Mods: This may not belong here but it is a story about my trials and tribualtions trying to repair a workshop. Hopefully it fits here and you'll let it stay.

The story: I'v have wanted to work on cars as far back as I can remember. Now I'm 31 years old, have a family with 2 childer and a 12+ year professional career as a computer programmer.

I have yet to have a garage even though it's one of my life's dreams. My yard is hilly as can be so even my driveway is off limits. Up until now I've borrored my inlays driveway, but lugging everything around really sucks. My mother graciously said I could use her 15x15 shed for a workshop if I fixed it up. This seemed perfect as it (seamed to) only need minor work and had a parking pad right outside it. I cleaned it all out (it had prefabbed fireplace in it that had to be removed, really), made the necesssary repairs, partially insullated it and wired it all up. Awesome!

Everything was going great until the first big rain we had. The shed/shop was flooded with water. The roof leaked and water seeped up trough the floor since it was poured lower than ground level. I didn't loose too much in that flood. I tried helping the drainage in her yard and it seemed to help some, no more floods....until last week. The shop flooded with almost 6 inches of water in some spots (big surprise, the floor is uneven). I cleaned up this mess, patched the roof and put down waterproofing morted meant for basements. I planned to topcoat this with waterproofing basement paint, but lack of time made me put it off.

Thinking the morter would at least help I called my brother today while I was at work and it was pouring rain. I asked him to check it out and he said I missed two spots on the roof, but that overall it looked great. A few hours later my wife swings by and guess what, 6 inches of water again! Enough that I had to leave work and get a sump pump going to pump it out.

I guess I have no real point to my story other than that my luck truelly, utterly sucks. I have two quotes to build retaining walls on ly land so I have one spot flat enough to build a garage on. Each estimate it for $10,000. then I get to pay out for the garage itself. Our famaily is a single income family and I make decent money, but not that much. All of this is enough to make me incredibly depressed and consider abandoning my life-long obsession with cars. I just don't think I could do it though, it would be like cutting out a peice of my soul.

Well, if you read all that, thank you. Also please excuse and typos or grammatical errors, I've self-medicated myself somewhat tonight. I'm totally open to comments, suggestions, criticizms and offer of finacncial help.

 

sucks to see you all most got what you wanted then bam right back to square one
keep your head up bro things come to good people lifes a garden dig it you cant have no in your heart good luck man

 

Don't give up dude. You figured out how to work on cars now figure out how to build retaining walls and garages on your own. Srysly though. People built retaining walls before large equipment. Your wife and kids like to shovel dirt right?

Go all out redneck on that ****. Send us pics of the situation man. Where there is a will there is a way.

 

WE did all the landscaping at my dad's new house and it was a bitch but it was worth it. From the outdoor pond/waterfall, retaining wall, firepit, pavers, sodding, grading, running under ground wire for lighting, and more. That is one option. Another option is to sell your house and buy one with a garage large enough for your needs already.

 

you can also rent bobcats and mini dozers....if you have everything planned and ready to go with lots of helping hands from favors called in. leveling a hill out shouldnt take more than a weekend...that is, if you dont hit large stones, you might want to dig a couple of holes a few feet deep to make sure there isnt a car size rock where you want to dig before you rent any equipment. go to the library and find books on the subject. dont forget to have a place lined up to dispose of the dirt. you dont want to have to move it twice....and if all else fails, move

 

yeap. The rental place was our friend. Bobcats, trenchers, and more were very helpful.

 

good luck!!!!

 

 

I understand where your coming from with the no shop thing.
I have a bunch of stuff (parts, cars, tables, shop stuff) everywhere people will let me keep it till I can build a shop.
Its frustrating, im fixing to have my 2nd child and i just feel like it will never happen.
But dont give up something will happen for the good and you will be glad u stayed with it.
Good luck to you.

 

I know this may seem like a rude comment, but move. There are a million houses in south GA that have a two car garage in an area that is relatively flat. Or rent a place for the time being. You can probably rent some shop space for a reasonable fee. If your a bad *** programmer give me a shout and there may be a job here in HuntsVegas. Then you can get a house that suits your needs.

 

I'm sure you will figure it out. I understand it's difficult to do projects when working full time and all, but it would be great to have a shop to work in. It'll all fall into place, especially if it's something you want bad. When there is a will, there is a way.

Good luck!

And definitely post pics!

 

Well look at the bright side. this is a garage flooding with rain water. I had my septic system back up into my basement. **** water literally flowing up and out of the top of the toilet. Go ahead, have a good ****ing laugh at that.

you need to go to the property and stand out in the pouring rain and watch where the water is running downhill into the garage, and then divert it away. Try building a french drain, they work awesome.

 

Hey man post some pics of what your are working with. Where is the water coming in from ? Is it flooding the lower earth and coming up threw the concret ? Or is it coming trhew the walls or floor. Im at a military school right now and there are tons of engineers and teachers with well over 40 years experience that could look at the pic's and give advice.

Trust me you can do anything by hand but it will take time as you are not a contractor .


Post pics of what your working with or a isometric drawing of the shop and land.

 

Thanks for all the encouragement, it really does help. Sometimes it's hard to push past the curveballs life throws at you.

I know what needs to be done to fix it, it's really a question of "should I keep pressing forward here?" If I keep dumping all this money and effort into my mom's yard/shop I'll never get my own shop at my house. I know where the water is pooling up at, I know where and how to place the french drains, but should I bother? After that I can pour a few more inches of concrete on the slab to raise it up and then put a new roof on it. I can so all this myself but the cost and time still add up. I can't afford to move and I can't afford to build a shop on my property either.

I don't want to come off bitchy, I'm just pushed into a corner right now and had some timelines that definetely won't be made now.

Here's a pic of what I'm working with. The red is where the water pools (mostof it anyway) and the blue arrows are where the water flows once it's pooled high enough. Keep in mind that the floor of the shop and the parking pad are lower than the ground around them (several inches in some places). Gotta love the previous owners!

And sorry for the crappy MS Paint job.

 

just dig a really big hole to the left of where the water pools, and bam, water has somewhere to go :D

you'd think with all that rain though the grass would at least be green, talk about a double kick in the pants

 

you can buy a catch basin and put it right in the middle of the big pool, then buy some of the corrugated piping, dig a trench to lay the pipe in. make it go whereever there is a lower spot. I know some homes are actually a few feet above street level on the front. and that way you could put the water far,far away from your shop. if thats not an option, then you can dig a really big hole. might be easier to rent a gas powered fence post digger for 40$/day. put a few inches of pee gravel in the bottom, then stuff in the largest diameter piece of corrugated pipe that fits in the hole, they make fittings to plumb the smaller drainage pipe into it, put a cap on top of it and cover with dirt. shouldnt be to expensive,but digging a trench by hand sucks the big one. trust me. I will rent a trencher the next time. Remember to place the big sump hole as far as possible away from the house, I would hate to see your problem turn into your mothers.

If that still sounds too expensive, then you can try rent the hole digger and placing several holes right in the middle of each water pool. Stuff a piece of 4 or 5 inch corrugated pipe with the drainage slits cut in it, put a little gravel in the bottom so it doesnt wash out, and a little gravel around the outside so it doesnt clog.

Just make sure its a drainage issue and not a water table issue first, and check for and electrical or gas lines, then tend to put the things straight back into the alley. In ohio they will come out and mark all of your utility lines for FREE! Its worth making a call, call the local city building to get their name and phone number, just dont let them know what your doing in case they want to give you a hard time.

 

Lol, that pic was taken during the winter, believe me, it's green now.

That's the plan at this point. Oddly enough there is a drainage ditch between the chain link fence and the privacy fence. When the city built the building in the background they built the ditch as well. Their parking lot drains into it, but they built it up on the house side so no ones yard can drain into it, gotta love the city. I'm planning to run the piping from a drain basin back to the ditch. There's a storm drain a few feet down the ditch.

Guess I just have to take the plunge (no pun intended) and get the drainage straightened out, then I can start fixing the shop.

 

when i moved here.....the previous owner used to work on the truck portion of 18 wheelers, and there was a pretty big lip getting into the shop. before moving in i requested them to pour an apron, which they delayed on doing but promised they would. they didnt end up doing it until about a week after i moved in. they didnt grade the area or anything, and did a real half *** job of pouring it. i was pretty pissed but it did work. first big rain storm, i had the same problem as you. it routed all of the water directly into the shop. fighting with them was too time consuming and i knew even if they did fix it they would do a half *** job again, so i had to pay somebody to tear up what they did, and redo it. good news is that it turned out great and i havnt had a problem since.


the most true statement EVER is "it takes money to make money" its so aggravating and discouraging at times. if you have the desire, it seems to always work out. im hoping one day that the "takes money" will turn into "make money" lol

 

I'm not even trying to make money out of this, just enjoy my hobby. I understand what you're saying about half-arsing things though, it'll bite you in the end every time.

On a positive note, I just came back from Home Depot and priced out everything I need to fix the backyard flooding. It looks like I can do it for about $175 (without skimping). Then I can have 2 yards of concrete poured on top of the existing slab for a couple hundred. That will bring the floor up about 3" in the lowest spots. Last I can redo the roof myself for about $300.

So for about $700 I can get everything right and then get working again. I'm getting past the pissed off, depressed part and now I'm just wanting to get started fixing it. I'm hoping to make another trip to Home Depot tomorrow, and not to price it out this time.

 

Before you dump a lot of money into this shed... maybe try pricing out a shed of your own. You could even see if your mom would let you dismantle that current shed for lumber on the new one.

 

CALL BEFORE YOU DIG!

its usually 811 i think

 

Well, I bought all the supplies I needed and got started (jludee90 - no gas, electric, etc in the area, good advice btw). I began digging the hole for the drain basin first. After about 3 inches I hit what looked like concrete. Sure enough, there were concrete blocks, old broken up concrete and clay bricks all over the place. Not to worry though, I made myself stay strong and persist (no crying, I swear).

I decided to try something easier and start the trench leading to the drainage ditch. I only got the first 4 or so inches of it, but it went really easy. Finally, things are looking up! I moved back to the hole for the drain basin and start digging again. About 1.22 seconds later I think I hit the next concrete block only to discover it's a concrete drain pipe! This thing was completely barried and the end was full of dirt. I can't see the other end of it in any of the neighbors yard's. I just have no idea.

The gas, water, electric companies obviously didn't know it was there, so at this point I'll be contacting the city to see if they can tell me what the heck to do.

Enjoy the pics and feel free to point and laugh at my horrible luck!

 

damn man, im sorry ....someone or something doesnt want you in that shop....the pipe cant possibly go to anything being buried and open ended like that, I would just get a sledge hammer and bust it off as far back as you need to go.....And I would wait to fill it in until the next time it rains and make sure no rain water is comin out of the damn thing

 

looks like an old sewer pipe to me

 

I don't think it's a sewer pipe, it's too close to the surface and doesn't stink. I don't think water comes out of the pipe either. The dirt in the pipe was actually dry, all the water you see in the pics seeped out of the ground adter I dug the hole.

I've revised my plans to work around this latest obstacle. Made decent progress today after work actually. It's supposed to rain pretty heavy tomorrow or the next day. If I can get it finished in time it'll get a good test.

I'll get some progress pics up soon.