[TurboFord]

I read this (see quotes below) on another site and was curious as to what everyone thought. I've never painted before so I don't really have an opinion.


From http://www.neilslade.com/Papers/Painting.html
"Your Painting area needs to be bone dry. Any moisture evaporating up from the floor will pass through the space at the end of the spray gun... remember the spray gun? When you pulled the trigger, the pain/clear got real cold? The evaporating moisture from the floor turns some of the hardener into plastic beads on its way to the car. Geez! I got a lot of dirt in my finish. (Nope! You put a lot of “dirt” in your finish.) This doesn't hurt the paint and the paint store dudes win love you because you'll spend extra bucks buying sandpaper and compound to make SHINY HAPPEN. "

This guy also suggests electricaly grounding the car before painting to prevent static electricity from attracting dirt on the floor.

Thoughts?

[Deuce]

YES...........and YES......

I always wet the floor....to reduce dust and I have a grounding strap.
....of course......I only paint metal cars...

[BarryK]

What the man said is true.
The worst thing you can do is wet the floor.
The Black 55 Chev you see on my web site was based cleared as I stood on over 300-500 lbs of sand that I could not sweep all of it as I have a lift and body was off the frame so moving was out of the question since my garage is on a hill.

Dirt does not come from the floor, but as pointed out the wet floor can raise the humidity in the garage 20-25 points inside of 30 minutes and now your atomizing water into the base with potential blushing problems and in the clear with the potential of the ISO clumping and the clumps will look like either black, white or gray specks. Most painters think its dirt and don't know where it is coming from.

Here is a situation where a 1.3 tip will turn out a much dirtier job than a 1.4, just for the record.

There is no benefit to wet the floor but there are a dozen problems that the water can cause.

[hemi43]

I always wet the floor! The surrounding air has more moisture in it than what the wet floor could ever do.The only time I have problems with moisture, is in the middle of summer when the humidity is sky high, and water will get into my compressed air lines. Water separators work fine, but I always use a coalescing filter just before the gun in the summer. Static is also a problem. I ran an uninsulated piece of copper multi-strand wire INSIDE my hose, and on the ends I let it hang out an inch then installed my barbed connectors. All my pressure tubing is copper, and grounded. I sometimes also ground the workpiece with a length of wire with alligator clips on each end to the cold water tap that is in my spray booth.If you are getting crap in your paint jobs, 95% of the time it's because of a dirty gun.
You can check out my homemade spray booth at www.geocities.com/dantechfab under the projects heading. Hope this helps.Dan

[kenseth17]

I hose down the walls rafters and floor well the day before painting and wet the floor and walls before painting, but do squeege the floor so there isn't standing water main reason so the air hose or you don't splash up water when painting. By the time it comes time to shoot the clear the floor isn't very wet any more though. Last complete I did I used filters in in open window and before a fairly large fan for exhaust on the other end, paint early in the morning if possible. Never noticed a problem wetting the floor and my last few jobs came out fairly clean, better then a lot of the booths at the bodyshops I worked in years back. I've been wetting down the floor for years, and haven't noticed any problems doing it. I have heard of people taking a chain and grounding the car, but I've never done it. I never once painting professionally or at home have had anything blush on me, had enough other things go wrong when painting over the years, but never ran into blushing.

[adtkart]

I don't hose mine because of the moisture concern. I have in the past, rinsed the floor, then let it dry before pulling the vehicle back in. Although I am not recommending it, I actually painted the front of my son's Nissan pick-up without even sweeping the floor. He had made me mad by not doing the stuff that he was supposed to do while I was out of town, so I was rushed, and really didn't care as long as I got it painted and out of my garage. The only trash in the paint, was from the cowl vent area, that didn't get cleaned out good enough.

Aaron

[BondoKing]

Originally Posted by BarryK

There is no benefit to wet the floor but there are a dozen problems that the water can cause.

Speak the truth brotha...Barry got me to stop wetting the floor and change taping procedures and my paint jobs cleaned right up....

[adtkart]

Back a few years ago, I was an insurance adjuster, and had to travel around to different shops to estimate cars, and deal woth the repair shops. One day I had the assignment to inspect a car at a country shop. I drove down a gravel road and came upon an old farm house with a large barn behind it. When I went into the barn I ws really surprised. The "repair shop" was the main part of the barn, and had a dirt floor. I ask the guy where the paint booth was. He led me into a separate room, with a gravel floor. The walls were made of wooden slats, with obvious gaps between them. I ask hi how much trash he gets in the paint. He said that he doesn't, he cleans the cars before he brings them in. I figured he wet the floor, but he set me straight. He said that if he wet the floor, it would get messy. I could not believe the cars that he had outside that were done.

They must have been doing something right.

Aaron

[Bee4Me]

I wash the booth down the day before a complete clear job but usually I just walk in and shoot. You usually create more dust trying to clean things up than if you just let the sleeping dogs lay.
Last thing you want to do is go in with an air hose or blower after shooting a metallic. That stuff will float around for days.
Most of the trash comes from YOU anyway. So wear a suit and clean or change it often. CLEAN you air hose. It's a magnet for everything.

[Powerstroke]

I never wet the floor down before painting. A few times a year I will spray down the floor and walls, but otherwise will just blow out the booth with air.

Hemi43, I checked out your booth and it looks good. I built mine using osb but painted it with exterior latex (a few really good coats), and also used a vapor barrier underneath the panels to make sure I had a good seal with no leaks. I used large diameter air pipe buried beneath the concrete floor ( one end flush with the floor in the center of the booth) going to a unit out back of the shop with an explosion proof fan sucking out the fumes. I placed furnace filters high in the corners, and boxed in flourescent lights with sealed plexiglass covers about waist high to shine on the sides of the cars. It works great and I have no problem with dust.

Powerstroke

[Ultra Al]

HEMI43, just checked out your paint booth, real nice. I'm gong to build one outside my main shop in the future. My question is what explosion proof motor did you use? Is it a pneumatic motor? Thanks. AL

[shine]

this is the cleanest room on the farm. it gets washed and cleaned after each job and before each job. the walls get a new coat of flat white every 90 days. car goes in at 7 am and gets blown off every 30 min or so until the air warms up around 9. has a ground strap for them. by then all loose particles have been removed from the booth. paint suit,hood and i'm ready to go.

[hemi43]

The explosion proof motor came out of a new but damaged paint mixing system that you would find at your jobber. I made my own enclosure for it, and the door that goes to outside is made of aluminum with insulation.This door is hooked up to 2 small air cylinders, so when I turn the fan on, it also activates an air solenoid to open the door. Works great.

[milo]

Yes.in California where it's sunny all the time it's ok to wet the floor and the filters need a rinse and are supposed to to be wet to activate them.

For even better results mask or bag the bottom of the car...

[jcclark]

All this talk of increased humidity with a wet floor must be
by people without ventilation.
With my fan on when I'm painting I guarantee you the humidity
in my garage is the same as outside, floor wet or not.