Plumbing for carwashing in garage?

[Chucksweet]

I just built a new garage to store my cars in and now I want to take my old garage and turn it into a wash / detail bay!

The plumber and water conditioning guy are coming out on Tuesday to give me ideas..

I am thinking I need a hose connection for cold and hot water and then a different connection for the reverse osmosis rinse water system I want to put in. Is this right? is this enough?

Do I really need some sort of power washer? on the cold? on the hot? on the Reverse Osmosis water? Or will a bucket and water suffice?

How about a sink? or mop sink? I am going to put a big exhaust fan in to take out the humidity. I am also putting in a good floor drain and putting up a wall surface that is good for water.

What would you do for lighting?

I'd appreciate any other ideas of what you would do to make a good place to wash cars.

Thanks
Chuck

[chaotik]

If you put in all thee water connections, then you cold hook up the power washer to any you wish. Sure going to eat up alot of hot water thru a pressure washer though...but it would be good for winter cleaning or cleaning suspension/ engine stuff...sort of like a steam cleaner...just not that hot!!

Sink would be a good idea...how about an old washer to keep those mf clean???

[JBM]

I have a complete home water purification system. The only water that is reverse osmosis is the kitchen sink water.

The rest of the house is containament free, just not purified.

It is night and day rinsing off the car with the treated water though.

My last house in New England i had hot and cold in the garage. It was nice to have, but if you live anywhere the temps get below 0, drain both waters, and make sure you keep the garage doors shut. I had some bursting pipes.

[Accumulator]

Don't know how much of this will apply as you're remodeling as opposed to building from scratch, but anyway...

I only use RO water for drinking, everything else is double filtered (two 5-micron filters each for both the house and the garage) and conditioned (garage "softener" uses potassium chloride).

I put in a dedicated water heater just for the detailing garage.

Get sillcocks (sp?) that feed the hot/cold together. Have one on each side of the garage. I'd definitely get the utility sink with hot/cold also, and a hot/cold for a washing machine.

Get a "trench" type drain that runs most of the length of the shop. I put in a commericial oil separator like I had in my pro shop, to avoid any future hassles from the EPA.

You can just hook the pressure washer up to one of the sillcocks. FWIW, I hardly *ever* use my pressure washers.

Consider having lines run for (large) air compressor. I have air outlets on all four walls and they're really handy.

Get more lights that you think you need. Fluorescents (ceiling and wall mounted) for general illumination and some high-wattage (mine are 300-320W) incandescents for swirl spotting (mount these over where you'll be polishing). Have many switches so you can adjust which lights are on. Have a *lot* of electrical outlets and a separate fusebox.

I got the exhaust fan but found I needed an dehumidifier anyhow (I keep my tools and the Jag in that garage). Now I hardly ever use the fan. It also seemed to draw dust in from outside and stir dust up in the shop.

[Setec Astronomy]

Originally posted by Chucksweet
I just built a new garage to store my cars in and now I want to take my old garage and turn it into a wash / detail bay!

I hate you.

EDIT--I just saw the picture of your new garage...for some reason I thought you were talking maybe a two-car...but...anyway...I won't be doing anything like your project...heck, I coudn't even dream up that project! So, I don't hate you anymore.

[OI812]

I am a plumber, so my advice is coming from my experience. By the way I would love to see pics of your garage. Since I am a plumber I probably can't afford a garage like your, so please post the pics so I can dream.

I think the Accumulator did a great job at suming up what you should put in.

A must is the trench drain. Well worth the money, because you will never stand in a puddle of water if it is done properly. Make sure the plumber get the drain plenty low so the concrete gets pitched to it. Concrete guys don't like to pitch slabs--that means they have to do more work to make it look good.

Towards the RO or DI system contact an outfit like U.S. Filter. They specialize in equipement like that. They can give you the best advice and maintain the equipment. Also don't run RO or DI water through a pressure washer. It CAN eat up the pump. Depending on the grade of the water, some of it can get really aggressive.

I would put in the Mop basin and the sink. I hate lifting buckets to a sink to dump them. Or once they are full lifting them out. Thus the mop basin. Then again I hate bending over to clean something in a mop basin thus the sink. If they are both located next to each other it shouldn't cost that much extra.

You might want to consider one of those instanenous water heaters for your garage. It might be a good application for one. BTW I mean one of the gas fired whole house instaneous water heaters.

If you need hose bibbs, I put up links to those in previous post. If you need them, let me know.

Good Luck and please post some pics.

[Chucksweet]

Thanks all,

Lots of great ideas...

I appreciate it,
Chuck