Washing Inside Garage

shelshel · 03-06-05, 12:36

I have a double car garage (26x22) and would like to be able to wash my vehicles inside. My garage already has a water supply, drain and great lighting thanks to all the Autopian suggestions. The only problem is my workbench, kids bikes etc. are in the garage too but I still have plenty of room to work.

For those of you who wash their cars inside how do you do it without getting everything wet? I know I could do QEW but I rather just wash the traditional way with a hose.

I was thinking of just putting up Tarps and attaching them to a wire that I would string on all four sides.

Is there a better way or any other suggestions???

General Lee · 03-06-05, 06:28

It is going to be tuff to keep everything dry using a hose. If you use the hose only w/ no nozzle on the end, you can control the water a bit more than just having it spray every where. Just let the water free flow onto the surface. Splatter should me minimal.

The tarp idea isn't a bad one either. You could rig up something to where you just pull the tarps around the area you are washing in and make a booth so to speak. I'm just not sure how much trouble it would be to rig something like that.

MDSUPERSTAR · 03-06-05, 07:19

Wash and rinse outside rather quickly, pull car into garage to dry.

shelshel · 03-06-05, 07:31

Quote:

Originally posted by MDSUPERSTAR
Wash and rinse outside rather quickly, pull car into garage to dry.

Only problem with that is during the winter it gets pretty cold + there's usually snow on the driveway. By cold I'm talking in the teens in the next couple of days.

Mark Waldron · 03-06-05, 07:37

I use the flat spray setting on my nozzle and it uses very little water to wet/rinse the car and produces hardly any overspray. It takes about 16 gallons to completely wash my Dodge Dakota and about 10 gallons to do my wifes Camry. These figures include tires, wheel wells, etc. The trick is to get right on top of the area being rinsed and don't stand back from the surface. I literally have the end of the nozzle about 6 inches away from the surface guiding the spray to where I want the water to run. I don't even have a drain in my garage, but luckily the water pools to the front corner where I connect a water boom to my wet/dry vac and it sucks the water up as it drains towards the corner. It's a good setup until I install the sump pit.

rnbradford · 03-06-05, 09:05

I use your "tarp" idea with no problem. The tarps are simply shower curtains - the cheapest I could find at Lowes. They hang from cables that run parallel to the walls. When not in use I simply slide the curtains back to the ends of the cables - in the corners of the garage. I wash my cars there every time. So far nothing besides the car and the floor has gotten wet. It's helpful to use small turnbuckles since the cables will eventually sag a little without them.

Accumulator · 03-07-05, 09:13

The more you wash the better you'll get at controlling the overspray. I keep thinking I oughta do the tarp/showercurtain thing but I dunno if I really need to. Even when doing the minivan I've gotten to where I don't get everything wet any more.

If I ever *do* decide to do the tarp thing, I'll have a welding shop construct some poles with weighted bottoms and castors. That way I can position the tarp just where I want it and also get it completely out of the way if I want to. I don't want to hook it up to the walls only to decide a few years later that I want to organize the shop differently or that it's somehow in the way. I'd get reflective, silver tarps for better illumination.

tom p. · 03-07-05, 09:43

I used to cover the walls with plastic sheeting (from Home Depot, held in place with push pins) so the sheet rock wasn't getting soaked over and over. I also roll the cars outside and do my rinsing outside when possible. I rinse in a very specific area of my driveway where the sun hits and melts pretty much everything. It's also away from pedestrian traffic so people aren't falling and breaking their necks on the ice build up.

I really try to avoid rinsing in the garage - - it pushes the humidity out of sight for several days while everything dries.

zippymbr · 03-07-05, 10:27

maybe a roman shade made of some 8 mill plastic, 1 1/2 inch dowel rods, blind cord and blind pulleys. All this stuff you can get at HD. Yo could just roll it up out of the way when you are not using it.

Accumulator · 03-07-05, 10:52

Quote:

Originally posted by tom p.
I really try to avoid rinsing in the garage - - it pushes the humidity out of sight for several days while everything dries.

Might oughta look into a dehumidifier

Even with my floor drains and the huge exhaust fan, the dehumidifier sure pulls a lot of water out of the air.

tom p. · 03-07-05, 11:25

Accumulator, I've got one but it's not going to run when ambient temps are that low...it just ices up. It's also a little "over the top" when it comes to thing we'll do for our cars, IMO.

Accumulator · 03-07-05, 01:21

Quote:

Originally posted by tom p.
Accumulator, I've got one but it's not going to run when ambient temps are that low...it just ices up. It's also a little "over the top" when it comes to thing we'll do for our cars, IMO.

Yeah, I know what you mean about icing up. One of my older ones does that too. Weird household I have here, with humidifiers running off the furnace for what some rooms need and dehumidifiers running in some *other* rooms and the garage

Over the top? I dunno, but then I have many of my tools and the Jag in the same shop where I do my washing, so I gotta take sorta extraordinary measures or I'll find myself up a certain creek