Types Of Cleaners You Should Never Use On Garage Floors

When you're cleaning your home, the garage can often be a bit of an afterthought. It doesn't have to be, though. Cleaning and organizing your garage doesn't just make it easier to find a tool or toy you want, it also makes the space safer and more pleasant to use. When you're working on your garage spring cleaning, you don't want to forget your garage floor, either. However, it's important to know how to clean your garage floor correctly, so you don't accidentally cause damage.

Whether your garage floor has an epoxy or polyaspartic coat, or is simply unsealed concrete, it can be damaged by overly harsh cleaners. You should especially avoid using anything abrasive or extremely basic or acidic when cleaning your floor. Products like bleach and ammonia both have an extremely high pH level and shouldn't be used. This also means your garage floor is one of the things you shouldn't clean with many all-purpose cleaners because the pH of these products is too high. 

While it might seem easiest to just dump plain tap water on your garage floor to clean it, that often isn't the best choice, either. Tap water often has salts and impurities which can stain and damage to polyaspartic and epoxy floors. And, letting water of any kind sit on an unsealed concrete floor for too long allows it to seep in. If possible, use distilled water when cleaning your garage floor, and make sure to dry the floor thoroughly when you're done.

Avoiding gritty or abrasive cleaners, as well as any with an overly high or low pH may make it seem like there are few products you can safely use on your garage floor, but this isn't actually the case. Cleaners like Zep neutral pH industrial floor cleaner check all the necessary boxes for a good garage floor cleaner. However, regardless of how good a product seems, it's always best to test it on a small, out of the way section before using it to clean your whole floor. Additionally, you should always follow all instructions and warnings on cleaning products carefully, both to prevent damage to your floor and, more importantly, for your own safety.