Concrete garage floors tend to attract stains, suffer deep scratches, and sustain deep discolorations. They are incredibly expensive to try to fix or to clean. When you’re trying to clean your concrete garage floor, you essentially have to rely on abrasive chemicals that are harsh on your floor as well as harsh on you. Your alternative is to use sheer force, such as with a pressure washer. Pressure washers are somewhat effective, but they tend to spray water all over the inside of your garage. You also have to pay the price to buy or rent a pressure washer, which is not cheap.
Oil-based stains don’t always come out even with a pressure washing, because oil is not water-soluble. That’s why so many people are turning to epoxy flooring. This is a floor made from a resin which is stain resistant, chemical resistant, and scratch resistant. However, it’s not completely impervious to stains or spills. Here’s a quick guide for cleaning your floor.
Immediate Response
For the best results, you should respond to spills immediately. When something spills on your epoxy flooring, you should wipe it up as quickly as possible. When you wipe up a fresh spill, you can typically do that with some shop towels. If needed, you could use water or a very mild soap. If you respond immediately, that should be sufficient.
However, there are often reasons you cannot respond immediately. Sometimes, spills from running vehicles are incredibly hot, so you don’t want to touch them right away. Once they cool down, they might be dry. Furthermore, you might just not notice the stain until it has already set. So, what do you do if you cannot respond immediately?
Delayed Response
If you’re not able to respond immediately to a spill, it might set. You’ll have to then find a way to remove the stain. Epoxy flooring is very resilient, but it is important that you clean it with a “ph neutral” cleaner.
When it comes to fluids, low ph numbers are acidic and high ph numbers are basic. Soaps tend to be basic, and cleaners tend to be acidic, but you need something that is neutral. An acidic or basic substance might actually damage the floor. With a mild cleaner, you should then use some warm water and scrub with a brush or cloth. Often, warm water and a mop will clean up just about any stain on epoxy.
Make sure you’re being very careful, though; epoxy tends to become slippery when wet. If that doesn’t work, you might need to use a pressure washer, but make sure that it’s not damaging the floor as well.
