Input on Prepping Garage?

Leave the floor concrete. Take a garden hose and spray it down.

I think you will risk stirring up dust and leaving trash in your finish.

YESSSS!! It is strong stuff and your house will reek for days if you don't.

Whatcha using for primer/surfacer? Whatcha using for wax/grease remover?

 

Clint about covered it except I put plastic on floor also and spray with water makes cleanup easier and paint off floor. Oh and don't use your door to garage from house for a day or so. I've used a boxfan with an ac filter on it in the window and found that it didn't move much air and I don't think it was anymore fire hazzard than the lighting I was using to see that were outside the plastic. Steve might disagree with me though.

 

I'd wet the area down as Clint has suggested, with or without the plastic.
I also would probably use the fan in the window, on low speed, to help ventilate the fumes from the garage

 

Re fans, according to my house painting books, you want positive pressure, and let the air leak out where it may. Negative pressure will pull air in through the cracks and gaps, and make the area dusty. You want the intake to come from a big, clean, open space, maybe even covered with a furnace filter.

I don't think there's danger of igniting unless you have an open pilot in the garage. Look at your fan - pretty sure they use AC synchronous motors (no brushes) so there won't be sparks while it's running. I know that the box fan I have says it's rainproof, so it shouldn't have any exposed wiring.

 

I strongly suggest no plastic on floor.
Its just to slippery.
Wet mopping it is best.
If you have to protect the floor, paint clothdrops are great.

 

I was gonna suggest doing it outside until I re-read your last sentence. Any chance you could do it in the driveway?

 

Not to hi-jack, but do you have any pics of that set-up? I'm tired of trying to get a good finish outside...

 

I use "high strength" laquer thinner from Ace Hardware. Stuff works better than anything else I've tried. It will even remove paint from the gun that has flashed if you use a toothbrush.

 

Um, you have a good filter mask? If you paint without one you'll regret it.

 

sounds like your gitting some good answers, One moor thing that will help inside or outside is to GROUND your tub if its sitting on tires -- painting causes static that attracts dust. whin i paint outside i use jumper cables clamped to a rod drove into the ground

 

Mineral spirits and paint thinner are the same thing. It's a lightweight refinery product, like kerosene; a mixture of a lot of different small molecular weight compounds with a low vapor pressure (ie drys slowly).

Lacquer thinner is a hotter (higher vapor pressure) solvent used for thinning and cleanup of lacquer - one recipe on the web calls it ethanol, ethyl acetate, and toluene. http://www.hirshfields.com/contractors/contractors_lacq1.html

Acetone (also known as propanone or dimethyl ketone), is a single compound like xylene or toluene or MEK, and is a very small molecule for a liquid solvent and evaporates very quickly.

Acetone is a very hot solvent, and evaporates almost as fast as its applied. I don't think it's very useful outside the lab, since it evaporates so fast and likely is an explosion hazard used in any quantity. Great for removing Sharpie ink though, but Goof-Off (methylene chloride IIRC) does everything acetone does, and better.

I'd use mineral spirits to remove as much of the paint as I could, then a thorough rinse with lacquer thinner or the HD thinner listed above. Acetone would work too, but I think it's too dangerous, esp. since you'll want to spray some through your gun.