When I lived in Peters Creek and commuted to....wherever my work was, the Pickup always came home with those big gob's of frozen snow up in the Fenders and other places.

I thought about digging a large hole under my Garage area. A sump.
Then I'd pour the Cement floor, with Hot water heating in that floor.

So I'd get home, put the Pickup in that nicely heated garage, and all that snow would melt off the pickup and go down that drain....and out into the ground.

That 'in the floor' hot water heating is cheaper and fairly easy to install.

 

I think this is already done, in fact new houses are built with in the slab hot water (well, glycol) heating. It is good idea!

One of the house we wanted to rent and didn't get, had a heated driveway, stairs, and walkways. The garage was heated the normal way - with a boiler circulating hot water through a fan that blows air through a radiator.

I need a way to do this AFTER the fact so I can deice and goop my truck that doesn't fit in the garage. Only thing I came up with was heating a canopy. But of of course that won't work in -20F weather.

 

DAK, they put a Gyp-Crete on the floors up there.
Once that Gyp-Crete sets, you can drive on it. If you have Cement under it.

Never put any kind of Antifreeze in the floor coils. Just pay your Gas bill and use 3/4" tubing made of that Black stuff that isn't supposed to freeze/Bust.

And my idea came from 1972. I don't think they were doing it then.
"Wersbo" from Sweden has all the equipment and instructions you'll ever need.
And I think it would work in your carport at -20 if you used a Tarp to keep the wind off the Pickup.

 

boiler gylcol is cheap compared to breaking up the floor to fix a broken line...

the gylcol comes to its own when the system isn't circulating...

an the new PEX line is almost indestructable..

even with all that I can't see how I can make it work in my driveway without insulating walls and a roof.

Just don't have the room

plus, all that melted snow and ice has to go somewhere

Chris

 

The Drain is important. A lot of Sand comes home with all that Ice.
Why can't you put up a "Blue Tarp" canopy over your Carport area?

My idea was to make a large "Septic Tank" area beneath the Floor of the Garage.
Use a 'man hole' size cover over a big drain area. I didn't really know what I'd use to keep the sides of the Drain hole from caving in, I just had the idea.

I built a small house in AK. Put that Wersbo tubing down on top two layers of 3/4" Ply , then the 2" of GypCrete, and fired up the heating system. It was nearly -20 that day.
I stayed there to baby-sit.
I hadn't put up any insulation yet. It was just a 52'X24' shed at that time.

It was toasty in there after a couple hours. It took two days for the moisture to come out of the GypCrete, with some big fans to help dry the frame.

Sadly the people who bought the house divorced. Nobody paid the bills. The floor froze, busted, and eventually the Big Scooper was brought in to Raze the house.

 

I have a small shop 30'x30' no floor drain but I do have heated water in the floor. 900' running feet, I do have RV antifreeze in it. We have heated floors in our house also electric cables in 1.5" of Gyp-Crete.