in the garage...
What I want to do is pour a new floor on top of the existing floor,
raising it up around 4" to 6" or so. That'll require raising the two
garage doors and one of the man doors, but that's all stuff I know how to
do.
I'm not sure of a bunch of things, including...
* Can I just pour concrete over the existing concrete? No point should be
thinner than 4"...
* 6" is, as I understand it, pretty darned thick for a regular garage
floor. If I need areas to be this deep, should I put down sand first?
After talking with the concrete folks, looks like 9.5 yards (22'x22'x6")
would be around $712 at $75/yard. 6.5 yards (4" thick) would be $487.
How much is it likely to cost to get 3 yards of sand/gravel or whatever?
How much of a pain is prepping the sand/gravel?
* How should I go about "screeding" (I think that's what its called) the
cement, since I'm pouring the floor inside a building? In case I'm using
the wrong word, I mean "how do I level the concrete out so that I have a
flat/smooth floor?"
* I'm not sure what to do about drainage, but am leaning toward sloping
the floor slightly toward the garage doors. If I do this, how much slope
is enough? I don't know if I can install a floor drain, since I don't
really have anywhere to take the water from the drain... If I do slope
the floor toward the doors, should I just build up the 'non-door' area at
the front of the garage? I.e. I don't want water pooling up against the
wall in between the two garage doors, etc...
* One of the concrete places mentioned it'd be another $5/yard for
fiber... Apparently you can have the fiber inserted into the mix rather
than using rebar or mesh? Is one method better than the other from a
strength standpoint? How about from a finishing standpoint?
* Apparently this is all standard garage concrete... One place called it
"six bag" concrete and said it was about 4000 psi concrete... Is this
anything to worry about or will whatever type of concrete they show up
with be what I need?
And, there are probably about a billion other things I don't know enough
to ask yet... :-)
Thanks for any pointers!
Mark
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