More and more families are using their garages for more than just parking vehicles. Garages are becoming an extended room of the house and because of it, people are spending more and more time in their garages. Even though there are some amazing new flooring options available, most home owners just have plain unsealed cement. Cement garage floors can become dirty and stained from motor oil, paint spills, animal urine, rust and everyday dirt. A good thorough cleaning is important in maintaining the lifespan of your garage floor and will help to make your garage a clean, comfortable place to spend time in. Cleaning unsealed cement garage floors can be quite simple if you know how. Here are a few tips and tricks we want to share with you.
SWEEP IT CLEAN – Remove everything you can from the garage. Using a good push broom, brush all dirt, debris, and cobwebs from the back of the garage to the front. Gather and dispose.
PREP – If you have drywall in your garage, cover the lower 3 feet with a cheap plastic drop cloth. Also be aware of lower electrical outlets. Prep your cleaning solution. We found several “recipes” for cleaning solutions that can be used on unsealed cement garage floors. Here are three of the most common: Recipe #1 – Mix 2 tsp. dish soap, 1 cup white vinegar and 1 gallon warm water in a bucket. Recipe #2 – Make a solution of 1 part all-purpose cleaner, 2 parts warm water and 4 parts ammonia. Recipe #3 – Mix 1/3 cup Tide to 1 gallon of warm water. Any of these should work well for cleaning unsealed cement garage floors.
SCRUB THE FLOOR – Pour your warm water solution onto a section of the garage floor and start scrubbing. Begin at the back of the garage and move outward. A deck brush or something similar with short bristles works best. If your garage floor was not too dirty to begin with, a good hose with a high pressure nozzle should work fine for rinsing. If the floor was extra dirty, you might need to give it a second scrub and rinse. Use a rubber squeegee or mop to move out any puddled water.
REMOVE STAINS – There are many commercial cleaners you can purchase to remove stains but you can also remove stains using products you have at home. Sprinkling baking soda and hydrogen peroxide over stains and scrubbing with a nylon brush works well. You can remove oil spills by applying a degreaser on the stain, scrub, then before it dries cover with cat litter. Mix Tide detergent into a paste and apply to grease and oil spills. Be sure the floor is wet before applying the paste. Then simply rinse it off. To remove rust, try vinegar or squeeze lemon juice on the rust spot. Scrub then rinse. If you have stains that just won’t come up, a commercial cleaner can be purchased.
PRESSURE WASH – To really get out the dirt and grime, try using a pressure washer. You can usually rent them very inexpensively at your local home improvement store. Pressure washers save a lot of time when cleaning unsealed cement garage floors. Make sure that you do not exceed a rate of 4 gallons per minute (3000psi) or you might damage your concrete floor. The fan tip works best but in some hard spots you might need to use the turbo tip. Keep moving and don’t stay in one area too long.
AIR DRY – Once the floor is clean, be sure to let it completely air dry before using it again. Your cement should look like new. If not, then repeat the process.
Cleaning unsealed cement garage floors should be on your spring house cleaning list each year. In fact, to really keep your cement in good shape, you should clean it as often as you can.
A nice clean garage floor is important when using your garage as an extended room in your home. Once you see how much better a plain cement floor looks just by cleaning it, you will want to keep it that way. These simple tips can make a huge task pretty simple. We at Anderson Garage Doors want you to enjoy your garage! We are happy to help you with any of your garage door needs. Give us a call today!