What is best vacuum for dusty garage floor

**peterp** · 01-31-2007, 10:08 PM

Can anyone recommend a vacuum cleaner designed for cleaning garage floors. Our floor (unpainted rough concrete) seems to collect a ton of dust and sweeping is almost impossible. I have a wall mounted shop vac, but it doesn`t really work on the floor. Is there an upright garage vacuum/sweeper designed for this purpose. I vaguely recall seeing one advertised, but I can`t recall where. I did a search on this site and couldn`t find any info. Any guidance would be appreciated.

**imported_Devilsown** · 01-31-2007, 10:13 PM

I personly would use that floor sealer stuff Garage Floor Coating Installation

and buy a giant dry mop for the floor, thats what I do at work and home.

**peterp** · 01-31-2007, 10:20 PM

This is a good idea -- I didn`t know Home Depot had this type of service. Do you have any idea about the quality of Home Depot`s work?

I see the costs listed on another page -- looks like the price starts at $2.50/$3.75/$4.25 for good/better/best. My garage is 20x20, so it look like the cost would be about $1000/$1500/$1700. Does this sound about right?

**mikebai1990** · 01-31-2007, 10:34 PM

I had lots of success using my Ridgid wet/dry vac (it`s not wall mounted) to clean the garage floors. They were dusty and had all sorts of stuff on the concrete ground. It sucked up everything very nicely.

**peterp** · 01-31-2007, 10:44 PM

Originally Posted by mikebai1990

I had lots of success using my Ridgid wet/dry vac (it`s not wall mounted) to clean the garage floors. They were dusty and had all sorts of stuff on the concrete ground. It sucked up everything very nicely.

Mine just sucks

Actually, I have a Craftsman wall mount wet/dry shop vac and it probably would pick up, but there is so much dust that the filter clogs very quickly. It just becomes hard-caked with dirt so that it looses most of it`s suction power -- that`s the case right now, but I plan to get a replacement filter this weekend. The vacuum isn`t very old, so I think it would be clogged again by the time I finish with the dusty floor. I`m not sure if this is a deficiency of shop vacs in general (doesn`t sound like it from your feedback) or something specific to the craftsman model.

**Setec Astronomy** · 01-31-2007, 10:49 PM

If the floor is spalling, it will just continue to dust and get rougher, making the problem worse. I`ll tell you how to fix it when I figure out what to do with mine. The water-based sealer was just a temporary measure on my floor, it`s pretty much back to the way it was.

**jfelbab** · 01-31-2007, 11:19 PM

You should buy a drywall filter or a fine dust filter for your shopvac. This filter will keep your cartridge filter from becoming clogged.

**peterp** · 01-31-2007, 11:26 PM

Originally Posted by jfelbab

You should buy a drywall filter or a fine dust filter for your shopvac. This filter will keep your cartridge filter from becoming clogged.

Thanks -- this helps a lot. I see that they offer 3 different filter types -- I will definitely be sure to get the right one.

**kompressornsc** · 02-01-2007, 06:42 AM

You`re going the wrong direction! Don`t vaccum a garage floor, blow it out with a leaf blower. I do mine about once a week and keeps it nice & clean as well as allowing me to clean under cabinets & shelves w/o moving them. Start at the back and go over the entire thing, let it settle out for about 10 minutes and then go back and blow out what has settled. Just remember to move your car(s) well out of the way.

**peterp** · 02-01-2007, 08:09 AM

Originally Posted by kompressornsc

You`re going the wrong direction! Don`t vaccum a garage floor, blow it out with a leaf blower. I do mine about once a week and keeps it nice & clean as well as allowing me to clean under cabinets & shelves w/o moving them. Start at the back and go over the entire thing, let it settle out for about 10 minutes and then go back and blow out what has settled. Just remember to move your car(s) well out of the way.

You`re right -- not sure why I didn`t think of this. I will pick up a leaf blower this weekend. I will also get the proper filter for the shop vac since the one that came with it clogged very quickly. Is there any preferred leaf blower to get? I prefer an electric one and will probably get a Sears craftsman (since I will be there for the vac filter) in the absence of a better suggestion.

**jfelbab** · 02-01-2007, 08:17 AM

Not so fast. I tried that in my old house and all it did is make everything in the garage dusty. I wound up with a layer of dust on everything I had stored in the garage. At least with the vacuum approach the dust is removed not just moved. JMHO.

**kompressornsc** · 02-01-2007, 08:57 AM

Originally Posted by jfelbab

Not so fast. I tried that in my old house and all it did is make everything in the garage dusty. I wound up with a layer of dust on everything I had stored in the garage. At least with the vacuum approach the dust is removed not just moved. JMHO.

I blow off everything in the garage - not just the floor. Tools, shelves, walls, etc. I have an old, unfinished garage that gets filled with cobwebs in the stud cavity, so I blow those out, too. As I said, it does take doing it twice-you have to let it settle out after the first time. And obviously, open every door you can and work everything toward the door(s). Unless you`re running a really good filter on a shop vac-I`ll bet it blows out more dust than the leaf blower leaves behind. A standard shopvac filter just isn`t made to get fine dust. Shop vacs are great for big stuff, but aren`t worth anything on dust. I made the mistake of using a shop vac (with a secondary filter) in the house once and it made more of a mess than it cleaned up.

**imported_doctordon** · 02-01-2007, 10:26 AM

Peter: Don`t look for a better bandaid. That concrete dust floating around while you`re walking, moving gear, etc. is very bad for your work. You`d never see raw concrete anymore where they work on airplanes - and detailing in many respects runs tighter than plane work. Go get a sealer of some sort. The 2-part urethane or epoxy are fancy but some of the general, clear sealer you see in wharehouses is probably just as good for keeping down the dust.

Sorry, if this is a duplication of what anyone else has said ...I didn`t read the rest; it seemed so obvious. Cheers all.

j i m

**imported_themightytimmah** · 02-01-2007, 10:31 AM

In the short run, soak it down with a hose and mist sprayer and use a big nylon broom. I`ve seen people do that before with homemade spray booths and as far as I could tell, it worked pretty well for `em.

In the long run, you`re going to want to seal it. Use a decent sealer, they used this water-based crap in a hanger that I sometimes work at, and it`s almost shot after 6 months.

**peterp** · 02-01-2007, 11:19 PM

Thanks for all the feedback -- I will likely do all 3 -- leaf blower, different shop vac filter type (I need a new one anyway), and I think I will eventually get the floor sealed.

The garage floor is heavily pitted and therefore stores a lot of dust, but I don`t get the sense it`s crumbling and is the source of the dust, but I might be wrong. Dust accumulates on the car after it sits overnight (without anyone walking through to stir up dust from the floor), so it doesn`t seem to be coming from there. On the other hand, I don`t know where else it could be coming from, so maybe the floor is the answer. Regardless of whether the floor is the source, it would be so much nicer to have it sealed, so I think I will check into this more.