Between housing our cars and serving as our home improvement shop, our garages experience a lot of action. Grease, oil, paint, and other substances from our projects and work can all quickly stain garage floors.
While cleaning out the garage isn’t always the most urgent household chore, it eventually needs to get done. It should be cleaned even more frequently if you own a client-facing commercial garage. A fresh sweep, decluttering, and removing garbage goes a long way, but what about those pesky floor stains?
There’s hope for even the most stubborn stains with a little bit of elbow grease and cleaning products. So consider this your official guide to removing common garage floor stains.
How to Remove:
Rust Stains
Tools + Water = A mess. Keeping your tools clean and organized can help prevent rust, but what can you do once stains appear?
Start by pouring a non-diluted acid directly on the stain. Lemon juice or white vinegar works great. Let the acid rest for at least 10 minutes. Then use a stiff bristle brush to scrub the rust and rinse with water. You might need to repeat this process a couple of times for stubborn rust stains.
Grease Stains
To remove grease from concrete, start by sprinkling sawdust or cat litter directly on the oil. You can sweep up the dust or litter after about a day. Then pour a dry powder, either dish soap or laundry detergent, directly on the stain and leave it for an hour. Next, add some water and scrub with a hard bristle brush, then let the watery mixture sit for another 15 minutes. Finally, you can hose off the water, and your grease stain should float away.
Paint Stains
Paint strippers work great at removing every speck of paint from concrete. However, if you are looking for a natural alternative, vinegar is the next best thing.
Start by warming up vinegar, either in the microwave or on the stove. Next, use a paintbrush to apply the warm vinegar onto the paint stains. Let it rest and do its thing for 15 minutes. Finally, you should start to see the paint bubble or peel away from the concrete. If need be, repeat the warm vinegar solution for another 15 minutes.
Use a paint scraper or stiff bristle brush along with water to clean up the area.
How to Get Old Stains Off Concrete
It’s best to clean up spills and remove stains right away. Thankfully, it’s not impossible to remove old stains. Typically repeating the same processes as previously noted a couple of times will help loosen up stubborn stains.
Proper Garage Maintenance
Whether your garage is residential or commercial, ensuring it stays clean and tidy is a matter of safety. Sticking to a regular cleaning schedule will help keep harmful chemicals away from your family and workers.
If rust has taken over and affected your garage door, don’t despair! Our certified team handles a variety of repairs, from spring replacements to total garage door renovations. So get in touch with us today.