# Garage floor pulling away from foundation of house



## katlewis55 (Oct 13, 2015)

We live in Maine and we have a home that was built in 1959. The garage was added in the late 70's, we believe. You come in through the garage and then step up 2 steps into the basement. Right along that wall the garage floor has separated from the foundation. The gap, which we suspect would be a shrinkage issue, (Picture 1) is where the problem lies. There are several cracks in the garage floor (Pictures 2&3) which we have attempted to fill in the past. That part does not seem to leak, just doesn't look great. Our issue is where the floor has receded and we would like to fill the gap between the garage floor and the foundation (it goes down approximately 2-3 inches). It does not appear that the garage floor has sunken at all; however, periodically when we get heavy rains, it leaks. After removing the cement from the crack (some was there previously and some we added on) we realized that there was actually a space, and that we need to fix this properly. It seems that the water is coming up through the space and going into the garage. Any info you can provide will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.


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## griz (Sep 22, 2015)

I know you DIY guys hate hearing this, but you should consult an Engineer.

There is a sub grade failure to cause that much damage in the concrete.

Concrete could also be a the result of a bad mix design and/or poor placement.

Probably a drainage problem in there also.

Between the three you may need to replace the floor to fix it correctly.


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## Bondo (Dec 8, 2007)

Ayuh,.... Water leaks are fixed Outside the buildin', by divertin' the water away from the buildin',....

If ya don't have water movin' under the slab, the crack becomes irrelevant,...


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

Concrete does not shrink. Being that you are in Maine, you will also see frost heave more in situations like this, where the garage was not properly constructed to begin with. You can remove all of the Concrete yourself, for what makes up that slab. Then you can work on getting the foundation of the garage fixed because of the water getting underneath the slab and pulling dirt out, causing the slab to drop where it is now.

Of course if the foundation for the garage was not built properly. You can lift the garage with jacks, to get it off of the foundation, then rebuild a proper foundation and correct the water issue.


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