Washing Cars Inside of Your Garage

[Mike Phillips]

Washing Cars Inside of Your Garage


When I lived in Apple Valley, California back when I was working for Meguiar's and before coming to work for Autogeek, it was difficult to wash your car anytime other than early morning due to the heat, sun and wind. Apple Valley is in the high California Desert, part of the Mojave Desert so it's always windy and VERY dusty.

Temperatures in the summer were always hot throughout the day and the night and the coolest part of the day would always be early morning.

This made washing a car difficult, especially if the car was dark in color.

The Solution?

I washed cars in my garage.​

I had purchased a EZ-Up Canopy that came with 3 side wall curtains for mobile detailing and when I would take these plastic curtains and attach them to the sides of the walls to keep water from getting on all the stuff stored in your typical garage.

Worked for me...

If water pools on the floor instead of running outside then you can use a broom or get a floor squeegee and squeegee out the water after your final rinse, anything left will evaporate fast enough...

 

[C. Charles Hahn]

That's great advice if you've got plenty of room around the vehicle like that, but for those of us operating in single car garages the option of a hose or pressure washer just isn't all that viable.

In this day and age and for most situations I think the best "inside the garage" washing options are rinseless and/or waterless washes. I have been using the two bucket ONR approach indoors for some time now and the best part about it is that the water stays very contained with only minimal dripping onto the floor.

Also if you use one of the rubber or vinyl parking mats (like the BLT Garage Floor Protector that Autogeek sells and I know you use in the Show Car Garage studio) it makes cleanup easier yet.

Just my $0.02

 

[Concours.John]

I like the pop up tent idea.
The only thing I'll add:
The stick to the floor garage door seals make great containment barriers for water.
You need to make sure the floor is clean before applying. Windshield urethane helps seal the inside edge or areas with texture.
Form a square "u" to the door opening.

 

[Mr. Gloss]

I always wash inside the garage, winter and summer. There are floor drains across the center line and the floor slopes in that direction.. No mess to clean up.

 

[DaGonz]

I thought about putting in floor drains when we did the addition to the house (we took one of the garage bays and converted it to an entryway/laundry room and added another garage bay to make up for the one we lost. In order to do that, I would have had to get a permit from the city to tap into the sewer line and install an oil/water separator, which would have added another $15K+ to the project.

 

[Bunky]

I have been told using a pressure washer in a garage means more focused cleaning than a typical hose and using a fireman's hose is probably not something to use. I thought it made sense.

 

[C. Charles Hahn]

I have been told using a pressure washer in a garage means more focused cleaning than a typical hose and using a fireman's hose is probably not something to use. I thought it made sense.

I think that's what Jacob mentioned in one of the AutoLAVISH threads over on AGO....