To wet floor or not

Vanillagorilla

Vanillagorilla

Professional amatuer
Hello,
This topic has probably been covered thoroughly but a search didnt yield much.

Ive tried wetting paint room floors prior to paint and not wetting. I prefer not wetting due to the mess on the hose, possibilty of splashing water on the rockers, etc. Ive recently started painting some part time at night for a friend of mine which has a used car lot and their own "bodyshop". Im working at their facility. Ive done 3 jobs there so far. My cleaning routine for vehicles is the same as it always is but at their facilty things come out dirtier than normal. They clean the paint room for me if they know im going to spray. The facilty isnt great by any means. And all though its typically car lot type work, id like the jobs to be as clean as possible. Ive recommended suggestions on improving the facilty which they are open to doing. But for the time being im just trying to improve what i can. The owner isnt a painter, and they asked why i dont wet the floor like their last painter always did and i explained why. But it just raised the question in my head again if maybe i should try it. Has anyone actually had any positive results with floor wetting? Thanks.
 
Wetting the floor is right up there in the "body shop myths" with draping a chain over the axle and letting it hang on the floor to "ground" the car (which it WILL NOT do.)

Here is a video of "Bad Chad the Dust Bomb" spraying some panels. Notice that he is wearing the same clothes that he did the final sanding in.
The next video he posted after this one was literally titled "We have dirt in the paint."
Do ya think??? ;)

https://fb.watch/rStELX9EMf

Cleaning the car and wearing a paint suit are the most important dust control items. Then you just need a little ventilation to move the overspray out, but not stir up dust in the shop.

I AM a backyard hack, but I know this works. :)
 
I stopped wetting the floor years ago. I have had some very good results with overspray all over the floor painting fabricated parts on saw horses at about 32" off the floor. Spraying close to the floor I wouldn't do that. If it matters I use a blow gun with about 30" of brake line tubing attached to it and blow off the walls and floor with the exhaust fan running. Most of the dust I get probably comes right of the filthy paint suit I'm wearing:p.
 
I keep a damp cloth ready so I can wipe the last few feet of the hose off every time I'm going back over a horizontal surface, like hood, trunk, roof. Most of the dirt I would get was from a poorly placed resting hose between coats.
 
I get very little trash in my stuff and I think it comes down to the cleanliness of when you spray. I wear a paint suit and gloves, when it’s not being used the paint suit stays in a bag to stay clean and I don’t put it on until I’m walking into the booth to spray. I also change it out fairly frequently.

Clean the floor the day before. I’ve never wet a floor before.
 
I painted these running boards last year. I needed to get them painted in a booth that was being used as staging area for many other parts so total clean up wasn’t an option. Paint booth floor was dry and covered in epoxy overspray dust from previous work, and booth had tables of painted parts and rotisserie ends. The stands used to hold them were masked, and boards were elevated above nearby tables (that were covered in plastic) to get them up away from any floating dust paths and away from anything the paint gun would stir up. The base and clear you see is as it was sprayed, no dirt, no buffing, they never left the booth to install the stainless. I didn’t wear a suit, but I also don’t walk upwind of the parts. I say all this just to highlight that I’ve found for some small jobs, planning around the dust can be less harmful than attempts to clean it up and set it all airborne.

***Not recommended for all applications

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Agree with the other guys here, don't. All it does is raise the humidity. More humidity makes (poly)urethane clears and single stages harder to spray. Urethanes will also set up harder and take more effort to buff. And it won't lay out as nicely either.

Sweep, then blow out and go from there. Wear a paint suit, wear a spray sock as well. Mask your car off in such a way as to eliminate as many trash producing areas as you can. The vast vast majority of trash comes from what is being sprayed as well as your clothes.
 
I do it and don't do it. Depends. Sweep don't blow. Don't blow the shop and paint same-day . Wait for the dust to settle a day. Sometimes if the weather and wind is right you get clean jobs painting with the door wide open and no fans on..

Back yard hack disclaimer
 
I am with Rooster on this....I started with basically nothing and just items on saw horses...came out good. Tried to keep over spray down by using plastic, got worse. Used tarps to make a booth, covered floor, added slow and filter fans...got even worse. I will paint outside on the next one and just deal with the occasional bug. Moral of the story, seems the less I did outside of panel prep, the better it was. If you don't have a booth or a real close set up, seems to me it hurts more than it helps...especially if fans are involved. But again, I do pieces at a time, and I am a back yard hack...well garage and sometimes the yard.
Most air born contaminants comes from the painter or equipment...not the floor up....i.e. fans blow dust around....and dust falls with gravity. Static adds to this as well imo.
 
I figure a paint suit is a double purpose device. It protects the paint from me and anything that might be on my clothes, and it protects me from the paint and all the stuff that can enter your body right thru the skin.
 
Thanks for the all the input, and basically confirming my initial thoughts on it. I already use a full paint suit and thoroughly clean everything, like i always have. its just this particular environment thats giving me issues. Im going to work on improving it and work on the cleanliness. Its a little more difficult when its someone elses place, but luckily theyve basically given me free reign to do what I want. Thanks guys
 
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