Cleaning Sprayroom Floors
Advice on how to remove coating overspray build-up from a concrete spray booth floor. August 30, 2005
Question
I am starting to get a lot of overspray on my concrete floors in my spray room. What is the best approach to cleaning this up? The exhaust fans do a great job of keeping it out of the room, but it still seems to land on the floor.
Forum Responses
(Finishing Forum)
From contributor W:
I would suggest following the link below to Chemco Manufacturing for spray booth floor coverings.
Chemco
From contributor J:
I buy booth filters and booth floor paper from Chemco with good results.
From contributor B:
To contributor J: What weight paper do you buy and what is its cost? Also, what type filters do you use?
From contributor R:
We didn't have much success with the paper on the floor. It tears too easily. We put down hardboard and it's lasted a couple years. It's about ready to be replaced. This will probably not meet code if you're in a place with strict enforcement.
From contributor K:
We use a black tar paper, it’s a Miami/Dade approved roofing underlayment. A very strong product and a roll of it lasts us six to eight months. It’s also a fire rated product.
From contributor M:
We use the floor paper from Chemco and it works great. We did have the original problem of tearing, but after we painted our floors the paper stays fine for about three months of constant use.
From the original questioner:
How to do I get it clean now so I can start using the paper?
From contributor M:
If you try and use solvents at this point all you do is create a gooey mess. I'd take an ice chipper or a hoe or a drywall knife and scrape. Then just paint the floor and use paper. Over time the remaining stuff will come loose under the paper from walking traffic. Then scrape some more and paint again.
From the original questioner:
I thought about scraping the floor, but was afraid of causing a spark and catching that stuff on fire? Is that possible?
From contributor R:
I wouldn't be too worried about a spark catching fire. My experience with it rubbing/coming off through traffic - it won't. I still have some on my shop floor from when I first moved in and sprayed a job or two while waiting on my finish room. It's still there. Scraping will pull the top layer of your concrete off as the finish is well-bonded to the floor. I've had the best luck with stripper. Definitely use something inflammable.
From the original questioner:
What about that acid they use to clean concrete? Would it eat through the lacquer? I even thought about renting a floor buffer with a scratch pad under it to see if it would take it down to the concrete.
From Paul Snyder, forum technical advisor:
To the original questioner: To remove the overspray from the concrete, I'd use a good stripper and a scraper. I have the same issue and that's how I deal with it. Covering the floor is a lot wiser in the end.
From the original questioner:
Just use a regular paint stripper? I guess that never crossed my mind. Thanks for the info Paul. You can bet I'll be purchasing some floor paper, it sounds so much easier.
From contributor D:
My floors are the same. I will need to clean them up and get wise and use some type of floor covering also. Would strippable booth covering work?
From contributor J:
I buy 100 weight floor paper from Chemco and lay it down with duct tape. I also get sprayable booth peel-coat and booth filters from them. I believe in order to buy directly from Chemco you have to order in fairly high quantities in order to make paying for delivery worth it. I usually end up buying huge rolls of the stuff - but I have six spray booths to keep up on so I go through it pretty fast. You might be able to buy quantities cut off of the rolls from other suppliers; however it might be more expensive. As for scraping floors and booths, be sure you use non-sparking tools.
