Where do you detail if you live in an apartment?

J

Jerryn206

New member
Jul 22, 2010
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I just moved to downtown Seattle and have access to the secure parking garage under my building but there is no room to detail while parked. Plus I don't want to get the neighbor's cars dusty from polishing.

There is a public storage 2 blocks from my house that charges $47/mo for a parking spot in their garage. I figure I might be able to use the open middle area of the garage to detail since most of the cars in there have covers on them for storage.

Anyone detail and live in an apartment? Where do you do your details?

Thanks. :)
 
At school it varies...pretty much wherever I can. If I'm just throwing a quick coat of wax on I can do it in a single space with a car on each side in a parking lot. If possible I look for a spot with the surrounding couple vacant.

Drive around to even stores/malls with large lots and work over towards the back. Occasionally a few of these even have electrical hookups to run a buffer.
 
Jerryn206 said:
I just moved to downtown Seattle and have access to the secure parking garage under my building but there is no room to detail while parked. Plus I don't want to get the neighbor's cars dusty from polishing.

There is a public storage 2 blocks from my house that charges $47/mo for a parking spot in their garage. I figure I might be able to use the open middle area of the garage to detail since most of the cars in there have covers on them for storage.

Anyone detail and live in an apartment? Where do you do your details?

Thanks. :)
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its funny you posted this thread. ever time we moved . which was a few times in the past 6 years to apartment houses. my main thing i was looking for is there water and somewere to clean my truck? kinda crazy i know .. im trying to think whats a goodidea for u in ur situation.. if it was me i would look into the garage rental. does it have a power ?
 
For weekly washes I use ONR with water I fill from my tub spout, and I'm fortunate enough to live in a big complex with plenty of open "guest" parking spots so I can have room to move around.

As for more serious detailing, such that it requires water and electric hookup, again I'm fortunate enough to have a friend with a garage and driveway that I can borrow for a few hours at a time. If you don't have anyone nearby like that, it might be worth looking on Craigslist for people willing to rent out their garage or hookups.

As far as sgtmillhouse's tip about trying malls/large store parking lots, I wouldn't recommend it. Often times they have rent-a-cops or security who are just looking to get into somebody's business, and you don't want to be sent down the road after striping your car and in the middle of a compounding!
 
sgtmillhouse648 said:
At school it varies...pretty much wherever I can. If I'm just throwing a quick coat of wax on I can do it in a single space with a car on each side in a parking lot. If possible I look for a spot with the surrounding couple vacant.

Drive around to even stores/malls with large lots and work over towards the back. Occasionally a few of these even have electrical hookups to run a buffer.
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Isn't it not a good idea to work in direct sunlight due to the surface of the car getting hot? Plus it rains a lot here so covered area's are a must.

trhland said:
its funny you posted this thread. ever time we moved . which was a few times in the past 6 years to apartment houses. my main thing i was looking for is there water and somewere to clean my truck? kinda crazy i know .. im trying to think whats a goodidea for u in ur situation.. if it was me i would look into the garage rental. does it have a power ?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was looking for places that had secured covered parking so my car and/or customer cars don't get rained on and so I can detail rain or shine (though we all know it's mostly rain up in the PNW). Who knows what kinds of gross pollution is in Seattle's rain too. :P

I'll have to check if it has power and a water source. I'm sure it does though. It's a fairly new/modern facility.

eversio said:
For weekly washes I use ONR with water I fill from my tub spout, and I'm fortunate enough to live in a big complex with plenty of open "guest" parking spots so I can have room to move around.

As for more serious detailing, such that it requires water and electric hookup, again I'm fortunate enough to have a friend with a garage and driveway that I can borrow for a few hours at a time. If you don't have anyone nearby like that, it might be worth looking on Craigslist for people willing to rent out their garage or hookups.

As far as sgtmillhouse's tip about trying malls/large store parking lots, I wouldn't recommend it. Often times they have rent-a-cops or security who are just looking to get into somebody's business, and you don't want to be sent down the road after striping your car and in the middle of a compounding!
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Thanks for the advice. Never thought about checking CL for garage rentals. :D



Thanks for the replies guys. Lovin' this forum already. Lot's of helpful people. :dblthumb2:
 
Many apartments, if you just ask for it, will point you to where their hose bib is and let you use it for free to wash your car yourself, provided you aren't using it every other day and you aren't hogging it all day when it's your turn, since other residents want to use it too.

As for electric, I think that is going to be tough. I have seen some detailers go to a client's apartment building and perform an entire detail in the garage, as there is a wash area, as well as nearby electrical hook-up for their polishers and stuff. But I have no clue if your apartment has a garage, and I am assuming it does not.
 
I just did my first semi detail job for a friend in his apartment complex. I did an ONR 2 bucket system to wash clay and seal. I filled my buckets in his shower. I only had a sprayer with water in it for the wheels so they didn't get as clean as I would have liked. I brought a hand vac that did pretty well until it ran out of juice. It wasn't too terribly bad, but there was no where I could get water or electricity, made due with what I had.

And detailing in 102 heat with 80-90% humidity wasn't the brightest idea on my part.
 
Maybe try one of those cheap $100-$150 portable generators to power your polisher? Then just do it at one of those Pressure Washer locations. Don't have to take up one of their bays, but some are large enough that you can pull off to the side in the shade and do your work. Then pull into the wash bay for rinse and ONR bath? Those are all unmanned, so doubt anyone would give you grief for doing it there. Might even pick up some business while you're there lol.
 
Luckily my building has a dedicated car washing bay with a hose hookup in the bottom of the parking garage and an electric hookup. It's closed during the cold winter months, but for the rest of the year, I try to use it once a week. Other than that, I sometimes use a relative's house. If you have any friends nearby that have houses, don't be afraid to ask them if you can detail your car there. Maybe throw in an occasional wash for them as a thank you.
 
When my wife lived in an apartment we could wash in a general area but needed our own hose and handle to turn on spigot.

I often found washing in those spray wash bays late in the evening worked best when water restrictions came about. No one cared late if you bucket washed, nor waxed in bay. Found electrical outlet on back of vacuum too.

Now detailing for pay is likely a whole different ballgame as someones always watching and ready to complain. You might approach a gas station and rent area and use a canopy or two.
 
a relatively cheap way to get electric is to use an AC converter attached to your battery. A 1000 watt inverter will run you about a 100 bucks and give plenty enough power to run a polisher.
 
We just brought in the Nomad Portable Power Cleaner for situations like this. When you just do not have access to a clean source of water, the Nomad really comes in handy.

This along with a few buckets at the very least helps you to be able to wash a car virtually anywhere.
 
I didn't really have an issue with water, a few sprayers full and my 2 buckets worked fine for me, more of an issue was an electric hookup.
 
aznwhip said:
Those are all unmanned, so doubt anyone would give you grief for doing it there. Might even pick up some business while you're there lol.
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Video surveilliance. Alot of these DIY are equipped where the owner can watch his/her property from home :cool:

killrwheels@autogeek said:
I often found washing in those spray wash bays late in the evening worked best when water restrictions came about. No one cared late if you bucket washed, nor waxed in bay. Found electrical outlet on back of vacuum too.
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Better pack heat. Around here washing at a DIY at night may get you shot in the head/jacked ;)
 
Harbor Freight is selling a little generator for $89.00 It only puts out 1KW but that is plenty of power to run a Rotary or a DA. A friend of mine bought one and made a nearly soundproof housing for it. Along with one end being an air filter with a box fan to keep a constant supply of cool air flowing across the generator. He's had it for a couple of months now and it hasn't blown up yet. And he got it because there is no power on the lower level of his parking structure, but there is a hose bib to hook up to and a floor drain right where he works.
 
Jerryn206 said:
Isn't it not a good idea to work in direct sunlight due to the surface of the car getting hot? Plus it rains a lot here so covered area's are a must.
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Here's some tips for working in warm weather and it talks about borrowing shade off another building if you don't have a garage...

Tips for working in warm/hot weather or direct sunlight



Just recently when I was in Bristol, Tennessee for the TV segment for Motorhead Garage, I used the tips in the above thread and borrowed the shade off a closed restaurant early in the morning to detail my rental car in case we used it for the show. Actually took some pictures to show the car in the shade while parked close to the building.

Worked find, I did a waterless wash, clayed the paint, hand polished and hand waxed and then wiped the tires and wheels clean and then dressed the tires using all products from a Pinnacle Travel Kit.


:)
 
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