Paint Booth/Wash Bay

[Beyond]

Hey guys, I've been thinking about building a section of the new garage that I'm planning to have a paint booth that can double as a wash bay. Thought it would be real nice to have a place where I can keep overspray from going everywhere, sanding dust, etc. but also put a drain in it so you can wash a car/truck in it during the winter. This won't be a "commercial" type of booth, just something with a fan/fresh air inlet and setup to wash down easily.

Have any of you guys done this and have any tips or suggustions? I'm trying to figure out how big to make this, and how to lay it out in the garage.

Thanks - John

 

[red vette mike]

Johh: I am about to finish my garage addition. It is 31x54x12. There is only one interior wall (other than a bathroom). That wall creates a room that is 14x23'. I am ocassionally going to paint in that room. I also put a floor drain in the room. I put a second floor drain in one bay in the larger room. I am eventually going to put a wall and doors up at the entrance to this room with filters in the doors so that I can get an air flow through the room. I am eventually also going to put a spark-proof exhaust fan. I am in a town and I cannot have a 'business' at this site. I am on a 3 acre site so having close-to-me neighbors is not a issue (although I will also filter the exhaust air going out of this room). I don't have a business but I do want to 'piddle' with some old cars that I own. I say this to make sure you check on zoning regs before you get too deep into your plan.
Good luck on your project.
Mike

 

[TorqueWrench]

Beyond...I have had the spray booth/wash bay idea for my dream shop for a while now. I will be watching this thread for any drawbacks, I can't see any right now. Until I can afford my dream garage, I have been building a 6x6 downdraft paint booth with Hepa filtering in my basement shop area.

 

[Beyond]

Hi Mike,

The zoning laws are pretty lax here, most of what I want to do should not be an issue. The biggest problem will probably be all my buddy's wanting to use the booth LOL. Have you thought any about what kind of wall covering would work good so that you can wash everything down? 14x23 sounds pretty good size wise.

 

[Stuart in MN]

Local zoning laws may be lax, but I suspect the EPA won't care about that...

I have a '66 F-100. The restoration shop that did the bodywork and paint on it had a real nice paint booth, but it turned out there was a floor drain in the booth that simply ran out to a 55 gallon drum buried in the yard. Over time, the barrel rusted out so anything that went in the floor drain got washed out into the soil.

The owner of the shop fired one of his employees, and that guy decided to get back at the shop owner by calling up the EPA. They came out and did some poking around, and then they padlocked the place and hit the owner of the shop with a hefty fine.

My truck was sitting half done in the paint booth when this all happened. It was stuck in there for nearly a year, until finally one day the owner called me and told me I better get my truck out right now as the bank was coming over that afternoon to take away the title to his property.

So, I quick hired a rollback truck, and we essentially broke into his shop and stole my truck back. I was able to find another shop that could finish the work and the truck came out real nice in the end, but it was a royal pain in the behind.

The moral of the story is to be REAL careful about building any sort of structure with a floor drain that you'll also use for painting.

 

[red vette mike]

Hi Mike,

The zoning laws are pretty lax here, most of what I want to do should not be an issue. The biggest problem will probably be all my buddy's wanting to use the booth LOL. Have you thought any about what kind of wall covering would work good so that you can wash everything down? 14x23 sounds pretty good size wise.

John: I used luan board (a foreign made panelling board). It was affordable ($17 per 4x8) and is much tougher than sheetrock. It was easy to paint. I used it for the walls of the entire addition and the ceiling material too. I painted it with latex paint except around the two drains where I used enamel (oil base) paint. My slab also has what i guess you would call a curtain wall. The slab rises up about 3 1/2 inches around the entire perimeter and where the interior walls are. This will help keep water off of the wall material. This web site has proven invaluable to me on doing this structure. Many of your questions can be answered here.
Mike

 

[MAINIAC]

make sure you have at least 4 feet around the whole car or you will be dragging hose in your wet paint. The bigger the better and don't forget side lighting, shadows are the pits when painting. It can get expensive but if you do it over time it will be well worth it. make sure you have a water/oil seperator in the drains and that you clean them regularly. Russ

 

[sberry]

there are a couple of threads on this, use the search.

 

[z28toz06]

there are a couple of threads on this, use the search.

I'm planning a wash bay also. I will probably use 1/2" ply wood down low for the first panel. Then I will cover that with FRP. Fiberglass reinforced panels. They use them in bathrooms and are completely water proof. Just wipe down after using th eroom if you get water on them. Its the stuff they use in some dunkin donuts and restaurant bathrooms.

 

[volvo]

<<<Have you thought any about what kind of wall covering would work good so that you can wash everything down? 14x23 sounds pretty good size wise.<<<<<

Years ago (before we went high tec with dual water, down draft forced, gas baked oven booths) at work they would to paint the interrior of the booth with a stripable white paint,(made for paint booths) use it for awhile until it got to dirty or discolored then just peeled it off and repainted.Water proof and Low $$ and easy. Check with your car paint supplyer for the details. Good Luck...H

 

[jamesgpeck]

Sounds like the floor drain idea is OK, but it needs to drain into a sump. You could then filter the water before you pump it anywhere else.

 

[jamesgpeck]

Twenty-five years ago I worked on a Caterpillar project that involved electrostatic downdraft paint booths using water based engine paint. These had steel floor grid. The underfloor sloped down to a drain and had a constant stream of water down it. . All the over spray fell down through the floor grid into the water stream and was filtered out.

 

[MustangRick]

I have been thinking of a similar setup. For the air flow, I am going to mount a few furnace filters to the ceiling and let the air flow for the attic/outside through the ceiling joists into the bay. For the exhaust, I would have a air plenum slid under the car that attaches to the wall/door for the exhaust fan. This would create a down draft type setup. This could be adapted for ventilation for the rest of the garage with additional ducting. For the walls, I was going to get some type of bathroom paneling or get some of that kinderguard paint. That paint goes on in a very thick coat and seems to put up with quite a bit, not sure about a power washer though. The drain is something I have not been able to get around. You need to have some type of a trap to appease the EPA, I think you could figure this out if you knew what the specs were.

Also, I have seen a few tv shows/ magazines that used duplicolor water based paint that seems to be almost as good as normal car paints. It wouldn't be good enough for a show car, but I would never be painting a show car.