Clean a garage floor and you will be a massive change in the beauty of your home. Unfortunately, it is mostly ignored by most homeowners for a long time. This will make the motor oil stains and paint spills tougher on the concrete surface.
These unwanted messes are hard to tackle with the traditional cleaning method; you have to adopt certain steps to eliminate these permanent marks from the surface and clean the garage floor effectively.
The garage floor cleaning session might take your whole day, but once you have gone through this process, you can forget it for a year or so.
A tidy and spotless garage will surely add great value to your home and become a safer place for your family to visit in your home. Read on to find out how you can make your garage floor spotless.
Prepare Your Garage for a Cleaning Session
Before showing your DIY skills in garage floor cleaning, you have to get the surface of your garage ready for cleaning purposes. You may ignore the items placed on the shelves of your garage.
However, the following steps are necessary before starting the actual cleaning process to protect all the valuable gadgets placed on your garage floor:
Clear the Garage
In the first instance, you have to eliminate all the heavy objects in your garage, such as bikes, cars, basins, weighty tools, and other gadgets, which may create hurdles in your cleaning task. You have to get up out on the floor and place these items in a safer place outside your garage.
To clean the garage floor, make sure that there should be no items on the way for this concrete cleaning process. This will help you smoothly complete all the cleaning tasks in your garage.
Protect Outlets and Drywall
You might have drywall or any other similar outlet in your garage. For cleaning the concrete floor with a homemade or commercial cleaner, you have to cover these items as well. To effectively clean the concrete floor, all these items should be shielded at least 3 feet from the ground.
Remove Dust and Debris
The easiest way to clear debris and dirt particles from any floor you can sweep them with a broom. For garage cleaning, this broom should contain stiff bristles. The softer sweeper or mop will not eliminate the hidden debris in tight corners of your garage surface.
Things Required for Garage Floor Cleaning
- Laundry detergent
- A buffer
- Power washer
- Warm water
- Cleaning solution for concrete floors
- Push broom with stiff bristles
How to Clean Garage Floor – 5 Easy Steps
Your garage is clear for a thorough cleaning session. Now your goal should be fairly straightforward. To achieve the finest results, you have to focus on the stains and dirty odor in your garage and need the best concrete cleaner to eliminate these messes from your garage.
You can directly apply cement cleaner to treat motor oil, pet urine, or paint spills, but you must examine the scene before choosing any concrete cleaner.
Let’s move on to learn these aspects with the help of five easy steps:
Step 1. Formulate a Cleaning Solution
When you review the industry of garage floor cleaners, you will find a massive list of brands. You can adopt any option of your choice, but this idea may be expensive, or any harsh concrete floor cleaner is proven dangerous for the surface of your garage floor.
You have the option to formulate a homemade cleaning solution to treat rust stains on the concrete surface of your garage. If your garage floor is properly soiled, you can also use a traditional detergent with warm water.
Just make sure this laundry detergent is perfectly dissolved into the water before applying it on any surface. The soapy water can also remove grease from the concrete surface effectively.
Step 2. Soak the Garage Floor with this Solution
It’s time to soak the surface of your garage floor with a cleaning solution. This step is necessary to penetrate all the greasy and sticky stains and remove rust from the concrete surface. It is better to leave the situation for at least 5 to 10 minutes.
If you have a larger garage area, you have to soak its surface by breaking the total zone into smaller sections so that the cleaning solution will not dry up.
Step 3. Scrubbing the Surface
There is a certain chance that some older stains are still present on your garage surface. To eliminate these stains, you have to use concrete scrubbers on this surface.
If you have paint stains that can’t be removed from traditional sweeping methods and commercial concrete stain remover, this technique may do your job perfectly.
Step 4. Pressure Wash the Concrete Floor
To remove the stubborn marks, you can pick the pressure wash option. If you are tackling heavy dust and stone floor rust, this method is more effective than the classic cleaning technique.
You need a power washer with decent pressure of fresh water to remove such stains from the surface of the concrete floor.
If you schedule your garage cleaning sessions or do this cleaning task in routine, it is better to adopt only one cleaning option scrubbing or pressure washing.
Step 5. Rinse the Garage Floor
If you effectively remove all the stains and dirt particles from your garage, you still need to rinse the surface with fresh water to clean the garage floor.
This will remove soapy water stains left on the surface of the garage and eliminate odor generated from bleach or any commercial cleaner you used in your previous cleaning steps.
Recommended Cleaning Solutions for Concrete Floors
If you plan for a regular cleaning session, you can prepare and apply any homemade solution. This homemade cleaner for concrete surfaces uses natural ingredients like baking soda or vinegar, which is really effective in cleaning and sanitizing your garage floor’s surface.
Another economic idea to clean the garage floor is to use soapy water to quickly scrub the lighter stains on the surface. You can put some muscular power while scrubbing with this soapy water; it will save you the cost of buying an expensive commercial cleaner.
You might be worried about tougher stains on your floor, which can’t be removed from these traditional cleaners. For such a scenario, you can bring a muriatic acid home solution to eliminate these stains from painting the garage concrete floor surface effectively.
This commercial solution can be called an all-purpose cleaner, and a few drops of this liquid are enough to penetrate older stains.
Useful Garage Flooring Cleaning Tips
If you are perfectly following the directions of previous sections of this guide, then read the following valuable tips to improve this DIY skill:
- Pressure wash the garage surface from one corner towards the outside door to move all the messes outside the garage.
- Make sure you have enough time to do this cleaning job. It might take a whole day. Start this cleaning session when you have sufficient time to manage it.
- If you find sticky stains that are still wet, never use a broom. Pick this stain with a damp cloth or wipe it out from the surface.
- Always scrub the concrete surface of your garage with stiff bristles.
- If your cleaning method is not working for the surface of the garage, then you can coat this surface with epoxy.
- After completing the thorough cleaning, give some time to air dry before placing the garage items back in it.
- Use warm water with the cleaning solution to dissolve it properly.
- You can use a coat of sealant on the garage surface, where you find more greasy messes for future protection.
- Never start cleaning the garage floor, having heavier items inside this room. They will create hurdles in your cleaning way.
- Always use the proper cleaning solution. The commercial cleaners for concrete floors are different; you must read the recommendations before applying the cleaning solution.
FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Fastest Way to Clean a Garage Floor?
You can use a degreaser or commercial cleaner to clean a garage floor in no time. There are many ready-made cleaning solutions available for specific purposes.
To remove grease from the concrete surface of your garage floor, you can buy any garage floor cleaner without wasting your time.
What is the Easiest Way to Clean Concrete Floors?
You can clean all debris and dirt particles with a classic broom, and after that, spray the surface of your concrete floor with a homemade or commercial cleaner.
It will treat all the stains and debris in your garage. Finally, rinse away all the messes with fresh water to clean concrete floors.
How Do You Deep Clean a Concrete Garage Floor?
If you are looking for a deep cleaning session on your garage floor, you have to prepare or bring a cleaning solution and soak the surface of your concrete floor with this solution in smaller sections.
Wash the entire surface with soapy water and rinse away with fresh water to effectively remove all the concrete garage floor messes.
How Do I Make My Garage Floor Look New?
A detailed cleaning session will give a newer look to the surface of your garage floor. You have to use the right cleaning method for concrete floors to do this task perfectly.
How Do I Keep My Garage Floor Clean?
Your garage floor will always give you a cleaner look with a regular cleaning session. You have to schedule a cleaning process just like you are doing with your living rooms to keep your garage floor tidy and clean.
Final Thoughts
I hope that cleaning the concrete surface of your garage floor is added to the list of your next spring house cleaning.
You have to change your way of cleaning your living rooms and can adopt the right method according to the surface condition and the type of stains you are facing.
If you have lighter messes on the garage surface, you can handle them with any laundry detergent or soapy water.
However, if these marks are permanent on the surface of your garage floor, then you have to penetrate them with the accurate cleaning solution recommended for concrete floors.
