Garage Floor Coating Maintanence Tips (How to and Why)

• Keep your floor swept up daily if needed.  The garage is generally a dirty place with debris blowing in, dirty tires, and shoes tracking in road grim.  This dirt is highly abrasive and if not kept abreast of will scratch and dull the surface of your coating.


• Mop at least one time per week using common household detergents.  The floor should be rinsed completely after mopping.  The floor coatings manufacturer may recommend specific cleaning products for your particular floor.  Rinse the mop and changed the buckets water often to remove the most dirt.  A commercial style mop squeezer and bucket will make the job much easier.  If your floor has a non-slip textured surface, avoid using cotton mop heads. A synthetic mop head will not catch and fuzz on the surfaces like the cotton one may.  A stiff bristled brush and some good old fashion elbow grease will help remove tire tracks and marks from hard rubber castors.
  


• When spills and grease are spotted on the floor, clean them up as soon as possible.  There are many product claims regarding how resistant the coatings are to most garage chemicals; however these chemicals will stain if left on the surface for prolonged periods. A good cleaner to use on these spills is (TSP) Tri-sodium phosphate or a product like Simple Green which is a biodegradable cleaner.  TSP can be hazardous to work with, so be sure to read the warning label and wear eye protection and gloves when using.


• Extremely dirty floors will benefit from a good power scrubbing.  Renting a commercial floor scrubber for cleaning will make the job super easy and clean the floor better that you could do by hand.  The scrubber can be rented for about $25 and I recommend using a white scrub pad that costs about $10.  You will find the results are well worth the cost of the machine rental.


• If you have stubborn grease stains or ground-in tire marks, soak the stains with a biodegradable for a while.  Give the cleaner time to lift the stains and save yourself some elbow grease.  With a little scrubbing the stains should release, and then thoroughly rinse to remove the dirt and cleaner.


• If your floor has dulled in appearance due to lack of maintenance or extreme traffic, a floor refinishing may be in order.  You might try waxing or polishing the floor coating first to see if it restores the luster.  Here again, rental of the floor buffer is very helpful.  Apply a commercial floor polish or wax made for that purpose.  Check with the coatings manufacturer for recommendations.  If this does not restore the finish to an acceptable level, a floor coating refinishing may be in order.  Click here to read up on how to refinish a garage floor coating.
  

More Garage Floor Coating Maintanence can be found here.