Dusty / Gritty Garage

[bob the planner]

Help !

my garage seems to get very dusty / gritty. I think I need to address 2 problems

a) Concrete floor - This seems to create more dust the more often I sweep it. I reckon the solution is to paint/seal it. What are the best products to seal the floor ?

b) As I am getting get=neral rubbih (leaves/sweet wrappers etc) in the garage, is there a 7' (or metric equivalent) door sealer available ?

Thanks in advance for any useful suggestions

Bob

[Bonce]

A weekend spent painting the walls and floor cured a lot of the dustiness in my garage, it's also a lot brighter and nicer to be in. Pics at www.megabird.co.uk

Still get a fair bit of crap blowing in under the doors so I'd be interested to hear if anyone knows of a way of sealing them.

[ninja_eli]

For the floor consider painting it with epoxy based paint. It should be able to handle the car's weight, but if not then check out proper epoxy resin, it will definitely handle it but will cost. Lots. I think the epoxy paint should be fine but you could ask the vendor what their opinion is. The epoxy paint is about £60 for more than enough for a garage.

One company that I know is called surtech 2000. The no is 01647 24430. I was in touch with them recently regarding our flooring and they seem to be pretty honest. Prices are trade and seem okay. But you could always try out other companies.

>> Edited by ninja_eli on Saturday 6th July 16:23

[JMorgan]

I was going to do this once but never got around to it but I was told it's important to do the floor in one go to prevent lifting.
As for the doors, trim rubber? Suitable size etc self tapped to the door.

>> Edited by JMorgan on Saturday 6th July 16:26

[bob the planner]

quote:
A weekend spent painting the walls and floor cured a lot of the dustiness in my garage, it's also a lot brighter and nicer to be in. Pics at www.megabird.co.uk

Still get a fair bit of crap blowing in under the doors so I'd be interested to hear if anyone knows of a way of sealing them.

Bonce,

What did you paint it with ? - looks the dogs. I was thinking of doing mine in grey as I don't fancy red/black.

Bob

[bob the planner]

quote:
As for the doors, trim rubber? Suitable size etc self tapped to the door.

>> Edited by JMorgan on Saturday 6th July 16:26

Jeff,

I was thinking more of a bristle type seal - rubber may wear too much on the floor. I Suppose I could use three interior door seals but someone must do a 7' (2.3m) seal) ?

Bob

[Roop]

The old man did up his garage so he could store the F1 car in there in 'comfort'. Fitted a night storage heater, dehumidifier (this made the biggest difference according to him) and painted the floor. To seal along the bottom of the door he's attached what looks like a strip of thick brush bristles. Not sure what they are or where he got them though.

Roop

[JMorgan]

quote:

quote:
As for the doors, trim rubber? Suitable size etc self tapped to the door.

>> Edited by JMorgan on Saturday 6th July 16:26

Jeff,

I was thinking more of a bristle type seal - rubber may wear too much on the floor. I Suppose I could use three interior door seals but someone must do a 7' (2.3m) seal) ?

Bob

Used this stuff in work. Look up the RS web site and search under Mechanical for
Galvanised Channel, Aluminium Housed Stripbrush
I did copy the link but it wouldn't paste, too long?


>> Edited by JMorgan on Saturday 6th July 17:22

[456mgt]

I've painted my garage floor and it seems to have eliminated the concrete dust problem, though a lot of crap still gets carried in on the cars tyres. Nothing terribly elegant: used friable surface sealer and Garage Floor Paint, both from B&Q. The paint comes in red, black and grey. I put rubber strips at the base of the garage doors, so that they seal as they come down. It does prevent crap blowing underneath.

My winter project will be to sort out the garage properly, and I've got my eye on some flooring and storage units from a company called Dura.

[456mgt]

Roop, you did say 'so the old man can store the F1 car in there' or words to that effect didn't you. Care to expand on that?

[Roop]

456mgt,

Yes, he's got a classic F1 car. A Shadow DN9-2B that he raced in the Thoroughbred Grand Prix series. This pic is him on the Grid at Barcelona. It's a 1979 ex Jan Lammers car with a 3 litre short-stroke Nicholson McLaren Cosworth DFV. Good for 550-600bhp at 11'500rpm




>> Edited by Roop on Saturday 6th July 18:22

[456mgt]

Roop- I'm impressed!!! Bet he goes out & sits in it of an evening. I would.

Kevin

[filmidget]

I also just used the garage paint from B&Q and it seems to do the job.

Also painted the concrete blocks of the walls, just using the cheapest 'trade' white emulsion I couls find, and a sodding big brush - took over 70 litres of paint!

The walls made a big difference to the light level, and gives the garage more of a workshop feel I find (tend to keep it tidier and be more ruthless with any non-car related crap build-up)

My garage is two thirds into a hillside (under the house) and stays between 5 and 25 degrees C all year around - thought about insulating the back of the garage door to lessen the range even further perhaps using expanded polystyrene but maybe it would be a fire/toxic smoke hazard?

Anybody tried anything similar?

Cheers, Phil

[simonelite501]

Those "Dura" garage units look fantastic, but are terribly expensive, used an old kitchen that a mate was throwing out myself, similar result for much less outlay. The flooring looks great though, easy to keep clean, but again very expensive.

[simonelite501]

A coating of PVA on the breeze block walls would also dramatically cut down the "70 litres" of emulsion paint as used by filmidget, those blocks are really pourous and just suck it in!

[Roop]

456MGT,

Can't say he does to be honest. The car gets pampered in terms of being cleaned and such, and it's got a new 200 mile old engine. It's on axle stands while it's stored to stop the tyres from getting flat-spotted so wouldn't fancy trying to climb in it anyways. Having sat in the thing it's amazing just how low you site and how exposed you feel. When you wedge your ar$e cheeks tightly between the aluminium bathtub frame and weedle your legs under the steering wheel and over the big humb in the floor (fire extinguiser and suspension mounts I think) you feel trapped. Godonly knows how you get out in a hurry (ie thing is on fire). Your feet are on the pedals and then there's about 4 inches before the front of the tub and then nothing...! The scariest bit is that the tub only just comes above the level of your thighs so from waist up you're pretty much exposed. It's OK with the body on, but a lighweight bit of fibreglass won't stop another car. Scary stuff. Still, it's one of the best looking (IMHO) Grand Prix cars ever. Not because of the shape which was quite ordinary, but the arbrushed Samson livery is amazing...

Dad's not going to race it anymore so the car's up for sale

>> Edited by Roop on Sunday 7th July 10:01

[bob the planner]

Thanks for all the tips.

Off to B&Q for some pva adhesive & grey floor paint and a couple of busy evenings in the garage.

I have found the RS site (in austalia !) and got to the UK site from there. I will have to speak to someone at work to add my bits on the end of their order !

Bob

[RUF 3]

Try to get hold of floorpaint from Applied Chemicals who are based in Coventry. A friend did the floor of his MoT Station with it and could not believe how easy to apply and durable it was. It is not cheap but you would not have problems with it lifting or needing redone. To seal the bottom of the door, go to a commercial vehicle motor factor. Spray suppression equipment for heavy commercials is available in the form of a metal strip with 3" bristles. You can buy it in long lengths, and simply screw it to the door bottom. Again, as it is designed for a hard life it is not cheap, but will last forever.

[MikeyT]

I've had preoblems with this – put the Chimaera away after its weekly wash and brush-up and come Wednesday the b@st@rd thing is covered in dust

SO I bought some garage floor paint from Wickes last week – miles cheaper than B&Q I have to say.
In a fetching dark green (to match the car )

I also bought a big tin of sealer to put down first – the paint'll go a lot further if you paint on top of it apparently.

My garage is brick (medium darkness of colour) and is fairly well lit – I've thought about painting it white inside – would it seem a lot lighter if I did – or would it look naff?

If it was white, I'd certainly be able to see the shapes I drew round me tools better though

Luckily don't get a problem with stuff blowing underneath as there is a 2inch step behind the wooden old stylee doors which keeps everything out.

[philshort]

A strip of wood screwed to the floor stops a lot of the crap coming in and cuts down on the draughts. I have insulated the door with sheets of expanded foam, with hardboard screwed to the door to hold it in place. Makes the door very heavy, you need to increase the tension on the door spings a lot to compensate. This can be dangerous! Does help keep the heat in though I did this when using my garaage as a gym.

Floor paint from B&Q is good stuff, applied properly it will stay down for years. Comes in more colours these days too, I have dark green for mine. The PVA trick is a good one - never tried on the walls, but those breeze blocks do soak up the paint.

>> Edited by philshort on Sunday 7th July 15:17