If you want your garage floor to be both functional and aesthetically pleasing, then you need to dedicate time to cleaning it. In this article, we’ll give you a simple but thorough guide on how to clean your garage floor, including how to get rid of stubborn stains, as well as how to preserve your garage flooring for many years to come. Let’s get started.
Preparing Your Garage for Cleaning
Clear the Floor for an Unobstructed Cleaning Process
You can make it easier for yourself to clean your garage by taking some time to prepare it, and clearing a path for cleaning by following these steps. 1) Do not focus on cleaning up your garage, but rather taking time out to prepare your garage for a thorough cleaning. 2) There are many things lying around your garage that you can use to make it easier to clean your garage. 3
Quartet 2.7.2: All Items Off the Floor: Clear off everything that you have on the garage floor. It may be a collection of tools, boxes, bicycles or other items that have found their way to be stored on your floor. These items are not considered garbage and may be temporarily moved to the driveway or another safe place until you finish cleaning and organising.
Sort as you go: While you are sorting things off the floor to put them away, you might as well take a moment to sort what you’re doing. What will you keep, donate or discard? This will help to reduce the clutter, which can make it easier to keep the garage tidy in the future.
Ceiling to Floor Clean Clean from ceiling down to floor. Dust and cobwebs accumulate on the ceiling and walls and can fall onto the floor when you clean. Include the walls when you broom, dust, or use a hose attachment to your vacuum.
Floor Sweep and Vacuum: Next, fluff and tidy all the sofas, chairs and beds. Then sweep the floor to scoop up the bits of dirt and trash that have been accumulating. Finish by vacuuming the entire floor, paying special attention to the corners and edges where dust likes to congregate.
Deal with stains and spills: check that there are no oil stains on the floor and that you can see the spillage spots. Commercial cleaners for garage floors is one option, you can also use a few home remedy mixtures such as baking soda and vinegar to treat these spots.
For example, under the entry ‘Deep Cleaning Solutions’, and siting ‘Pressure washer’ and after ‘Floor buffer w/ scrubbing pad’, we see the PR phrased as follows: To really freshen up your garage floor, we recommend using a pressure washer or a floor buffer with a scrubbing pad. This will help remove stubborn dirt and grime, along with any accumulation of soils.
Think Before Putting Things Away: Once the floor is clean, come up with a system for how to return stuff to the garage. Set up shelving units, hooks and bins for items that can be put out of sight so they don’t wind up back on the floor. This also saves time during future cleanings.
If you work your way through them one by one, your garage will be clean and ready for use, and chances are, you will have enjoyed the process.
Eliminating Loose Dirt and Debris
First you want to remove a little dirt and debris from your garage floor. This is how I rock out:
Pick the Right Tools: First, gather the correct equipment. You want a stiff broom for large objects like leaves, piles of dirt and gravel bits. For smaller particles such as dust and sand, you can use a shop vacuum, which is stronger than a household vacuum and can take heavier, coarser particles.
Brush the Floor: Start by pushing everything to one side then use a stiff broom and sweep the floor thoroughly. Sweep the entire garage and the edges of the room and corners, as they tend to harbour the largest amount of dust. Use long sweeping motions as you push dust, dirt and trash to the centre of your garage room or the main door.
Vacuum the Floor: After you sweep, vacuum the floor. This will pick up the dust and smaller particles that the broom left. Use the proper vacuum attachments. These will go into the tight places and right along the edges.
* Clear the site: Remove any debris and dispose of it properly. Depending on the nature or size of the debris pile, this might involve the use of large garbage bags or require a trip to a junk disposal facility.
Check for Missed Spots: Once the floor is clean the first time, do a quick visual check from about three to 10 feet away before moving on. A quick re-check will help find small patches that might have gone unnoticed during the first cleaning pass.
Get the floor ready for wet cleaning: If all loose dirt has been removed, then the floor is ready for the wet cleaning. Without loose dirt, the floor can be efficiently mopped or scrubbed and dust is not spread.
There’s no sense in splashing water all around when there are just piles of loose dirt sitting there waiting to be vacuumed up. You will get your garage cleaner, quicker, and have less water on the floor to mop up afterwards, if you vacuum the loose stuff off first.
Mixing the Perfect Cleaning Solution
Creating an Effective Degreasing Solution
If your garage floor is greasy, you’re better to start by mixing a good degreasing solution. This will improve cleaning results, especially if oil or grease has been spilt on your garage floor. Use these instructions to mix your cleaning solution.
Use the Right Degreaser: Choose a good-quality degreaser, such as Dawn Platinum Diskwashing Liquid or Simple Green. These are readily available in most cleaning supply shops because they cut through grease and grime, are effective degreasers, and are usually fairly gentle on a wide range of surfaces. Most garage floors will do well with such compounds.
Step 1: Prepare Your Supplies and Protect Against Moisture: You will need a clean bucket, warm water and degreaser. Make sure that whatever you use for your bucket is free of any residue that might weaken the ability of the degreaser to remove grease.
Stir The Mixture: Pour the contents into the bucket of warm water. Warm water is always preferable because it helps the degreaser dissolve and activate faster. Follow the usage instructions on the degreaser label, which will tell you how much to add — usually, a few ounces per gallon of water.
Stir well: Stir the solution well with a stick or with a large spoon. Make sure the degreaser can completely mix with water. The more well the solution can be mixed, the better the cleaning effect.
See if it Works: It’s a good idea to test the solution on a small, inconspicuous area of your floor to make sure that the product does not colour or damage the surface.
Step 2: You’re Ready to Use!: Dissolve your laundry detergent and Joy in a bucket of hot water. Use your degreasing solution in a mop-bucket form to mop your garage floor. Alternatively, use your degreasing solution in a scouring-past form to scrub your floor. For tough grease/grime areas, let your degreasing solution soak for a few minutes to dissolve the grease.
Rinse thoroughly: Once you’ve scrubbed, rinse with clear water to remove all the cleaner and avoid any slick spots on your garage floor.
Using this powerful (and safe) degreasing solution will help you get a cleaner, less greasy garage floor.
Application of the Cleaning Solution
Cleaning your garage floor thoroughly and making sure you get rid of the oil and grime requires using your cleaning solution. Here’s how you can use it.
Get your Mop and Bucket: You’d better make sure that your mop is clean and in good working condition, and that you haven’t waited too long to use it, since the more worn out it is, the less efficient it’ll be. Let’s fill your bucket with the mixture you made of the degreaser.
Break it down into Small Areas: you can maintain more control over your cleaning efforts if you attend to a small area of floor at any one time. Getting too much area covered with cleaning solution at once can lead to you running out of time to clean it as you should before the solution has dried.
Putting the Solution into Practice:Soak the wet mop into the cleaning solution, give it the courtesy of a quick wring so it’s not dripping profusely, and then slather that mofo onto that first segment of floor. Thoroughly cover your skin in the solution.
Soak It Up: Let the solution sit on the floor for 10-15 minutes. Soaking is the most essential step for this method. If you leave the degreaser on for a long period, it will have more time to break down the oil and dirt. Don’t let the solution dry out. A damp surface helps the action happen.
Then you can scrub (and we do mean scrub): If there is considerable staining or buildup, agitate the floor surface during or after the soak time with a scrub brush. A stiff-bristled brush is especially useful for breaking up more stubborn dirt.
Rinse the Section: Following the soaking and scrubbing of the dirt-caked area came the mopping of clear water to remove the cleaning solution together with all the lifted dirt and grease.
Repeat for garage floor sections: Move to the next section of your garage floor and repeat the process again. It’s good practice to work toward your garage exit, so you don’t step on the areas you’ve already cleaned.
Final Rinse and Dry: After spraying your garage floor, allow everything to bubble up and soak for around 10 to 15 minutes depending on the size and area you are cleaning. Then, give your garage floor a final rinse with clean water. If possible and available, use a squeegee to dry up the floor leaving it nearly dry so there is little to no slip hazard.
If you apply the cleaner in ‘strips’ (ie, across the floor in small parts) and let it soak, you’ll ‘get a much cleaner garage floor, with less grease on it’.
Scrubbing the Floor
If you have applied an appropriate degreasing solution to the garage floor, and if you want really good results, you will need to perform some scrubbing to remove ingrained dirt and stains. Here is how to do it step by step.
Scrubbing brush – Select a brush with nylon bristles for scrubbing. Nylon is not only durable enough to remove dirt without damaging the concrete, it also doesn’t shed fragments, unlike metal or stiff wire bristles, which could stick around in the concrete and rust.
Scrubbing Time: After waiting for the recommended 10-15 minutes for the cleaning solution to penetrate, scrub the surface with a firm, consistent motion. For big floors, use a brush with a long handle to make the scrubbing easier and spare your back.
Take note of stained areas: Concentrate on patches of heavy oil stains or accumulated grime, which might need extra scrubbing or a second application of the solution in order to get rid of lingering grease.
Work in sections: keep the process sectional – as it will have been while you were using the cleaner – so that you use the cleaning solution in orderly, small sections. Once you’ve scrubbed an area, move on and don’t come back to scrub it again until it’s all done. That way, the cleaning solution won’t have time to dry out before you’ve scrubbed it.
Rinse Each Section: Rinse clean water over each section to flush off the remaining dirt and, just as important, to wash away the degreaser – otherwise it could settle back into the concrete’s pores.
Inspect and Scrub Again If Required: Once you’ve scoured and rinsed the floor, look at it for any stubborn stains or dirt. Some areas might need to be treated again. Apply more cleaning solution, let stand again, scrub as needed.
Squeegee the Floor: Mop up any remaining water after the final rinse. The less water on the floor at the start, the quicker it will dry when people start walking. This is important because a wet floor is a slip hazard.
The key is to use a nylon-bristled brush and perform these steps: Clean your garage floor of any junk, grit and grease.Use a regular wood putty knife to remove any loose concrete from the floor.Set up the orbital sander with 80-grit sandpaper and follow the manufacturer’s instructions.Sand the floor in two directions at a slight angle using an East to West on North to South motion.You want the concrete to have a small ripple, but not a deep one, so not too much sanding. (See Image 3.)Your floor will have small bumps that will be handy for you and your wheels.
Rinsing the Floor
Another crucial step is to ensure that all the residues of the floor-scrubbing process are rinsed off properly and don’t leave an opportunity for more dirt to gather on the floor.
Explaining how to do it is pretty easy:
PREP ROUND: Choose your equipment For rinsing, use a pressure washer, if possible, for a pummelling, rapid clean; a garden hose with spray attachment, preferably with a nozzle that will let you fiddle with water pressure, if you’re lucky enough to have one that wide; or for the faint of heart, and if nothing else is on hand, just use the hose on its own.
Prep the Area: Clear anything from your path that might not handle water well – such as power tools or electronics; and make sure the garage door is open so that the water can escape.
Ridge just taught me a lesson that I should have learned a long time ago – start at the back of the garage and work forward. That way you don’t stand in a puddle of dirty water and you don’t have to push as much dirty water out ahead of you as you go.
Apply Constant Pressure: If using your garden hose on manual or automatic pulsing (gun style, tip on top), apply consistent pressure to allow the wand to do its job. Otherwise, apply pressure by setting the wand nozzle on a medium to high setting. Use a pressure washer with a high-pressure nozzle.
Overlap Your Strokes: when using a hose or pressure washer, overlap your strokes slightly to make sure you don’t miss anything and to remove residues from corners and edges.
Squeegee All Garbage Out: Squeegee everything towards the garage opening, until everything is pushed out. This method prevents any soap or dirty water from being left on your floor.
Rinse And Touch Up: After the whole floor has been rinsed, take a few moments to check and see whether some dark spots have escaped the cleaning. If so, go back over the same areas again with the hose (or pressure washer).
Allow to Dry: Rinsing completed, it’s time to let the floor to air dry. You can speed up the process by using a squeegee to remove the water or setting up fans to move the air around more efficiently.
Rinsing with a bit of extra TLC will help to ensure that your garage floor not only looks clean, but is also free of residues that may attract dirt and create slipping hazards.
Drying the Floor
To achieve the best results after washing your garage floor, make sure to dry it. This is critical as drying the garage floor will help prevent potential problems, such as mold, mildew, or slipping accidents. Here are some steps and tips to help dry your garage floor:
Get some Air Circulation: Open all doors and window. Having air circulate can help with the drying process by increasing airflow.
Dry up Water Residue: After you have let the floor air-dry, use a squeegee to take off as much water left as possible. Push the water toward the open garage door or towards a drain if in the garage if accessible.
Fans for Air Movement: Position fans throughout the space to move the air across the floor. Placing fans at the entrance or using a high-velocity fan will drastically reduce your drying time.
Check Humidity Levels: If it is a particularly humid evening, it will likely take longer to dry the floor. In such cases, using a dehumidifier indoors will help get the water from the air, thus helping it to dry faster.
Don’t Replace Items Too Soon: Don’t move stuff back into the garage until the floor is completely dry so as to avoid trapping moisture beneath objects, thus creating mould- and mildew-friendly conditions.
Take a Look at the Floor: At some point, make a visual inspection Take a feel of the floor to see how It is drying out. Not only the surface. Areas near the corners might take more time to dry.
Time: Depending on the methods used and environmental conditions, drying can take hours. Make sure to plan a clean-up on a warm, sunny day to speed up the process.
This way, you will protect your floor from water damage by drying out the concrete and restoring it to a dry and operational state. Take note of these steps to ensure the moisture and humidity in your garage has exited before resuming use.
Addressing Specific Stains
Oil and Grease Stains
There is no magic solution to remove oil and grease stains from your garage floor, but following a few simple steps should help to get rid of them. Here is what to do:
Sponge Excess Oil: Throw a large quantity of kitty litter on the stain. It will absorb plenty of the oil from the surface.
Let It Sit: Leave the kitty litter on the oil stain. For hard stains, leave it on for 24 hours. For light stains, leave it on for 48 hours. The longer you let it sit, the more of the oil it can absorb, until eventually you can just vacuum up the kitty litter.
Sweep Up Kitty Litter: When the sitting period ends, sweep it up. By that time, it will likely be on the floor and covered with oil. You cannot pour it down the drain.
Apply a Concentrated Degreaser: Secondly, mix a concentrated degreaser solution, since you will need a more concentrated solution that you would usually use for regular floor cleaning to get rid of the stubborn residue left behind by the oil. Apply the solution directly to the stained area.
Scrub with a Nylon-bristled Brush: Next, scrub the area with the nylon-bristled brush. The degreaser will cause the remaining oil and grease to break down. Then you can easily scrub off the remaining oil. Remember to scrub deep so you can get into the pores (nooks and crannies) of the concrete to get out any oil that seeps into the concrete.
Rinse Well: Rinse with clean water after scrubbing. Use a hose or a bucket of water to wash the area well, so that all traces of the degreaser and loosened oil from the chain and sprockets are gone. If you have a pressure washer, use it, its force will remove all possible residue of cleaning agent.
Air dry or towel-dry the Area: Let the cleaned Area air dry, or use a clean, dry mop to pull away some of the water from the Area. This helps avoid slipping and further soil accumulation on the Area while the Area is still wet.
Inspect and Repeat if Necessary: If you need to repeat this step to remove the rest of the stain, do so. When the area is dry, inspect. If the stain has not fully vanished, repeat the degreaser and scrubbing process.
This should leave your garage floor free of a lot of oil and grease staining and looking a whole lot better.
Mold and Mildew
Mould and mildew will respond to a solution of chlorine bleach that has been diluted with water. Spray the bleach-water on the affected area, let it sit for as long as half an hour, then rinse it away. Bleach fumes can irritate your lungs and eyes, so always wear protective clothing and eyewear when working with bleach.
Rust Stains
To treat with oxalic acid-based cleaner: apply as directed, scrub with a nylon brush, rinse well. Repeat application if stain does not appear to be removed.
Additional Tips for Different Types of Flooring
Epoxy Floors: Regularly sweep and mop up spills quickly. Avoid soap-based cleaners.
Untreated concrete: Can be maintained like other outdoor concrete surfaces. Clean with an all-purpose cleaner and scrub brush.
Painted/Stained Concrete: Avoid harsh methods like power washing that can damage the finish.
Polished Concrete: Use a pH-neutral polished concrete cleaner and mop lightly.
Vinyl Tile: Sweep. Can be hosed off with mild detergent; no vehicle traffic.
Rubber Tile: Clean with all-purpose cleaner; vulcanized options are best for garages with vehicles.
Cleaning your garage floor is a detail-oriented task that will help to maintain your garage floor and keep it functioning properly and looking great This method will keep your garage floor in top condition if followed as part of your regular routine. Giving your garage regular attention will keep you safe, help you find anything you need, and make your garage a comfortable space to be in.
