Garage Cleaning

[SARGE]

New gal bud has a house that's seen many moons. Her garage is spacious with many shelves and walls to utilize. Of course it's all simple sheetrock and the shelves are covered in thick dust as I suspect many garages are. Me being retired, she figures I need a honey-do or 2 and asked I spruce up the space so I can put my tools and hers in a new and clean joint. I'm not sure how to clean it up although I think a good waterhose would be a good start but afraid of damaging the sheetrock with water. The space hasn't been used for many years and rather enclosed. My question, is my idea of a strong hose at the risk of damaging sheetrock with water the right way to go, or would a face mask and many wet rags and buckets of water to wring them out in be the better alternative. Me and dust don't get along very well, btw.

[bailey]

a good shop vac would be my first weapon of choice.

[jayb1234]

A hose might be safe to use if there are several coats of paint over the sheetrock. Try dampening a small out of the way patch that will be covered by a cabinet or something and see what the result is.

[HAL9000]

Do what I did.... wait for a windy day, open the door an hit the dust with a leaf blower out the garage door.

[David M]

You don't want to hit drywall with water its not really water resistant. I would go in with an air compressor (rent or buy) and blow the dust off. You can get all the cracks and crevaces with a little hose with air at 100 psi

[mbossman2]

untreated/unpainted sheetrock is amazingly absorbant stuff. When it sucks up water it changes color, gets water rings (that are darn near impossible to cover with regular paint, you need 1 coat of kilz and then a few coats of paint to make it took presentable) and is also substantially weakened.

best cleaning choice so far:
shop vac followed by damp rags..

[piasabird]

If the walls are painted I think I like the idea of a shop vac. I have used one in the basement to clean dust off the rafters in the laundry room. If the grage has some age on it, you could probably use a coat of paint. A light colored paint like an off-white or cream colored paint, can really brighten up a dark garage. If it is empty now is the time to do it. I have sheet rock in my garage, and I wish it would have been some kind of other material because it is crumbling at the bottom. I am really tempted to go with some kind of wood or vinyl type paneling or just plywood and paint it.

Another good Idea is to treat the cement floor if it has one so it is easy to sweep and mop. Even painting with some kind of cement paint is not such a bad idea. They make some treatments that are a bit more durable with the colored flecs in them that might be even better. It is like a polyurethane or something like that. Makes a more water-tight seal on the cement. I have seen some acrylic type of clear polish/liquid wax used that is really durable. Even a liquid floor polish/was is a good Idea. You just mop it on and buff it with a round buffer. The Acrylic liquid wax is just rolled on with a paint roller. The cleaner the cement and the more oil free the better. I think they make a kind of acid wash that can clean cement. You dont want anything too harsh, but you dont want any oily residue either.

[sdkfz]

I have used the Rust Oleum garage floor sealer, you really need to have the floor clean for the epoxy to grip - a mechanic friend who was doing the same used muriatic acid to get the floor really clean and also to etch it a bit to make it rougher for the paint. You do just paint it on with a roller- get an extend rod for the roller and it takes no time at all.

I recomend that you use the flecks or if you do not like them get an anti slip additive for rain/snow on the floor to avoid taking a fall.

The crumbly drywall sounds like water damage from repeated hosing of the floor or from humidity creeping up from the foundation. If the first then painted drywall replacement would be fine, if the second then you may want to have a more open type of cover to allow for the humidity to get out and avoid you getting rot in the studs.

[mbossman2]

if you treat the floor you MUST use a non-slip additive....