If you have an unfinished basement...

[MissSJ]

If you have an unfinished basement do you sweep and mop the floors? I live in a 4 yr old home with an unfinished basement. I have not swept nor mopped the floors down there and boy is it dusty and I think the dirt on the floors is making it smell bad down there. Today I plan on beginning to organize the basement and sweeping/mopping an area at a time. Any suggestions on cleaning a concrete floor?

SJ

[nummies]

Is there a drain down there so that you can just use soap and water?

[yeahwhat]

Our basement floor is painted concrete and it gets swept up fairly regularly; there would be cat sized balls of fur rolling around if I didn't sweep up the cat hair periodically. Mopped very rarely, but just with the same stuff I use on the kitchen floor. If your floor isn't painted, I totally recommend that as it makes it seem much neater than bare concrete.

[MommyinMN]

Our house is just over a year old and the basement is unfinished and used as storage. I do seep the floors and dust some, but not every week or anything. Every few months dh and I go down there, rearange things and sweep.

[MissSJ]

I moved everything out of the section I am starting with then I swept the floor. Oh my goodness, there was so much dirt and there was even sawdust from when the house was built! When I mop that section I am sure the water in my bucket will turn dark immediately! bleh! I wish I did have a drain down there so I could just mop and rinse it down the drain with buckets of water. For drainage we have a small square of dirt that would drain to the outside in case of flooding,they said they did it that way because we don't get a lot of rain to cause flooding (high plains of CO). Off to clean up my living areas before tackling the mopping....

SJ

[time4another]

Never!

Well, let me clarify, (besides the basement being DH's 'area') probably a couple times a year. The garage more often gets swept.

We would never mop as our basement is prone to mold/mildew. We don't use it for anything but walking up from the garage and storage so...

Its not like it needs it or anything, it is a basement after all!

[G's mommy]

i just sweep as needed, which is not very often... we just use the basement for storage, and the kids like to play down there when I am organizing stuff.

then again, I rarely mop the kitchen floor.

[Amylcd]

DH sweeps it once a week or so...

[annethcz]

I sweep the concrete floor of our unfished basement once a month or so. I've never mopped it, only spot cleaned dirty areas.

[4evermom]

I just did this (mopped the basement concrete floors) earlier this summer. It really helped with the smell. I just used some kind of orange liquid spic and span, mopped, rinsed, rinsed, and rinsed some more. I didn't aim for clean enough to eat off of, just mostly cleanish. I set up some box fans to help with the drying. I know it hadn't even been swept in the past 10 years. I don't know if it was ever mopped. Sure smells better!

[tayndrewsmama]

Painting really helped with our floors as well. We did it in a 100 year old house with dampness and it made a HUGE difference. We did it the new house too because it doesn't look so dingy and it easier to clean up.

[Ellien C]

Going on 8 years and never been mopped or swept! We painted the floor when we moved in.

But then again it smells - maybe mopping would help.

[Hey Mama!]

I sweep about once a week because our cats live down there and scatter litter everywhere. I have only mopped it once since we have lived here (15 months), and that's because it flooded with sewer water so I bleached the whole floor.