Keeping your garage clean

[BaMaDuDe87]

Okay, this might sound like a duh question, but I seriously feel like I am at a loss here.

How do you keep your garage clean from dirt/dust/spiders/rats/other rodents?

I feel like every time I walk out in either (attached or detached) garage everything is covered in a dust film and new spiders webs are popping up by the second. WTF do I do?

I guess I just need the pest control to spray every other week and get wall to wall cabinets to put everything in and just wipe them off every other day.

So, hit me with the easy button please. What are your secrets to keep things semi presentable and not get overwhelmed.

 

[rayra]

Heh. It's a Garage. Don't let these LED-lit tricolor paint scheme epoxy-floor surgeries mislead you.

 

[allinon72]

I blow mine out with a leaf blower every few weeks.

 

[kaymccampbell]

I vacuum mine after each project, and dust it with the blow gun every month-ish. Still get cobwebs n dust, but I'm not drowning in them. Vermin are not a problem in my shop. I've done a good job of excluding them with metal along the lower edge, and maintaining the door seals when they begin to fail.

 

[BlindViper]

Is it a miracle you seek?

 

[MileHighRover]

Buy you a gallon of bug killer and start spraying. Much much cheaper than hiring a pest control company to spray. That'll take care of the bugs.

For mice and rats you'll have to either bait or set traps. Also seal up anywhere they're getting in. Keep in mind whatever they can fit their snout in, they can fit their body through.

I use a cheap battery powered leaf blower in the shop for blowing everything off and the dirt and dust out the door. Cleaning up after a project helps and makes it much easier to do 'touch ups' vs deep cleaning.

 

[Jeepster04]

For whatever reason, my garage hardly has any bugs in it. Cellar spiders do build webs from time to time but Ill go around with a broom and pull them down. Many years ago I did spray some bug spray around and it took care of them, but Im not much on spraying stuff.

 

[aggie113]

Fog bombs can kill insects and such. I've no illusions of stopping cobwebs and such with 18" high rafters.

 

[sberry]

I live with the dust. I should grind my floor smoother. I pick up garbage and not storage for cardboard and empty bags. I get as much off the floor as I can, use shelves. I have storage separate from the shop, if I ain't using or working on it, if it doesnt have a place is out and out of the way.
I am not compulsive hoarder, I save a lot but it's got to have some potential, I sort and process to some extent.

 

[BaMaDuDe87]

I think the extra **** is mainly my problem. Trying to cull the extra "stuff" and get most things into a cabinet. Also thinking about doing some hanging cabinets in the detached garage so it will be much much easier to sweep under them.

Will have to keep a better eye on door seals

 

[Worsedog]

A good way to keep the spiders down somewhat is shut the lights off, especially at night. Less insects will attract fewer spiders.

 

[nadogail]

We use a broom regularly, blow it out with compressed air, ocaisionaly it gets mopped with soap and water.

 

[santagary]

56 volt Worx blower daily....scares the cat for awhile but the garage and the three bays stay presentable

 

[72Camaro]

I don’t mind the spiders, I usually pick them up and play with them. I will not have mice in my shop and keep traps set. As far as the dust, I just fire up the blower and move it from one spot to the other

 

[glentre]

My garage floor has an epoxy type floor with no grit so a wide push broom takes care of the dust. For the spiders that never stop coming in around the big doors, I have a battery powered hand vacuum mounted on the wall between the doors. Every few days or so I just **** up the critters and their webs. It's a job you need to keep up with or they will spread all over the place.

Glen

 

[CombatNinja]

Forget spraying or fogging for insects until you seal the place up tight. If you don't physically exclude the pests, they will just be back within days and you will be in a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. Seal every crack and crevice you can find in the block foundation and slab. Make sure your seals for all doors are in good shape and do their job. Keep all landscaping well away from the building as any foliage that touches the structure is an insect super highway. Once that is done, get some good insect barrier spray (Ortho or similar) and treat the bottom few feet of the structure and the ground right around it. Depending on your climate, you may need to reapply up to monthly. I also highly recommend at taking a look at where the spiders are building webs because that is where you have heavy insect traffic (always in corners and where the walls meet the floor) and remove everything from the floor to discourage them. The more open the area, th less likely they are to take hold, and the easier it is to clean.

As to your dust, whatever you do to seal the building and exclude insects will have the side effect of keeping dust out. Also take a look at the slab and make sure you are not getting concrete dusting, that is a source of a lot of the dust in many garages. Densifiers/sealers can mitigate this if it is a contributing factor. Good luck!

 

[pgilmore7]

I fight the same battle, seems like every time I go out to the shop it needs to be swept and the spiders went to town building webs. I have to agree with other responses. Seal up the air flow, I have done some areas and it’s helped I still need to seal up my roll up doors. I know most of my dirt issue is from the doors I can see daylight under one of them. Lizards like to get in there too and the **** all over the place. I’m going install new bottom seals on my doors and also the brush seals for the sides and top.

 

[Ralf11]

they are getting in there b/c there is nearby habitat

besides a vacuuming inside, cut grass, weeds, etc. or add pavement around the garage and you'll slow down the colonization a lot

 

[logical]

How is your place finished. I moved into a new construction house..several houses ago...that had standard builder mudded but unpainted drywall and bare concrete floor. When I finally got around to doing coating the floor and painting the walls/ceiling the dust went down dramatically.

Sent from my garage.

 

[engineer2]

Same here with the leaf blower clean out. Air hose too, especially cobwebs.
The cat takes care of rodents and any bugs she can catch.

 

[LeonardY]

I open a beer and sweep up at the end of the day. I'll grab the blower and blow it out once in a while.
The biggest thing is I have dust control on all my woodworking machines. An overhead filter that I run while I'm doing dusty things.
The only thing I don't care for is Black widows and ants. So I spray the outside and at the edge of the doors. Neighborhood cats take care of the rodents.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

My constantly in-progress goal is to get as much stuff up off the floor as possible. Makes spraying for bugs and sweeping much easier and more effective. My dream state would be to have nothing in contact with the floor that can’t get wet so I can hose it out easily.

 

[BaMaDuDe87]

How is your place finished. I moved into a new construction house..several houses ago...that had standard builder mudded but unpainted drywall and bare concrete floor. When I finally got around to doing coating the floor and painting the walls/ceiling the dust went down dramatically.

Sent from my garage.

Bare concrete floor, but painted drywall

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

[BKB]

I built the mezzanine to get most stuff off the floor. Spray for bugs every 3 months. i have a ride on floor scrubber, That keeps everything nice and clean.

 

[Brent T]

It's 117 degrees here right now. No bug problem except the occasional scorpion.

On a more serious note, I spray the entire perimeter of our house for bugs 3 or 4 times a year and we don't have any issues.

 

[Kozik]

When i painted mine, I obsessively sealed every single nook and cranny and weatherstripped everything. I use a leaf blower to blast all the dust out daily, and mop the floor once a week. I also don't use the floor for storage. everything is off the floor and on rollers whenever possible.

 

[lolaetype]

I use a leaf blower to blow stuff out the doors. About every 3-4 months I mo[p the VCT floor. About twice a year I roll the car windows up, cover the side of the car nearest the center of the garage and set off a bug bomb that is suppose to kill spiders. And the little b**tards still come back.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

I blow mine out with a leaf blower every few years.

I edited your quote to make it fit my garage...

Tommy

 

[WarDamnEagle]

i have a ride on floor scrubber, That keeps everything nice and clean.

Is that like a garage Zamboni?

 

[niget2002]

Full dust collection with a floor pickup. Sweep it while the cnc is cutting stuff.

Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk

 

[BKB]

I paid $300 for it and a little work it has been awesome. Something about it is therapeutic just driving around cleaning. It really keeps the dust down. I have a open man cave that is pretty nice and it stays very clean. I do a lot of fabrication so plasma cutter, grinding, welding all happens a few feet from my leather sofa.

 

[landlord30]

Nice place BKB!!

 

[James-W]

Once a week or maybe every ten days, depending on energetic I feel, the equipment gets set by the overhead door and I use my air-compressor and a blow gun to clean off the dust by blowing it all outside.

For the floor, I use a push broom and sweep up most of the larger sawdust piles and smaller wood chips. I scoop them up and drop them into the trash can liner. Then I have a battery powered leaf blower and I use it to blow outside whatever dust I didn't get. Finally, I use my shop vac and get into the places where I may have missed. It usually takes me about an hour to do this, but the whole garage looks a lot nicer once I do that.

I don't have mice or rats, but I do get a few cobwebs. I use the shop vac to **** them down from the walls/ceiling and if I have dust on a wall, I use the shop vac with the brush attachment and I vacuum the wall where the dust is located. Works really well and makes the garage much cleaner.

 

[Falcon67]

Ortho Home Defense and/or fogging under things with Yard Guard. Then once in a while I hookup the longer spray tip and use compressed air to blow the floor debris out the door.

That zamboni is the way to go, very nice.

 

[dcg9381]

I am very liberal with application of pest control. All the big doors are fairly well caulked / sealed, but it's the pesticide that keeps the small bugs from going though them and living to tell about it.

I also have 6 sticky traps set around all 3 doors, at each corner.

We do get some stuff in, but it's usually dead.

I run a robot vacuum whenever I'm out there - I just turn it on, walk away... When I come back, empty it, charge, repeat... We also run an air filter to keep the dust down.

 

[zmotorsports]

I have a guy who sprays my house, yard, shop inside and out and don't really have an insect issue but an occassional flying rascal enter the shop.

I keep my floors clean after and during all projects by sweeping and keeping dust, dirt, swarf, etc. picked up off of the floor and then a couple times a month when I don't have anything going on in the shop I'll grab the leaf blower and give it a good once over, usually while a lawn mowing session.

 

[santagary]

My shop... as organized as I can get it visually. Even with boxes and labels I'm afraid that I'm so visually oriented that I'd spend half my work time finding the tool I need and the other half trying to remember which drawer it goes back into!! In this forum there seems to be two types of organizers...the **** retentive who hide, box and store everything and the obsessive behaviorally disordered visually oriented like me. I love to display my possessions. I love the attention while others abhor it. Messy and unorganized things give both tbehavioral types headaches...my 2 cents worth. And...by the way, we're hard wired that way...we didn't learn it...it's genetic...one of our parents or grandparents were afflicted the same way! (research identical twin studies)

Sent from my SM-G892A using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[Dogmeat]

I'm not really ****, I just like things fairly well organized and easy to find what I'm lookin' for....most of the time!!

 

[Slednut]

Where we live the wind blows a lot, we have a lot of wind farms. When I open the doors at the front and rear the garage/shop becomes a wind tunnel. Like others I use a gas powered leaf blower, when I do wood working I don't even bother to sweep, just blow it out the back and the next time I mow it picks it up.

 

[santagary]

I'm not really ****, I just like things fairly well organized and easy to find what I'm lookin' for....most of the time!!

Nice shop/garage...never saw one with a pool table...cool. g