Garage apron

[timjones]

Right now in front of the garage doors I have class 5. I want to add a concrete apron in front of the doors. The garage roof overhangs two feet so I have a trip line there when it rains or the snow melts off the roof in the spring. Do I want to have the apron extend beyond the drip line or come up just short of it? I'm leaning towards just short because I'm thinking if the melt from the roof drips onto the apron in the winter it could get real slippery. Need to hear from you experts out there. Also, should it be attached to the garage floor so it doesn't move away? I appreciate and help. Thanks.

[GSB Ice Man]

I would eliminate that drip line by putting on a rain gutter. Install draintile to your down spout and send that water away(dig it under ground and towards a lower area). Then pour the apron tight to your garage floor. I prefer NOT to attach the garage and apron because the apron is not supported by your foundation, and your garage floor should be. Gutter prices in Central MN are pretty reasonable, and a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of a new concrete apron. Just my 2 cents.

[buckeyes08]

I would put a gutter on and place concrete at 4ft. min. and I also would pin it to your garage floor. It would stop the apron from rising higher than the garage floor.

[Pat K]

If you pin it to your garage floor and the frost raises the apron in the winter, the apron will take the garage floor up with it. This will cause severe cracking a couple of feet into your garage and mess up the alignment of your garage door.

As someone who learned the hard way, in my opinion DO NOT PIN your apron to the garage floor.

I do agree you should put up gutters to eliminate the drip line and extend the apron out farther.

[crothmeier]

Expansion joint (not pin) your apron and make it at least 5' wide. Rain gutter your drip problem. If you make your apron 2' wide whats the point, you will still get gravel tracked into your garage, and its more likely to move on you. thats my take!

[buckeyes08]

I have yet to see it raise the garage floor if do right I've done alot. Its lasts along time and looks nice for years.

[sig]

I would go past the drip line and buy some new rods instead of a gutter!

[WaveWacker]

I would extend past the drip line. Do the gutter thing over the garage. I wouldn't tie it into my garage floor. Expansion joint as stated above. If your worried about water getting into the seem and saturating under the apron and heaving it up, you could run a length of tile where the two meet and backfill over with pea rock. Run the tile out the same way as the gutter and tie into a tile line that your downspout would dump into (if you chose to install tile for your downspout. Only factor is if there is fall anyplace to outlet the tile. The line doesn't have to be all that deep and be careful of existing utilities.

[daydreamer]

Sorry to somewhat hi-jack the post but would you recommend using 4" SDR 35 pipe or the regular 4" black plastic drain tile tubing to drain the gutters away from the house? I have similar issues to those described above.

[WaveWacker]

Regular corregated CPE tile. Probably non-perf. unless you want to dry a portion of the yard out as you run to the outlet. Don't forget to put some sort of wire/predator guard on the end so that something doesn't crawl up you line, get stuck and die. Hence plugging up your line.

[daydreamer]

Thanks WWacker.

[timjones]

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I will be putting on gutters for sure.

[hunter101]

ive got a problem running drain spouts into tile lines, not that it doesnt work but ive seen them freeze and cause flooding problems in spring untill they thaw. you need to bury the tile below the frost line. im always one to go with proper landscaping to drain water. i also wouldnt pin the apron to the garage floor. go past the drip line and use a minimum of a 2% slope away from your garage. thats just my $.02

[deerminator]

We had the same set-up, two foot overhang in front of the garage and class 5, before getting a 26 by 26 concrete pad put in front of it this summer. We don't have gutters anywhere on the house and the dripline did not present much a problem in terms of things getting too slick and this winter was harsh. So is a gutter 100 percent needed? Not necessarily in our opinion. The reason we dont have gutters is because our builder, a very reputable one in the area, told us not to put them on as we live in a heavily wooded area and the leaves would make them more of a liablity than anything (even with any gutter guard on the market). When you combine the overhang with proper landscaping, a gentle slope away from the house plus rock, mulch, cement, etc., gutters aren't necessary, no matter what a gutter salesman tells you. : )