You recently upgraded your garage cabinets, a move you felt was long overdue. However, in the interim, you’ve begun to worry, as you’ve had a stretch of inclement weather. You know water damage and the ensuing rust can destroy your cabinets, as can critter infestations.
Fortunately, taking the right preventive measures and ensuring proper maintenance can keep your garage cabinets in usable shape for longer. In turn, the items inside will be safer. How do you prevent garage cabinet damage long-term?
Safeguard your garage against damage in these ingenious ways, and learn tips in choosing the right materials as well as maintaining your garage cabinets:
- Preventing infestations
- Combating rust
- Preventing water damage
- Implementing regular maintenance
- Choosing the right materials and design
These pointers are some of many. Ahead, explore the full overview of tips designed to help you fully preserve your garage cabinets.
Preventing Infestations
Critter or insect infestations are a huge problem. Most of these insidious, unwanted creatures start in the garage, then make their way into the house, further worsening their damage. Insects can trigger allergies, rats can spread disease, and your food supply is at risk.
A multipronged strategy will help you be proactive against infestations, stopping them at the source. Let’s explore.
Identify Common Pests
You can’t fight what you don’t understand. Do some digging into the regional pests common to your area – from cockroaches to mice. Learn what they look like and what the signs are that they’ve invaded your home.
Seal Entry Points
Next, inspect your home’s foundation, looking for cracks, holes, and gaps. Even the smallest opening is enough for some pests to get through. They can then reach your garage and camp out in your warm cabinets. It won’t be long before the critters might migrate to the home as well, causing even more trouble.
Use Pest Control Measures
Don’t necessarily reach for the heavy-duty chemicals right off the bat. Instead, natural pest repellents, like citronella, apple cider vinegar, peppermint, and garlic spray, could do the trick. You might also have good results with critter traps.
However, if the infestation continues to grow, then by all means, use chemicals, or hire an exterminator for thorough removal.
Maintain Cleanliness
Critters will invade your garage for various reasons. For instance, in the winter, pests will make your garage cabinets their home for warmth. Also, food sources are very incentivizing to hungry creatures, so make sure you keep your garage clean, especially of clutter and food scraps.
Combating Rust
Rust in the garage is the worst. It can wear away your sturdy metal garage cabinets until they’re weak. The foundational strength of your cabinets could be depleted, leading to a higher risk of shelving collapse. The entire cabinet could even potentially fall in serious cases of rust and resulting oxidation.
Here’s some good news. You have plenty of measures you can take now to keep your custom garage cabinets from succumbing to rust damage later. Here’s an overview.
Choose Rust-Resistant Materials
Ideally, when ordering your garage cabinets, you should have chosen rust-resistant materials. Examples include stainless steel and powder-coated metal. These materials, although not entirely rust-proof, will combat rust more efficiently than other types of metals.
If you follow the other recommendations in this section, your rust-resistant garage cabinet should stay free of rust. You can use your garage more safely without the risk of your cabinets toppling down at any second.
Apply Protective Coatings
And what if you’ve had your garage cabinets for a while and they aren't made of rust-resistant materials? Consider applying a rust-resistant treatment, including paints or coatings. Add this to both sides of the metal cabinet surface, following the included instructions for drying or curing time.
The job of the protective coating is to safeguard susceptible metal from suffering the effects of rust.
Ensure Proper Ventilation
Rust occurs when iron interacts with water and oxygen, leading to oxidation. By ensuring your garage is ventilated, water can’t accumulate as much in the air. Without it, rust can’t develop, keeping your metal garage cabinet surfaces in excellent shape for longer.
You have many ways to ventilate your garage. For instance, you can add a fan, install vents, order windows, or get a second door. Make sure you open your garage doors from time to time to let the warm air out.
Regular Inspections and Maintenance
You also have to be ready to regularly check your garage cabinets for signs of rust. You’ll usually notice brownish, reddish spots across the metal garage cabinetry. It can look like a stain, and sometimes it even flakes.
Applying a rust inhibitor and watching how much water accumulates in your garage can stop the rust from worsening.
Preventing Water Damage
Few phenomena can wreck your garage faster than water damage. If water seeps in from a nearby broken pipe or after a stretch of severe inclement weather, your garage cabinets and any surrounding furniture and items can be destroyed.
Water will contribute to the development of rust and corrosion. Other materials, such as wood, do terribly when exposed to water, thus potentially weakening the foundation or features of your garage.
Don’t let water damage get the best of you. Try these tips to protect your garage now before it’s too late.
Check for Leaks
You’ve already gotten into the habit of inspecting your home’s foundation for holes and openings. Now, it’s time to add “checking for leaks” to that list.
If you see signs of water intrusion, such as puddles of water where there shouldn’t be any, or an incessant dripping sound, you need to find its source. Next, you have to fix the issue before it leads to catastrophic flooding.
Elevate Cabinets
While this can’t help the rest of the items in your garage, lifting your garage cabinets off the floor will keep them dry unless you have several feet of water flooding your space. Another perk of elevating your cabinets is that it will be harder for critters to get in, as they’d have to climb up the wall.
Use Waterproof Materials
If you’re still in the custom garage cabinet planning stages, it’s not too late to add waterproofing to your project. For instance, water-resistant finishes and materials will ensure that if water damage ever occurs, it’s not the end of the world.
For those who already have a set of custom garage cabinets, consider applying a water-resistant finish to safeguard the metal cabinets.
Improve Garage Drainage
Does your garage have good drainage? If not, then water can build up, and before you know it, it’s seeping into your garage cabinets and ruining everything. Adding a drain and using well-draining flooring materials for the garage, such as Swisstrax rubber tiles, will help water exit naturally.
You must also add a slope to your garage. Otherwise, the water will sit level with the floor and fail to move, making your drains worthless.
Implementing Regular Maintenance
It can’t be stressed enough that ongoing maintenance is key to preventing issues with your garage cabinets. Since they're an investment you’re proud of, it’s worth it to commit a bit of extra time here and there.
Here’s what to do:
Establish a Maintenance Routine
A good maintenance routine doesn’t have to be daily but should at least be weekly. You should check, clean, and, if necessary, fix up your garage cabinets, such as with a new application of waterproof protectant or anti-rust paint.
Clean Cabinets Regularly
Each time you check your cabinets, do yourself (and your garage) a favor and clean them. Remove the items from each shelf, and store them elsewhere for the moment. You can use either a duster or a microfiber cloth (keep it dry) to lift dirt.
Do your cabinets need a bit more elbow grease to clean them up? Skip the heavy-duty cleaners. Use mild, scentless dish soap and a soft cloth.
The only exception is stainless steel surfaces. In those cases, you should rely on a stainless steel cleaner to leave the metal glimmering, strong, and shiny.
Inspect for Damage
Before you put all the items in their rightful places, check the cabinets inside and out to see if there are any signs of damage. Do you notice critters (or even their feces)? Maybe you see signs of rust or water damage.
Nipping these problems in the bud right away will preserve the lifespan of your cabinets.
Choosing the Right Materials and Design
Being choosy about the materials you select goes a long way toward ensuring your garage cabinets are futureproofed against damage. Beyond that, you should also carefully mull over the design and customization features you’re interested in to ensure they lend the garage cabinet durability.
The following pointers will help you if you’re still planning your custom garage:
- Materials: The most water-resistant, durable materials suitable for garage cabinets are engineered wood, metal with protective coatings, and laminated surfaces. While not totally pest-proof, you won’t have to worry about rust or water damage.
- Design Considerations: Keeping your cabinets in excellent condition is achievable – thanks to features, such as adjustable shelves. You can reach all your cabinet surfaces to wipe them down weekly.
- Customization Options: Custom modifications and solutions, such as thermally-fused laminate, will enhance both the functionality and durability of your custom garage cabinets.
Conclusion
Many issues can wreck the appeal and longevity of your garage cabinets – from rust to water damage and insect or critter infestations. Fortunately, you can always take proactive, early steps, beginning with regular inspections and culminating in routine maintenance.
