dirt floor garage?

[bobstad]

I'm getting ready to try to lube my front wheel bearings on a '91 Festiva L five-speed as per a thread introduced in the repair self help forum here.

My question for General Discussion is: my apartment that was originally built as a small livery stable in the 1880s has an attached 8'x20' garage with a dirt floor.

I've been doing work on my car next to the sidewalk in front of my front door, but would be using the garage if it weren't for that dirt floor that the neighborhood alley cats think is their cat-box.

I read somewhere long ago that someplace in the world perhaps like Malaysia in South East Asia some people used old crankcase oil mixed with dirt as the floors of their homes and wonder if anyone has any better information about something like this?

Or any other ideas of how to make a decent work surface I wouldn't mind laying on and that would have less potential to contaminate any work I'm doing on my car. The cats really aren't the bulk of the problem since they seem to concentrate in one small area and only when passing through and not their only target zone I'm sure, but the dirt floor is uneven and in the winter gets moist and muddy a little and in the summer is rock hard and yet still dusty and dirty as hell and which I've laid a large plastic tarp over that is not the greatest surface ever but that at least I don't feel bad about sitting things on to store for awhile.

I'm just a renter and so don't feel like pouring concrete or anything radical and expensive and which might cause the property taxes to go up the next time the place is assessed and which cement floors always adds value to.

This used crankcase floor idea when I saw it like in a NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC seemed very clean and neat and in the type places where people typically sat on the floor always. The surface seemed to get spider-web like crack lines all over but that were not huge faults, but only fine minor tracings that seemed to add beauty and the floors were very sweepable and tidy, etc.

[DontFearTheReaper]

As far as using used motor oil I would contact your local EPA or Department of transportation. Here in central Missouri it is not legal to use motor oil that way. You could end up with a big fine and the expense of decontaminating the soil.

Concrete is the only thing I can think of. I understand you not wanting to pour the concrete due to being a renter and the expense. But (at least here) if a renter is willing to take on the expense and trouble of doing something to improve the over all value of the property, the land lord will either reimburse them the cost or reduce their monthly rent until the cost is repaid. After all the land lord will be the one that gets the improved equity in the property. And if you ever do move, the land lord can charge the next renter a higher monthly rent because he now has a garage with a concrete floor.

Good luck with your quest for a clean garage...

[Festy46]

Get yourself some big pieces of cardboard like from a refrigerator box or other large appliance. I have a concrete floor and a creeper in my garage, but I prefer a big piece of cardboard. The cardboard is easy to slide around on and it gives you a clean spot to lay any parts you are working on.

[PaulLehr]

My only thoughts were to build a wood sub floor in the garage. it would be temporary and removable when you move. But the cost to do something like that might out weigh the benefits. The other was to use large patio type paving blocks to make a work area?

[todd00]

i like the cardboard box idea, its free and simple. visit any walmart overnite, they have a nice selection of box sizes.

[Gforcefd]

visit any supermarket thats open at night, Come to ithaca Tops Supermarket i will give you about 1500 large boxes we empty everynight :-)

Logan

[L4V]

Thinking...............................hmm........ ..
.
Off the top of my head, and depending on how "...moist and muddy..." it gets in the winter...
how about carpet?
Tons of carpet and padding gets replaced in large apt. and condo complexes.
You could even ask/call around. Hell, call some realtors - sellers often replace carpets.
I've got some rolls of new carpet remnants in my garage for those cold/rainy winter Kalifornia days.
Sure beats lying on cold concrete.
.
Anyway, I can see laying down (on edge) a long 2 x 4, then scraping the high spots to get close to flat.
Maybe then bring in an inch of sand or pea gravel to not only level but to insulate the carpet from the dirt.
.
Again, depending on how moist it gets...carpet may hold the moisture a bit adding to the discomfort factor and even begin to stink.
Maybe if it stinks badly enough, it'd deter the cats.
.
Winters are damp and rainy up there in Eureka, eh?
.
A tough one, but I wouldn't do the oil dealio.
.
Good luck.

[freshtiva]

Maybe you could lay down a piece of half inch plywood or chipboard and drive up on it. When you are done just lean it up against the wall to keep it dry. For a little more padding put some carpet of cardboard on the plywood. The worst thing about working in the dirt is that dropped nuts or bolts seem to vanish. At least on the plywood you'd have a chance of finding lost items. Unless it takes a freakish bounce and lands under something at the opposite end on the garage, which is usually the case.

[Guest]

^^^yeah you got that right.. just rake the dirt floor kind of leveling it out, then lay out one of those big blue tarps.. drive the fester on it..

[miami man]

in my gravel driveway i have used a big piece of carpet to lie under the car and it keeps me clean and comfortable.

[Dave G]

My grandfather had a dirt floor appliance repair shop. He put down rolled asphalt roofing material on the floor. Beat the heck out of dirt :-)

[bobstad]

Thanks for all the good ideas...

That was better alternate advice than I'd expected and I think a combination of cardboard and carpet and if I really were inspired doing some leveling and a little pea gravel underneath.(though those pictures of the dirt and old crankcase oil floors were really attractive and where a polished sort of effect was obtained-but here with EPA type regs and not a place I own myself I'm probabley stuck trying to go that direction)

Just thinking about cardboard now I'm reminded of when I'd been trying to earn money doing orchard work and picking apples.

Many people then were trying to buy land in the very remote and low populated Okanogan region of Washington state and where there are practically no jobs and little money, but lots of cheap and beautiful land.

One trick that was great was to go by the big apple packing sheds after they'd taken the fruit out of the bins the pickers used and get the sheets of cardboard that were in the bottoms of the bins to keep the apples from bruising.(which were thrown away and not reused for some reason)

You could put about four layers over the roof on your home-made house and a foot or two of dirt over that and this was the greatest insulation imaginable. Some people never got around to the dirt and just kept adding layers of old cardboard that even wet was excellent against the sometimes 40 below zero farenhiet temperatures when a cold Arctic Chinook wind would sweep down there from the north.