Water ingress under new (professionally fitted) garage door

[kingandy2nd]

Hey guys,

Do you think this is acceptable? Newly fitted garage door, and the first time it rained I noticed water coming in under the door:

Following morning I was left with this:

Emailed the manufacturer/fitter (same company), to say I didn't think the door was closing properly (pushing the seal into the floor enough) and to ask if was there anything that could be done to adjust it.

Response was as follows:

"Sometimes this can happen with some doors, even though the seal is tight to the floor, there is still the chance of water coming through. This is something that unfortunately cannot be foreseen prior to the installation.

Weather strips are purchasable from us for £120+VAT, alternatively they are available to purchase for self-fitting from companies such as Screwfix."​

The door/fitting cost was north of £3k. Is the above a valid response and I just need to suck up the costs, or should I am I being reasonable to expect a weather-proof door?

Thanks
Andy

 

[mrrusty]

You're being unreasonable to expect the seal at the bottom of an up and over to be perfect against concrete. Create a slight hump/ridge just inside the door and it will be fixed.

 

[^woody^]

Not acceptable nor is that response - apparently the door can leak by design but you can pay extra to prevent it?

I can't think of any doors on a building that are not intended to keep water out.

Reject the door as faulty.

 

[mrrusty]

Reject the door as faulty.

It won't be. Garage door seals are a simple rubber flipper. They will never water seal 100% directly against rough cast concrete, nor are they designed to. If the floor slopes inwards, it isn't going to be watertight with just the flipper seal. Exterior doors intended to be 100% waterproof have thresholds of one sort or another. You need to create or purchase a garage door threshold. Loads available, or, as I say, just create your own.

Having said all that, if you paid an installer, they should have fitted a threshold, so get the installer back. It's not the door, it's the installation.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

You're being unreasonable to expect the seal at the bottom of an up and over to be perfect against concrete.

I looks like a roller shutter door, but I do think the OP is expecting too much. The problem is the concrete slab, it really needs to incline towards the door. As it doesn't, I would be looking for a heavy duty strip of rubber, which could be screwed down to the concrete and sealed to it, so as to create a dam just inside of the door, to prevent rain water being blown in.

I doubt the door installer suggestion of a weather strip will make much if any difference.

Another way would be to cut a small channel in the concrete, just inside the door, to collect the water and get it to drain outside (angle grinder). I see there is a small step down off the slab, outside. You might also try some slots cut at right angles to the door, outside the door - to prevent water collecting on the outside lip of the slab.

I have/had a similar problem. My door faces the prevalent wind direction, which is funnelled up my drive by the house. Drive and garage slab are at a similar level. In heavy weather rain used to blow under my door. I mostly solved it by cutting the concrete to allow a row of those cast-iron grids across the full width of the door, just outside the door.

My garage floor does still get wet, when I drive the car in wet, or with snow on it.

 

[mrrusty]

https://www.weatherdefender.co.uk/

 

[kingandy2nd]

Thanks for the feedback guys, for information it's a sectional garage door.

The company also came out to survey the door/opening, and I was given all sorts of options for extra openers, windows in the door, etc but at no point was the possibility of needing further weatherproofing was mentioned. If it had of been, I would have probably taken the option.

Seems like there's mixed views of even if this weather strip will be effective. I don't really want to be chopping into my concrete floor!

Obviously I'm pretty handy with a bit of DIY, so fitting a strip isn't a problem - it's more the concept of having to pay as an optional extra later.

If I was a little old lady that had this problem, I think the seller's response would be even more unacceptable IMO.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

If I was a little old lady that had this problem, I think the seller's response would be even more unacceptable IMO.

Understandable, but if you had someone in painting and decorating, you would not really expect them to do some replastering as a part of the job. You contracted with them to fit the door, they did that. Did you have the same ingress with the previous door?

 

[kingandy2nd]

Understandable, but if you had someone in painting and decorating, you would not really expect them to do some replastering as a part of the job. You contracted with them to fit the door, they did that. Did you have the same ingress with the previous door?

I don't think that's a reasonable analogy Harry.

I paid for someone to fit a garage door to the standard it's not unreasonable to expect: functional, secure, and weather-tight.

 

[^woody^]

It won't be. Garage door seals are a simple rubber flipper. They will never water seal 100% directly against rough cast concrete, nor are they designed to. If the floor slopes inwards, it isn't going to be watertight with just the flipper seal. Exterior doors intended to be 100% waterproof have thresholds of one sort or another. You need to create or purchase a garage door threshold. Loads available, or, as I say, just create your own.

Having said all that, if you paid an installer, they should have fitted a threshold, so get the installer back. It's not the door, it's the installation.

It does not slope inwards you can see that. Water is running down the door and under it, and that is a defective installation. It's half a job. You would not accept it with a front door and no cill or weather bar, and water pouring in to you house, so why would anyone accept it with a garage door?

It its not the installers job to provide a threshold as you infer, then they should ether advise the customer that or not fit the door until the threshold is suitable.
As I said, a door by virtue of being "a door" should keep the weather out. You must surely be thinking of a gate.

 

[^woody^]

I looks like a roller shutter door, but I do think the OP is expecting too much. The problem is the concrete slab, it really needs to incline towards the door. As it doesn't, I would be looking for a heavy duty strip of rubber, which could be screwed down to the concrete and sealed to it, so as to create a dam just inside of the door, to prevent rain water being blown in.

I doubt the door installer suggestion of a weather strip will make much if any difference.

Another way would be to cut a small channel in the concrete, just inside the door, to collect the water and get it to drain outside (angle grinder). I see there is a small step down off the slab, outside. You might also try some slots cut at right angles to the door, outside the door - to prevent water collecting on the outside lip of the slab.

I have/had a similar problem. My door faces the prevalent wind direction, which is funnelled up my drive by the house. Drive and garage slab are at a similar level. In heavy weather rain used to blow under my door. I mostly solved it by cutting the concrete to allow a row of those cast-iron grids across the full width of the door, just outside the door.

My garage floor does still get wet, when I drive the car in wet, or with snow on it.

So on the subject of doors and cars, if you had a new car door fitted and you got soaked on the way home because the rubber seals were an optional extra - "it will be OK in the summer gov'nor like a convertible", would be smiling with joy and opening your wallet, or would you be up for shutting the car door with the mechanic's head in it?

 

[opps]

I completely understand why you are annoyed but the only reason you have water coming in is because of the concrete slab rather than the door.

Did you really expect a rubber door seal (on the underside of the door) to prevent water hitting the outer part of the slab to be held back from the effects of gravity?

My sectional door allows the water to come in by about 10cm. To be honest it doesn't really bother me but if it did would either fit a threshold or grind the concrete outside slightly and or run the grooves suggested by Harry.

 

[opps]

It does not slope inwards you can see that. Water is running down the door and under it, and that is a defective installation. It's half a job. You would not accept it with a front door and no cill or weather bar, and water pouring in to you house, so why would anyone accept it with a garage door?

It its not the installers job to provide a threshold as you infer, then they should ether advise the customer that or not fit the door until the threshold is suitable.
As I said, a door by virtue of being "a door" should keep the weather out. You must surely be thinking of a gate.

"It does not slope inwards you can see that". The fact that the water is pooling inside and not running back out kinda leads me to think that your eyes might be fooling you.

I agree that the option of a threshold should have been discussed. Nevertheless, if the base were tilting in the correct direction, the pooling water would not be an issue.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

So on the subject of doors and cars, if you had a new car door fitted and you got soaked on the way home because the rubber seals were an optional extra - "it will be OK in the summer gov'nor like a convertible", would be smiling with joy and opening your wallet, or would you be up for shutting the car door with the mechanic's head in it?

Not the same thing at all - it's a garage, which is expected to get a wet floor at times, unless you dry your car outdoors, before parking it in the garage. A house door again is different, I would expect one to seal against the weather, I would also expect to remove my wellies before coming in from the rain.

The OP hasn't mentioned water entering through the door, rather it is passing under it along the slab.

 

[^woody^]

Not the same thing at all - it's a garage, which is expected to get a wet floor at times, unless you dry your car outdoors, before parking it in the garage. A house door again is different, I would expect one to seal against the weather, I would also expect to remove my wellies before coming in from the rain.

The OP hasn't mentioned water entering through the door, rather it is passing under it along the slab.

It's a door. What the OP does with the room enclosed is of no concern to the fitter the requirement is for the the installation to keep out water.
You can't say "Well, its a bathroom and will get wet anyway, so the window I'm fitting can leak like a sieve"