How to prevent flood damage in the garage

A Garage is a place where you keep your car, right? Wrong. Practically nobody keeps their car in the garage anymore. Most people treat their garage as the equivalent of their loft and throw big and outdoor stuff in there and forget about it. Ladders, party stuff, spare furniture and various bits of old junk all get stored in there. A garage can go for months without being opened. We spoke to a Meaco user who had a horror story when he opened his garage door a couple of months ago.

The problem

What he saw shocked him. The floor was covered in water about half an inch deep, and the ceiling was covered in droplets of condensation. The ceiling by the door looked like it was pebble-dashed with upside-down water droplets defying gravity. It was like going into a dark, dank cave, smelling horrible and musty. The owner was not sure where the water came from or what to do. Was it a leak from the ceiling? Was it a leak through the walls? Was it rising water from underneath the floor? The flood of water droplets covering the ceiling was surely far too much water to be just condensation, wasn’t it? He knew there was a large gap under the garage door and perhaps the floor water could have come in from the rain. It hadn’t done previously but if there was a change of prevailing wind that could have blown it in. Could the ceiling water be condensation?

How to remove flood water from a garage 

The garage owner called Meaco for advice and was told that the ceiling water could indeed have been condensation. The advice was to sweep the surplus water out of the garage, to install a large dehumidifier to suck up the water, and to use a fan and heater to speed the process.

The result

48 hours and several empties of the dehumidifier tank later the garage was bone dry. The ceiling was completely dry, as were the walls and floor. It looked as good as new. It smelled as good as new.

The long-term solution

The homeowner installed a seal at the front of the garage door to stop the bulk of water entering the garage and Meaco recommended purchasing a Meaco DD8L Zambezi dehumidifier to prevent the garage and contents from becoming damp. This desiccant dehumidifier works effectively in low-temperature environments like garages or utility rooms and extracts more water than a compressor dehumidifier. Need more tips on how to dry out a room after flooding? Click here for expert help.