How to Clean Concrete Floors Before Painting

An easy and impactful home improvement project is painting your concrete floors. Your concrete surfaces can be your garage floors or your basement. But this project of cleaning, painting, and sealing can be great for your home’s durability.

Cleaning a concrete floor before you start painting is a multi-step process. Basically, it involves sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, and scrubbing. None of those steps should take you too long, but if you really want to save time, you might skip the sweeping and just vacuum instead.

Pick Up Dust

First, bring all of your mats and floor rugs outside or place them in a closet or other storage space. Next, sweep and vacuum the floor. This will remove any dirt or dust that can get trapped in the floors, which would create lumps and bubbles in your finished product.

Mop the Floors

Now it’s time to mop. If you use a large, flat mop, you will be able to clean faster and evenly. Next, you’ll want to scrub your floors with a cleaning solution and a microfiber cloth.

By the way, high-quality microfiber cloths could save you plenty of money on paper towels over the years, so they are worth the investment. They also won’t leave lint behind.

But you may find that the cloths aren’t doing the trick. Put on some rubber gloves, find a stiff bristle or wire brush, and use a non-abrasive cleaning solution with a neutral pH level. If you were to apply an acidic or abrasive cleaning substance, you could easily stain, scratch, or otherwise damage this type of flooring.

Dry Time

Because your floor was just cleaned with water, you’ll want to factor in some drying time for the concrete surface to dry. It can dry overnight or take up to 24 hours. Regardless you’ll want to make sure it dries completely.

Ready to get started on your big project?