Garage Car Wash

B

Burnout01

New member
I'm getting ready to start building a new house. It will have a 2 1/2 attached car garage. I'm curious if any of you have the ability to wash your car in your garage in the winter? I was thinking about having a drain installed and plumbing ran, but what do I need to do for the walls? Current plans have drywall being installed. I like the look of drywall but know it doesn't mix well with water. I've wondered if painting it with a latex exterior paint would work or if I'll just need to go with another material all together.

Thanks for any help or advice.
 
Oh man. You are one lucky man if you indeed end up making an indoor wash bay.



Unfortunately my post contributes nothing as I know NADA about it.
 
Burnout, not sure if you could pipe in a drain to a garage floor legally by building code with out some type of grease trap. You may be able to get by with piping the drain into the ground but I would definately check the codes in your area. As far as the walls go a good idea would be the kind of material that your local grocerie store would have up in the meat department or deli area. I have seen it installed and if all of the seems are siliconed up tight you can hose it down.
 
Here is an older picture of my garage, but it shows the tin walls. When it was done being built, I used a pressure washer to clean the chalk marks from the walls. There is running water, a drain, and provisions for a restroom with a shower (no time or money to finish that part, yet)











Good luck with your garage!

Randy
 
Burnout01 said:
Will ONR be good enough after driving through Road Salt?
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If you have to, pull your car out of the garage and spray off with a regular hose (and pressure washer if you have one). Then pull it in and do a regular ONR wash, you will be fine.
 
grease trap will be necessary but its super easy. very cool idea. k-lite panels come in 5x8 sheets and most lowe's have it in stock. its just a vinyl like, white, thin sheet that you can go halfway or all the way over your drywall in the wash area. it looks pretty good, too.
 
I wash my car regularly in my garage with drywall. I thought the drains would be code, or at least a good idea to let any water drain instead of sitting on the floor. I would think you would want a drain just from the snow your car brings in.



Can you wash your car without spraying all over the walls? When I wash, I don't park that close to the walls, and there is not usually much of a problem if you're careful.
 
bert31 said:
If you have to, pull your car out of the garage and spray off with a regular hose (and pressure washer if you have one).
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I think most people who contemplate putting in drains so they can wash in the garage live in climates where it is below freezing regularly during the winter, which makes spraying off the car outside the garage unpleasant, impossible, dangerous, or all three.
 
It depends on your locale, but you will likely get a lot of resistance to being allowed to put a drain in the floor. The oil separator is a big deal, it's larger than you think it would be (and therefore deeper). If you're very lucky they will let you put a sanitary drain in, and I absolutely would do it, not only from a car wash standpoint but being able to hose down the garage (no oil down the drain, that will get you in trouble).
 
Built a new garage a couple years back now, did the whole nine yards so to speak. Wash bay, lift bay and shower plus waiting room. machine room, greenhouse, and half bath.



Installed the floor drain, and a shower water mixer for the water. We used green board but then again I don't spray the cars when washing but more like a car bath, by running the hose wide open with very small water pressure thus keeping any water spray to a minimum.



http://autopia.org/forum/garage/77782-garage-floor.html#post785438
 
For my garage, the drain was easy. The code requires it to drain to air, meaning it has to be outside the building and into the 'air' (not buried).



However, once the inpsector signs off, most people make a small pit and fill it with rocks to make a type of drain field.



Randy
 
Yeah, check the building codes about the drain, but *do* have one installed. I had an oil separator put in mine (all to commercial code) and it must not've been a big deal as I can't remember what it cost. I just had my contractor do it and he never made it sound like anything major.



I do think you oughta do the drain right...there's stuff that washes off of cars that I wouldn't want in my groundwater, regardless of the regulations.



I'm a big fan of trench-style drains; mine runs down the middle of the shop. Much easier to squeegee water into it than with a regular (small) drain. Sloping the floor a tiny bit towards the drain is good too, but how well it works out depends on your concrete guy.



I went with FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic) panels for the lower 4' or so of the walls (the rest of the walls are epoxy-painted block) and it's worked out fine. Get water resistant paint for the rest of the drywall and you should be fine.
 
Accumulator said:
I do think you oughta do the drain right...there's stuff that washes off of cars that I wouldn't want in my groundwater, regardless of the regulations.
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You make it sound like yours goes into a french drain or a storm drain; isn't it hooked up to the sanitary line?
 
Setec Astronomy said:
You make it sound like yours goes into a french drain or a storm drain; isn't it hooked up to the sanitary line?
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Sorr, gave the wrong impression. Yeah, after the oil separator it goes into the sanitary line.



No sotormdrains on our propery, and the only french drains I have are for the downspouts/rain gutters, which I believe are called "gray water" applications.
 
Hello everyone. I’m new to the forum so forgive me for making my first post here. With that said, if you are having siding put on your new house just have it go right into the garage. It sounds kind of odd but trust me, it looks good and works very well. I have also seen it used on bath room ceilings with great results. Good luck with your new home.
 
I am currently building a house myself with a three car garage so what I am having done is I am going to have hot and cold water in the garage, a heater installed on the ceiling in the corner, the garage TOTALLY insalated, epoxy flooring put down, ALOT of lights, compressor installed in the attic (save space), and I am looking into different paints to protect the walls from water splashing. My guess is that a high gloss paint would do the trick but I will search around.



Let me know what you find out.
 
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