Reducing Dust

[edschwab1]

My brother has a dust problem in his garage. He let's me detail in his garage, but I have to wipe down the car several times in order to complete. How can I reduce dust in the garage.

A little about the garage:
No HVAC vents
Non painted floor
Sheetrock walls non painted
A window and and 2 doors, to house and other to yard
One overhead door
Size guesstimate 25x20x8.5

An example of the dust accumulation: Park car afterwork about 6p and go back to garage @ 8p and car is covered with enough dust to require a wipe down with QD or CCD. This happens on waxed and unwaxed items. No I am not being anal or overexagerating.


Eric

[bigltc]

If the W&D is in the garage, check the vent to make sure its blowing outside of the garage. Dryer lint can make a mess out of your clean garage in short order.

[CRXSi90]

How new is the construction? I doubt that this is realivant, but this winter I rented a storage unit for my car. Dust seemed to never go away. The building was fairly new (built that summer, I think) and that is what I attribute the dust to.

Find out which way the air is flowing, heh...that might give you some insight, and a brother who thinks you are crazy.

[edschwab1]

bigltc
The W&D is not in the garage nor does it vent to garage.

CRXSi90
The house is 6 y.o.


Eric

[Lynn]

I don't know nearly enough about construction to begin to give you a definitive answer about how to fix this problem at its source. But in my house (almost 100 yrs old now), when I'm doing drywalling or plasterwork, I occasionally spritz the air with a mister. It settles the dust so I'm not breathing it. So .... I wonder.... if you did that in the garage before you detailed, might that control the problem til you're finished?

And if the concrete floor is not sealed, it can generate dust for a very long time. My dad used to sprinkle the floor with this stuff that would settle the dust so he could sweep it up instead of just scattering it. I saw some recently in Home Depot. It's a sort of janitorial product, which has some sort of oils that "grab" the dust to make it settle. Might be worth trying.

Or ... I might just be blowin' smoke.

[Brad B.]

Can you say "car cover"? Just kidding!

I noticed a decrease in dust after I painted my garage floor because my concrete floor constantly "chalked" when it was walked on.

There is often a lot of dust from overhead. Is the cieling/attic exposed or walled in? It's best to sheetrock the cieling.

Painted walls are best. The paint will fill the pores of the wallboard/sheetrock and it won't hold as much dust which blows in the breeze.

Be a good housekeeper. Vacuum once a week. I do in my garage for this very reason. I also use a dustmop. Brooms don't do a good enough job.

[DaveGS4]

Has anyone tried putting a Hepa filter (one of the room air filters that pulls pollen, dust, etc out of the air) in the garage? I've got two black cars sitting in my garage and have problems with dust settling on them...

I've got a number of Honeywell Hepa filters around the house for pollen season due to allergies and often think about moving one of them into the garage to see if it'll keep the dust level down.

Here's an example of the product I'm talking about...

http://www.epinions.com/well-Persona...PA_Air_Cleaner

[usmcski]

I would invest in a concrete sealer for the floor and maybe even paint the walls.
The concrete sealer sould do it though.

[kentd98]

Check out this link:

Homemade air filter

Its a box fan with a 3M Allergen furnace filter taped to it so it filters the air in a given space. Much cheaper than an 'actual' HEPA filter, but perfect for enclosed spaces like a garage.

Just a thought,
Kent

[Milio]

One thing you might consider is creating a positive air pressure environment. Positive air pressure will repel dust and even force airborne dust out.

I'm not sure how you would go about doing it in a garage like this. The basic principle is to have a highly filtered fan blowing into the room. Then either have the positive pressure let air and dust escape through normal cracks and crevices, or put a second, lower intensity fan on a seperate opening.

Things to consider: the input fan obviously needs good filtration, otherwise it will make things worse. Too much air movement might be counterproductive. Consider air temperature when positioning fans (hot air rising). Negative air pressure is generally better for clearing fumes.

I'm a newbie in the garage, but I'm extrapolating on principles I've used with photography darkrooms and computer environments.

[Guess My Name]

Paint walls & floors....this does two things....makes you clean the walls and remove exsitiing dust and helps prevent those surfaces from forming more dust,...

Also you canlook into a dust remover......some look like large vacuums....for wood working and others look like smoke eliminators mounted overhead....

but if you use either you gotta have the place sealed and I would say on it's own heat/AC

[Guess My Name]

More...in interim.,.,use compressed air to blow ceilings and walls and finally floor to loosen dust and then clean up......

I would do this a few times...