Water in Garage - Gutters?
 

Just bought a new home and noticed some puddling of water on my garage floor yesterday after Wednesday nights rain. Is this common? Also, my home doesn't have gutters all the way around and I noticed while shopping for the home that that seems to be an upgrade. Can anyone explain why gutters around the house isn't the standard down here?

Thanks for all of the responses and after reading them I realized I wasn't very descriptive about where the water is. It was scattered about on the floor probably 1/2 dozen places (all away from the garage doors and none near where the car was parked). There is no obvious damage to ceiling or walls. I believe all locations were near the contraction joints in the floor.

Cost

It is definitely not normal. If it is a new house, call the warranty department. Not having gutters is not the problem.

Where on the garage floor? If at the Rollup door you may have defective door seal, or the wind just flow it under/around door. By the window? It may have seal problem or you left it cracked and wind blew it in. If it nowhere near the these areas you have leak some where. Especially it it’s around the vents tat go through the roof?

The above is correct. You do not say where in the garage you have water. It has nothing to do with gutters. Gutters are optional but recommended. Is there any signs of water intrusion on the ceiling or wall adjacent to the front entry? Often this is a flashing issue where the two meet. Is it by the garage door? If so it could simply be coming from rain hitting the garage door and seeping in.Is it near the Utility closet? It could be from the condensate line of the A/C. I have even seen where some folks think they have a leak when it was just from the car's a/c.

In any event, if the home is new, call the warranty department at 352-753-6222.

If the water puddle is where your car is parked, it could be from condensation from your car's AC. I occasionally have a small puddle in my garage when I back the car out and it is because the temp and humidity.

If the rain was wind blown and the garage door got wet and then opened you are probably seeing water dripping off the garage door, I have had this happen a couple of times, otherwise no idea.

Well, lots of good possibilities mentioned. If you want to post back where the puddles are or attach a photo you will most likely get a more definitive answer. Remember too that with high humidity if the puddles are from under your car they don't dry in a day, it could take several days.

Speculation.
Just call warranty so someone can take a look before the water dries. Jeeze!

Or take a photo.

No guessing beings didn’t say where the water was puddling. Like most questions the poster never comes back or post what the fix was?

That always amazes me. Maybe in this case it really was under the car and he/she is too embarrassed to let us know.

Did you catch the second paragraph of OP?

I have never heard in all the years I have read this forum a complaint like this. You should call warranty. They are very good at sorting things out.

I found it unusual too that homes here do not come with gutters and downspouts all the way around the home, just in front. We didn't add them to our first new home here where we lived for four years. We found the sandy soil quickly wicked the water and it didn't puddle like the grass and dirt did in Ohio. The second home we added the all around gutters and down spouts. I am SURE it isn't about the cost. So many items were carefully done and very well done on both new homes. Some people leap to dis the builder and I think they are jealous, or don't live here and wish they did.

Welcome. Don't forget to call warranty. They are extremely helpful.

From what you write ground water is seeping out of the slab which means two thing a water piping under slab is leaking, the house is built on top of a high water table, or the storm leaders are clogged. this is free information from a retired licensed master plumber from NYC

Gutters
 

When you install gutters the water problem will probably go away. Also, you may want to put some sealer in the concrete openings, but just where they are by the doors, so water from outside won’t flow into the garage.

Agree with calling HW.


Rain is coming...........get a beer and a chair and sit in your garage while it's raining.

Sounds like you have a bigger problem than just the gutters

No, it was edited and I didn't go back

[QUOTE=Accidental1;1894228]Just bought a new home and noticed some puddling of water on my garage floor yesterday after Wednesday nights rain. Is this common? Also, my home doesn't have gutters all the way around and I noticed while shopping for the home that that seems to be an upgrade. Can anyone explain why gutters around the house isn't the standard down here?

I bought a home two years ago that was about 9 years old and had the same problem and no gutter over the garage.... same problem. Apparently it didn't bother the previous owners 'cause it wasn't a lot and it was easily swept out. But what happened couple of times is that it would hit the wires of the garage door sensor and 'caused the outlet they are on to pop (which also shut off my irrigation system). I put a rubber strip on the floor under the garage door; no help. I discovered the water was going down between the pavers and coming right on in, under the strip. I put gutters over the garage and had the downspout that dumps right at the edge of the garage moved to the other side of the house entry. Haven't had a problem since. Sorry for the long story, but wanted to give you the whole experience in case any of it applies. Good luck - it's maddening for sure!

I just put gutters on the front because I have plantings around the house that can use the water. It certainly is cost that keeps the villages from putting full gutters on. Also, these houses have no basements which might be the reason for not needing gutters. The houses are on land that is pitched so water will run away from the foundations. Calling warranty would certainly be a good idea.

fyi

Re: gutters
The soil in most of the Villages is sandy clay. In some areas there is a clay layer under the soil that you see. Drainage is not the same everywhere. Water from gutters goes into a down spout. It does not disappear. It has to go somewhere. Homes are close together.
The people who install gutters and sometimes the people who hire them are taking the water from their home and dumping it on their neighbors.

Look around your lot. If you have a spot where water stays as a puddle, on your lot, for more than 4 hours or so after a rain, you have a drainage problem. You may have created it yourself with landscaping, a pool, down spouts etc. It is a good idea to correct it. On a new home I think they say 6 hours. If, it stays longer than that your builder needs to correct it. It can be expensive and you need to document it.

Calling. We all do it. It is quick and easy. Old school and it still works. A follow up letter
to attention of the person you spoke to sent return receipt.

We used Matt Bassett; 352 504 7377; he is excellent. Prices very fair. Highly recommend. (I used to run 85 home improvement locations -so I know good vs. bad.)

No, who reads and comprehends the whole post:)

Did you notice he edited his post :popcorn:

Concur
 

Take pictures in all cases. Definitely call warranty dept. You may want to have the house inspected and submit all defects to the warranty dept. You have a year to do it and I haven't seen any houses built here that don't have defects. They build them so quickly there bound to have multiple defects.

Thinking bout it now you added more information it my be wicking problem. Gutter may help if ran away from house, especially if you see standing water around foundation?

Exactly what I was going to say! Most likely explanation.

Same thing happened to me. Four roof surfaces all ran off in one spot. Gutters fixed the problem.

With all the rain we get here, you MUST HAVE gutters. Otherwise you will end up with ruts all around your house where the water drips off the roof and then water pools up where you don't want it to.

And the good thing is gutters are one of the bargains available down here, so much cheaper than up north.

We added gutters to the front of the house only, due to staining on the driveway. The rest of the house has no gutters (4000 sq. ft. of roof) and we do not have any washouts or ruts. The house is going on 7.5 years old. We did have some recent problems due to the recent large amount of rain, but this was in the area with gutters, the pop-up drains were located in an area that could not handle the additional rainfall, so $500 to relocate the drains and re-sod the lawn in that area.