Brace yourselves, winter is coming! With it comes all sorts of dangers to your garage. In particular, your garage floor is subject to moisture damage. This damage will end up affecting the rest of your garage and its content as well. One of the biggest threats to your garage and its contents is mold. It can have devastating effects on your home and even your health.
But don’t worry! Neighborhood Garage Door Service of Tampa, FL has a guide to prepare your garage to prevent winter moisture.
Gather Supplies
Part of preparing for the winter will include routine maintenance. Anytime you see moisture on your garage floor, you need to get it up. Gather the following supplies to prepare for battle.
- Broom and dustpan to sweep up slush and snow
- Wet/dry vac to get up rock salt, snow, slush, or standing water
- Laundry detergent for general mopping
- Vinegar to disinfect the floor and prevent molding
- Large floor squeegee to push water out your garage door or down your center drain if you have one
Keeping these items on hand within easy reach in your garage will make regular cleaning easy. When you’re getting in the car in the morning and you see standing water, squeegee it out the door. You come home and see salt lines from the runoff from your vehicle. Grab the mop and take care of it immediately. As a side note, vinegar does not freeze so it makes an excellent choice for disinfecting your garage floor.
Snow Mats
Snow mats are a once-off prevention resource. After purchasing them, simply place them in high moisture areas. You can place them over the entire floor surface for maximum effect. If this is too costly, you want to place them under your vehicle where runoff is a source of a lot of the moisture in your garage.
If you’re looking for a much cheaper alternative heavy cardboard or old carpeting can be used as well. These are ok in a pinch, but not highly recommended in the long term.
Miscellaneous Helps to Prevent Winter Moisture
Of course you can always consider sealing your floor. Epoxy, acrylic, or even silicone can be applied to the floor of the garage to seal it against moisture. By creating a smoother finish, it may create an easier to clean surface. The now non-porous floor will result in more standing water, so you’ll want to watch out for that.
Make sure that your overhead garage door itself is ready to stand up against the elements as well. Some basic maintenance can help you here. Check the weather stripping to be sure there is a snug fit to prevent snow from blowing in. Make sure the tracks are not warped as this can cause the door to sit unevenly leaving gaps.
When the Efforts to Prevent Winter Moisture Don’t Work
You may find that moisture is still getting into your garage. If so, you could end up with damage that needs to be repaired. Salt stains are the most common problem. If your regular mopping through the winter didn’t take care of them, it’s time for some heavier work. Grab a scrub brush and some liquid dish detergent. A little elbow-grease and some time should do the trick.
You may also find small cracks in your floor do to expansion and contraction of moisture that seeped in. You may be able to repair smaller cracks with simple cement patching. Larger cracks may require a trained technician.
If you have concerns about the shape your garage is in, give Neighborhood Garage Door Service of Tampa, Florida a call. Our professional staff of customer service representatives can help you troubleshoot your problems. If you need maintenance done, our technicians can be on site as early as today! Don’t delay and let those problems get worse. Call today!
