If you have 99 problems and a flood is one of them, think about dropping the other 98 to focus on the task at hand. If a flood is threatening to turn your garage into a submerged mausoleum with your precious classic or trusted daily driver inside—along with whatever else might be trapped in there—your problems tally could be rising exponentially.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to protect both your car and garage from both regular old inconvenient leaks and cataclysmic events. OK, our advice might stop short of the latter, but for water levels that don’t make your entire house a total loss, we have the preventative measures to keep you covered, and some advice on what to do if you weren’t prepared. Some methods cost nothing and some cost thousands of dollars, but weigh your preventative costs against what you are protecting inside.
Let’s dive in—figuratively, we hope.
Aye Captain, High Ground Ahead!
The simplest solution is often the one right in front of us. If your car rests in a low spot that can collect water, peer out over the horizon and search for something upstream. If your driveway has sunk into the ground over the years, it could be as simple as moving to the end of it. If that isn’t possible, maybe a neighbor has a better layout. You could have someone give you a ride to a public parking lot or park towards the top of a hill if you live at the bottom. Wherever you go, avoid unpaved surfaces; grass or dirt can become soft and leave your car stuck after the rain, or, in the worst case, it could slide downhill.
But what about garage-kept cars that never see rain in the first place? And what do you do if what you are protecting can’t be moved?
Install Garage Barriers
You might not be able to stop a flood from happening, but you can stop it from getting into your garage. The obvious path of entry for water is going to be the garage door. For minor flooding or regular leaks during a heavy rain, a threshold seal can be easily installed on the garage floor to bolster the seal on the bottom of the door. To keep water from getting to the door in the first place, barrier fabric or other water-absorbing products can be placed further up the driveway, on walkways, or in front of additional side-entry doors to keep water out and away.
Hardcore Barriers
At what point do inconvenient water problems turn into real flood problems? When water starts to get above 2 or 3 inches, that’s when you might need more than retrofit seals and absorbent materials. This temporary dam can be installed when a flood is predicted. With customizable length and height, it is versatile in protection and places it can be installed. For other doorways, barriers made for regular side-hinged doors can be installed too.These barriers require some warning and time to install, so if you’re hit with a flash flood, a self-rising quick-dam can be used instead, and is practical for surrounding the perimeter of detached garages or even the entire house. This is the kind of product you might want to have on hand if you live in an identified flood or hurricane area.
All these barriers range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, but the cost of potential damage could be far greater.
Waterproof the Garage
What if water does end up in your garage? For good measure, avoid keeping anything that shouldn’t get wet on the floor. Instead, keep valuable objects at least 12 inches off the ground with shelves or other storage options. Barrier fabric could be placed around items that can’t be stored higher and around cars, motorcycles, and other things that go but don’t go in water.
Keeping your stuff protected can be as easy as rearranging your garage, but what does water entry mean for the garage itself?
Water-Resistant Materials
What is a garage made of? On the inside, it’s almost always a concrete floor and drywall. The concrete will be fine, but drywall does not like water. Even green board is only moisture-resistant and can’t be exposed to water for extended periods of time. Without tearing apart all your walls, waterproof materials like PVC panels can be installed over them. Look for interlocking panels with a sealant and you’ll avoid major repairs or future mold and mildew problems in drywall.
Raise Electrical Outlets
Are you shocked by how easily water can infiltrate and ruin your garage? You’ll risk an actual shock if your electrical outlets get wet. According to the 2023 revision of the National Electric Code, ground-fault circuit interrupter outlets (GFCI) are required in residential areas where water can be present, like kitchens, bathrooms, and garages. They will help you avoid danger if they end up submerged, but why let them be submerged in the first place?
There is no standard height for residential garages but think about your potential flood risk and go from there. Moving them up to 24 inches or higher is often recommended and can make them more accessible as a bonus.
Divert Water From Garage
If you really want to elevate your flood-proofing game, try this: keep the water from getting to your garage in the first place.If you’re at the mercy of hills or otherwise unforgiving landscape features, there are plenty of simple, as well as more extreme, measures you can take to ensure that your garage is no longer the path of least resistance.
Start with the easy stuff and get your gutters and downspouts in order. Pro tip: If your gutters are cultivating a habitat of their own, it’s time to clean them. Once they are clean, make sure the downspouts flow freely and that the whole system is in working order. When it does rain, look for spots pooling by your house/garage and see if you can trace that standing water back to a poorly aimed gutter; otherwise, you’ll have a grading problem to address. It might be as simple as building up flower beds to make them the high ground, or you might be calling in a crew to handle regrading an entire yard.
Divert Even More Water From Your Garage
Another solution is installing a trench drain system.A system like this can be used to plot a path through a backyard as a possible alternative to completely regrading if you can get the water source into it. If water is prone to pool at your garage door, a trench drain could be installed at the front of it, although some concrete work would be involved to get it in there. Installing trench drains along the sides of a driveway might help divert water from the garage door in the first place.
We’ve covered plenty of ways to stop water in a flood, but having the foresight to properly route water in the first place to eliminate repeat problems with regular, heavy rains is going to be the best bang for your buck. Invest in the solution before you’re stuck replacing all of your stuff.
Regular Car Maintenance
Flooding isn’t just a problem at home, and it can cause you a great deal of grief if flooded roads cause your car to stall. The obvious advice here is to slow down before barreling through a puddle. Watch any cars in front of you to help judge the depth and stay back to avoid any waves they throw up. Always approach any body of water with caution. If you aren’t sure if you’ll make it, a storm isn’t the time to figure it out.
But when you are faced with water, you want to know that your car can take it. Keeping up on simple maintenance like oil, coolant, and transmission fluid changes will help keep gaskets in good shape, keeping water out and the right fluids in. Older cars with cracked or brittle door, liftgate, hood, or trunk seals could benefit from replacing them. When still in good shape, applying a seal protectant or restoring productas part of a regular cleaning schedule will keep them supple and properly functioning.
What Does Insurance Cover?
It’s finally time to address everyone’s favorite automobile expense: insurance. Speaking with a local insurance agency that represents all the largest providers in the United States (as a side note, agencies like this are the best way to shop for the lowest rates), we got the lowdown on how to know whether you need flood insurance. The short answer is almost always yes. However, when water comes up from the ground, homeowners’ insurance typically covers it, whether it’s a basement backup from a clogged sewer drain, or even excess standing water from a flood. When water enters your dwelling as a direct result of falling from the sky, that’s when you’ll need flood insurance.
High-water-table areas or hurricane zones will typically require that you carry flood insurance but check with your provider to make sure you are covered for the events you think you might encounter. If you have flood issues from landscaping or other things that can be addressed, assess the cost of fixing them or carrying flood insurance. You might still want to do both.
Will a Flooded Car Fix Itself?
No. Let’s move on.
Alright, you deserve a bit more of an explanation than that. But just know, a flooded car is not a problem that just magically goes away. If you don’t know how to fix it yourself, please take it somewhere—via a tow truck, preferably—to get it straightened out. And dried out.
You can tell if your car has gotten wet if it’s, well, wet. The interior is probably the worst thing to fix because drying it out can be a major pain depending on the extent of the problem. Get your hair dryer ready! (Just watch the heat setting.) A wet vacuum or upholstery cleaner can help you get the water out, too. If you end up with nice weather, you can leave the windows open to speed evaporation. In a garage, leave the doors open if you have space and try running a fan.
A Flooded Car Still Won’t Fix Itself
A more serious problem, but one that’s easier to fix if addressed promptly, is getting water out from inside the mechanical bits. If your engine’s oil looks frothy like a cappuccino, it hasn’t just hit the Starbucks drive-through, it has water in it. Change that oil. Water inside transmission fluid will look like a strawberry milkshake. These conditions might sound cute, but water and oil do not mix. When the car sits, the water and oil will separate, and water is not a proper lubricant. In serious cases, make sure you don’t forget about components like differentials and axles, too.
Electrical gremlins can be tricky to sort out and can sometimes be solved by letting the components dry out. But if you aren’t savvy to the wizardry of electricity, keep your hair on your head where it belongs and just take it to the shop.
Will Water Damage a Car Right Away?
Water can damage your car before you even finish the thought. In the worst case, you could be facing hydro-lock—when your engine stalls because the cylinders fill up with water. Fluids don’t compress, so if you’re lucky enough for the engine to just stall without breaking something, do not by any means attempt to restart it without checking it out first. We’ve even seen water trash the vanes on the compressor side of a turbocharger.
But all is not lost, and even a hydro-locked engine can be repaired. It might require pulling the heads or other components to properly clean out the water, but it is usually cheaper than outright replacing it. In any case, removing all the water is key. The impurities will cause bearings, cylinders, and other components to rust. Even the cooling system is susceptible, as it needs clean water and coolant to prevent corrosion.
Spending the money up-front to waterproof and protect your vehicle might seem like a lot, but the consequences could be a far more expensive endeavor.
