Heated Garages in Cold Climates and Mitigating Corrosion?

2.7ecoboostFordBronco

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Hello,

Where I live the average winter low isn't too cold, 10F or so, but the roads are treated with a lot of gravel, sand, and sometimes chemicals (urea, I think, so not as bad as what some other states use?).

For the last decade or so I was driving older cars and they lived outside, I never paid much attention or noticed any corrosion issues. I recently acquired a house with a radiant floor heated garage. I leave it set as low as possible with the installed thermostat, 60F. If my vehicles have significant snow/ice build up quite a bit of water can pool up in the drain, and due to the sand/grit in the snow, the water drains slowly and the p-trap has to be periodically cleaned out.

The result is a lot of humidity in the garage during winter. I was wondering if there is some way to mitigate this? Obviously cleaning the snow off before entering the garage would be ideal? Even so there is only so much you can do when there is ice accretion and it's below freezing outside. In certain conditions even the drive between the car wash and the house would lead to build up by the time I arrived home.

Should I open a window? Get a thermostat that goes lower? Set up some kind of dehumidification system? Just live with it?

This is the frame of an 18 month old vehicle (transmission cross member area).

Unfortunately the only local under-coating place uses a product called Valu-Gard and not the usually recommended oil-type undercaoting. I have done the valu-gard on one vehicle anyway, but the one pictured below hasn't had it.

rust.webp
 
This garage, is it attached to a house wall? Is that wall insulated well? Is the radiant heat filled with water or antifreeze, eg could you shut the system down?

My wife's Prius brings in a literal gallon of "car water" every time she drives it in the snow. The slush bombs behind the fenders, body cavities... IDK where it all comes from. But I squeegee it into a dust pan then dump it in a bucket and can vouch for the gallon. "My" car water sticks around because the concrete slab has "cold inertia" and condenses water vapor on it anyway. Your floor should not do this, being heated, but in its present condition it might create ground level fog, which is just as bad for your truck.

Since you have a drain, I'd just set up a car wash with one of those undercarriage sprinkler wands and quickly run that under your truck if you've been driving in salt. 30 seconds, every night.

Also, you have the perfect conditions to run a dehumidifier to wring water vapor out of the air. I'd rig it with a hose to the pit sump as it'll make a LOT of water.

I suspect the thermostat doesn't go lower because the builder doesn't want people freezing pipes, or noticing the coldness coming in the shared wall.

It's a first floor garage and the living area of the house is on the second floor. There are no living areas on the first floor with the garage, but there is an adjacent 1000 sq ft airplane hangar behind a wall that shares the radiant floor system. The radiant heat is filled with water. I can shut the system down. The pipe freezing is an issue as it does occassionally get to -20F and even a little colder outside.
 
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Yearly sprays with an oil based corrosion inhibitor is a solution.

Can you mail order woolwax or fluid film to your address?

Maybe, not sure the logistics of all that up here but I was surprised at the limited options for undecoat. I did the Valu-gard on one of my Broncos. It was $500. It seems to be be holding up a little bit better than the one without it, so maybe I will have the other one done too, plus look into some kind of dehumidifier system for the garage.


Here is valu-gard through 1 winter in the heated garage:
IMG_5077.webp
 
I don't like the looks of that valu-gard product. From the pic, it looks like the old school asphalt and/or rubber based product. If it doesn't feel wax-ish or oily, that's what it is. That stuff has proven to be a nightmare in my rust belt climate.
 
I don't like the looks of that valu-gard product. From the pic, it looks like the old school asphalt and/or rubber based product. If it doesn't feel wax-ish or oily, that's what it is. That stuff has proven to be a nightmare in my rust belt climate.

It was definitely greasy for a few months after I got it in November and would leave goo on anything that touched it for about 3-4 months but not so much after 6. I think it is asphalt based. No idea if it is actually any good.

The undercoat is VG-160 described here as wax based:
IMG_5123.webp
 
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I live in MA, as do my parents so it gets pretty cold in the winter. I have a small detached 20x20 garage and my parents have an attached 24x24. Neither is insulated or heated.

I store a vehicle in mine and plenty of tools, automotive and wood working. No signs of corrosion at all.

My parents vent their dryer into the garage and it causes a little humidity. My fathers tools have a very slight layer or rust on some of them.

I think humidity is the problem, not temperature.
 
I live in MA, as do my parents so it gets pretty cold in the winter. I have a small detached 20x20 garage and my parents have an attached 24x24. Neither is insulated or heated.

I store a vehicle in mine and plenty of tools, automotive and wood working. No signs of corrosion at all.

My parents vent their dryer into the garage and it causes a little humidity. My fathers tools have a very slight layer or rust on some of them.

I think humidity is the problem, not temperature.
I think OP doesnt store his vehicle but drives hence as you said humidity problem.
 
Hello,

Where I live the average winter low isn't too cold, 10F or so, but the roads are treated with a lot of gravel, sand, and sometimes chemicals (urea, I think, so not as bad as what some other states use?).

For the last decade or so I was driving older cars and they lived outside, I never paid much attention or noticed any corrosion issues. I recently acquired a house with a radiant floor heated garage. I leave it set as low as possible with the installed thermostat, 60F. If my vehicles have significant snow/ice build up quite a bit of water can pool up in the drain, and due to the sand/grit in the snow, the water drains slowly and the p-trap has to be periodically cleaned out.

The result is a lot of humidity in the garage during winter. I was wondering if there is some way to mitigate this? Obviously cleaning the snow off before entering the garage would be ideal? Even so there is only so much you can do when there is ice accretion and it's below freezing outside. In certain conditions even the drive between the car wash and the house would lead to build up by the time I arrived home.

Should I open a window? Get a thermostat that goes lower? Set up some kind of dehumidification system? Just live with it?

This is the frame of an 18 month old vehicle (transmission cross member area).

Unfortunately the only local under-coating place uses a product called Valu-Gard and not the usually recommended oil-type undercaoting. I have done the valu-gard on one vehicle anyway, but the one pictured below hasn't had it.

View attachment 276109
There is probably a shut off in line, so you don't circulate into that part.
 
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