Grass cuttings on the Garage Floor - Buy a small shed for the mower?

[Out of Steam]

As I get further into retirement, I'm starting to get picky about the condition of our detached two car garage, which I use mainly as a project space. While we don't put cars into it on a daily basis, I want to keep enough room to use it at any time to protect our cars from a storm. Right now, I can only put one car inside without about a half-hour of work, including putting the walk-behind mower and wheelbarrow on the screened patio.

I'd also like to keep dirt and grass clippings off the floor, or be able to clean it more easily. I suppose a battery-powered leaf blower to push clippings out the door would help, though the rough concrete floor with a crack at one corner makes that harder. Getting it repaired and refinished is on my to-do list.

The thought of buying a plastic shed to get the mess-making mower, wheelbarrow, and digging tools out of the garage comes to mind.

Am I simply nuts? Too much time on my hands?

 

[Stormy Kromer]

I like to keep my garage clean too. I don't store gas, lp tanks or fuel powered tools (chain saw, mower, snow blower) inside. I keep all of that in a separate shed. It just feels better.

I would look into a permanent type lawn shed before a plastic one, but I'd take a plastic one over nothing.

 

[pb4uski]

As I get further into retirement, I'm starting to get picky about the condition of our detached two car garage, which I use mainly as a project space. While we don't put cars into it on a daily basis, I want to keep enough room to use it at any time to protect our cars from a storm. Right now, I can only put one car inside without about a half-hour of work, including putting the walk-behind mower and wheelbarrow on the screened patio.

I'd also like to keep dirt and grass clippings off the floor, or be able to clean it more easily. I suppose a battery-powered leaf blower to push clippings out the door would help, though the rough concrete floor with a crack at one corner makes that harder. Getting it repaired and refinished is on my to-do list.

The thought of buying a plastic shed to get the mess-making mower, wheelbarrow, and digging tools out of the garage comes to mind.

Am I simply nuts? Too much time on my hands?

Some thoughts.

Can the wheelbarrow be hung on the garage wall when you need space inside the garage? Ditto with the walk-behind mower.

Use a leaf blower and/or a hose to clean grass clippngs off the walk-behind mower before putting it into the garage.

I frequently use a blower to clean our poured concrete garage floor. In our case it is more dirt that the cars bring in (our driveway is staymat) and leaves (especially in the fall). I move the cars outside, close the garage door so the wind doesn't blow stuff back in, blow debris up towards the garage door and then open the garage door, blow the debris out of the garage and off to the sides of the driveway and then move the cars back in. Probably every other week or so and takes 10-15 minutes.

Would those interlocking garage floor tiles work for you?

Do you have stuff/junk in the garage that takes up floor space and you never use and should really donate/recycle or junk? Are there items taking up floor space that could be hung from the walls or the rafters? We hang 4 bikes on the rafters, a small Mantis rototiler, lumber, etc. They have racks that hang from the ceiling that can be used for storage to reclaim floor space.

 

[Aerides]

One of the reasons I'm sticking with a lawn service is I don't want a garage full of equipment.

We have a two car garage. DH likes to park his in there, and the other half is my gym. In a pinch (hurricane) I can move my equipment around easily enough to put both cars in.

But the garage becomes a vacuum when the door is open (which is when I'm working out), and I still have to use a blower to remove the leaves that love to come in no matter the direction of the wind.

Yes to a shed. But a sturdy one on a slab would be the way I'd go if I did.

 

[pacergal]

We had a shed built in our back yard for yard tools.
Then when DH retired and started doing his hobbies, he moved everything out So, we built an extended second shed for storage of my stuff and extended the roof line and the yard tools are kept beneath that with tarps covering for rain, etc.
SIL knows carpentry work, so we hired him to build nice wood sheds for about the same price as those Tuff brand sheds--those can be expensive for the size we wanted!

We just sweep the garage floors and keep shoe racks outside the door. We do not wear shoes in the house.

 

[pb4uski]

On a shed, I think on a slab is overkill for a small shed. DW bought a ~8x16 garden shed at the end of the season from Home Depot and we paid for a flatbed car hauler to deliver it. We already had an area of crushed stone and the shed sits on 4" concrete blocks. It has double french doors to bring in larger items and has an unbelievable amount of storage space.

 

[jazz4cash]

I’ll bet your mower is a recyler. I don’t get too many grass clippings when the mower is stored. I tried recycling but the clippings made a mess and they stunk too. I’d go for a shed or mower cover.

 

[aja8888]

Get a shed. Then you can fill that up too! Sheds are also great places for wasp nests and snakes. But those are just minor challenges.

 

[Out of Steam]

Some thoughts.

Can the wheelbarrow be hung on the garage wall when you need space inside the garage? Ditto with the walk-behind mower.

I've already filled up the walls with hanging tools and shelves.

Now that our daughter (the only user) has moved out, I do have a treadmill in the garage to get rid of. But that only makes room for one item.

 

[Out of Steam]

I’ll bet your mower is a recyler. I don’t get too many grass clippings when the mower is stored. I tried recycling but the clippings made a mess and they stunk too. I’d go for a shed or mower cover.

It is a recycler. I'd prefer not to use it, because the lawn looks better with clippings picked up. Without a truck, my only place for clippings is household garbage, and I'm using my whole allotment of separate cans on leaves and sticks.

 

[Out of Steam]

One of the reasons I'm sticking with a lawn service is I don't want a garage full of equipment.

That is not out the question. I'm also finding that being home every ten days to mow is a pretty serious impediment to travel.

 

[Montecfo]

I have a 2 car garage which holds 2 cars as well as mower, wheelbarrow, tools, workbench etc. But I'd love to have a nice shed for the mower and yard tools.

A buddy got one for same purpose. He showed me when I was there. The shed was full of "stuff" and pretty much unusable.

That cooled my jets a bit. But hopefully I would be more organized. And nice sheds have gotten kind of costly.

 

[Aerides]

That is not out the question. I'm also finding that being home every ten days to mow is a pretty serious impediment to travel.

Yup. In S. Fla, my yard looks unkempt it I go past 7 days in the middle of summer. I'm lucky I have a good service, a local business owner who lives in the same neighborhood who offers a fair rate, we've been using for years now.

 

[kgtest]

I like keeping my garage clean and its hard to do. Since its attached to my house I don't like smells of gas, oil, other flammables etc but I don't have a shed...yet.

I have the coated epoxy floor so blowing it out is pretty easy. I blow it out a lot. In the winter it is a mess with snow, and ice melt from our vehicles, then the brake fluid sticks to the snow, the salt and sand from the roads sticks to the snow and it melts onto the floor.

In the spring, I take everything off the garage floor sweep it really good, blow it and mop it down. I bought a mop and bucket for this sole purpose. I let it dry out it looks almost as good as new. I am starting to get some cracks in the epoxy though but am too lazy right now with 3 little kids to tackle patching. I probably should patch and re-seal the floor. Aint nobody got time for that with 3 kids in sports and activities.

 

[jollystomper]

We do not have a garage, but our carport walls are brick and made in such a way that we could covert it to a garage (or at least put in windows) without tool much effort. I agree with those who like to keep in neat. Though I have a large shed in the backyard, it is on the opposite site of the house and I prefer to keep some things close at hand. I have a tall plastic shed for some larger tools, a bench storage unit for things like ice melt in the winter and lawn stuff in the summer, and a couple of plastic cabinets for various and sundry small tools/electric cords/lawn bags/car stuff/cleaning stuff etc. I will sweep/rinse off the concrete once a week or so. We park our cars in it and still have a lot of room. Sometimes in the summer we will move the cars down the driveway and grill and/or eat in the carport, we have a great view from there.

 

[jazz4cash]

Thinking about this more, if it is really just the mess of the clippings you are concerned with couldn't you just use a floor mat under the mower to catch the clippings? It could be a temporary solution at least.

 

[skyking1]

I'd say shed if it fits with your yard well. I really prefer not having flammables in the house or attached garage. I have a shed for that purpose, but we also have 1.25 acres and no sense of constraints in that regard.

 

[Walt34]

At our previous house we had one of the Amish-built sheds, similar in appearance to many of the ones sold by Lowes and Home Depot, but better quality. But the big box ones are not bad and if we didn't have the built-on shed here that we do we'd have opted for one of those. Every house in this development has at least a one car garage but we're amazed at how many people don't put their cars in there and fill the garages with junk.

Home Depot, Lowes, and other big box stores sell all sizes of sheds. You will want to at a minimum have the spot leveled. Next best is a gravel base on that and best of course is a paved pad. If you keep it painted and the roof intact it should last nearly as long as the house.

I have not been impressed with the plastic sheds I've seen. In a very few years they all seem to have fading colors and the straight lines, like the roof lines, start to noticeably bend like a 100-year-old barn.

 

[ocean view]

Thinking about this more, if it is really just the mess of the clippings you are concerned with couldn't you just use a floor mat under the mower to catch the clippings? It could be a temporary solution at least.

+1
This was my thought as well. Something as simple as a piece of cardboard under the mower could solve your problem, with little to no effort.

 

[N02L84ER]

We just put a single, thin, cheap, 4x8 sheet of shower wall on the garage floor and park the mower on that.

 

[Jerry1]

A shed is the best bet. A well built shed on a slab with a rat wall is the best. Our city will not allow a shed on anything else.

Other than that, they make all kinds of mats that will work all the way down to a piece of cardboard, as was mentioned, or a piece of outdoor carpet.

The other suggestion of a battery operated blower is a good option too. I have a battery operated leaf blower and use it often to clear out my garage. As Aerides says, there’s something about a garage that attracts all sorts of leaves and such once the door is opened. But, the blower or the mat won’t help with the smell of decaying grass that’s stuck to the underside of the mower deck. Maybe not a big deal, but I definitely notice it.

 

[Ronstar]

yes, and the bigger the shed the better.

 

[naggz]

We have a detached 2 car garage and it gets pretty messy. We park both vehicles in the garage year-round, and it holds the lawn equipment, camping gear, and other junk.

There is no easy way to keep it really clean, so I don't bother. I just use the compressor to blow it out in the spring & fall. I just accept it's a garage and it's really nice to have a dirty place when I need to do some dirty work.

 

[Amethyst]

Not to mention groundhogs tunneling underneath.

Get a shed. Then you can fill that up too! Sheds are also great places for wasp nests and snakes. But those are just minor challenges.

 

[Amethyst]

Florida houses lack basements, so the 3-car garage is the storage unit (there's no room outside for a shed). I had the garage floor epoxied, and a ductless mini-split put in for climate control.

The car, with its tires that bring dirt in, and anything else dirty or icky, sit on layers of heavy cardboard (a good thing, when the service shop used a cheap aftermarket oil filter that leaked). The cardboard is easy to toss and (in this era of constant deliveries) replace.

Now and then I vacuum the garage with a shop vac and swab it with a big string mop. It's clean enough. Several rough mats catch any stuff on shoes, before feet go from garage into house.