rumrunn6

how do you protect your floor from solvent & lube drips during cleaning & maintenance

cardboard? old towel? something else?

fietsbob

concrete shop floor, or do it outside.. on that concrete surface.. inside? put down a Tarp. but then use no solvents..

do that definitely outside.. well ventilated area...

79pmooney

Garage floor. It used to house cars. Maybe someday I'll clean, prime and paint it but probably not.

Ben

jimmie65

I've got those rubber interlockable floor mats. When they get too messed up, toss and pop in another one.

JohnnyCyclist

Tarp. More specifically, a large piece of plastic from some large item works for me. When it gets too dirty, I replace it. I currently have two or three 'spares' tucked away.

sch

Something absorbent sounds better, plastic lets the lube puddle, then you step in it, roll the tire in it or put your hand
in it. Newspaper on top of plastic or cardboard would suffice with the plastic preventing bleed through.

caloso

Same.

Dean51 

It has never occurred to me to protect the concrete floor in my workshop. It is not a showplace, not a palace. It is where I build things and it has all of the dings and stains to prove it.

Dean

fixedweasel

One of the shops has 1/2" rolled rubber that was/is an extension from my home gym (middle section of basement) the other portion of my shop has 2'x2' interlocking 1/4" thick commercial vinyl tiles. In that part of my shop I have a thick foam shop purpose mat (3'x5') that goes right in front of my stand. As far as that back shop, I have to throw a large cheap tarp down when I paint frames/forks and to keep the mess/overspray at bay. In the front shop, I built a custom 3'x6' bike wash and have a separate de-greaser station. Because of all of this ^^^^ I don't have any big problems with stuff(s). And it's in a basement anyway.

I feel for the guys that have to work about temporarily in the finished portions of their house. For temp. spots, I would throw some cardboard down and use that 3'x5' rolled foam/rubber mat. Then when you need the space back, roll the mat up and out of the way and put the cardboard to the side.

noglider 

I do bike work in the living room which has a wooden floor. If I'm getting messy, I spread newspapers or paper towels. I clean up with furniture polish. My wife hasn't complained except that I once left the floor too slippery.

rccardr 

Inexpensive rug, like under $30 delivered from Amazon. Get a dark colored one, dropped parts show up better. Roll out when needed, roll up when done, toss out and buy another every 3-5 years or as needed.

Dave Cutter

I sometimes take a project to my man cave in the winter. Absolutely NO solvents! Rarely a little oil, grease is OK as it's use is controllable and localized. I work over a big rug on the floor under the bike work stand. It catches any dropped bits of dirt and crud. When done I roll the rug up, shake it outside, and vacuum my man cave carpet.

rm -rf

One annoyance is losing small parts on a hard floor, when they drop and bounce.

I have a small 5 x 8 canvas painter's dropcloth with a waterproof plastic layer. I should put it down under the bike stand. Canvas dropcloths are way better than plastic sheets, much easier to walk on.

masi61

+1 to the rubber interlocking squares. They have saved my part more than once when it slips out of my hand. The opposite is true with concrete: I have gouged parts more than once while letting them slip out of my hands and fall onto the garage floor or concrete driveway surface.

Jakedatc

Piece of a large cardboard box under the work stand to catch anything dripping from lube, cleaner, etc. current one is nasty, proving that it works. I need to cut up a new one.

9volt 

Rubber entry mats

leob1

The only time stuff will drip is when I lube chains. I just put a piece of cardboard under the bike stand. Since we have a lot of stuff shipped, Blue Apron, Chewy, etc, etc, there is a never ending supply of the stuff.

wrk101

Someday, I would really like to refinish the floors in my work shop, 1930s heart pine, but I am too messy. At least I pulled up the hideous shag carpet!!!

woodcraft

Plastic desk chair mat, cardboard for the drip zone, & previous years'

laminated wall calendars.

bikeman715

I use a mat under the bike . when done take it outside and hose it off , it save the floor .

tommywpg

I just lay a large sheet of corrugated cardboard under my bike. I swap it out every year or so. I also put a rubbermaid container lid under any area getting a lot of extra liquid (wd40, oil, solvents and oil falling ball bearings).

julio26pt2

I do some real messy stuff in the bathtub.

If I think things will drip overnight (like after lubing the chain), I'll toss a strip of tinfoil down and put some paper towels over it. Works pretty well.

If doing something really messy with fumes, I'll go outside and use the sidewalk (though living in a high-rise on a busy street, I try to avoid doing that too much).

kcblair

Part of my Man Cave, has a wooden floor (was a dance floor back in the day) , just put down old newspaper and toss when done. Chain cleaning done outside (before winter hits ). KB

RubeRad

My concrete garage floor is mostly covered with a large scrap of turquoise shag carpet that we ripped out when we bought the place because it was hideous. I don't care if anything gets on it, one of these days I'll 'shop' for a free large carpet remnant on craigslist to replace it.

Sometimes I set up in the living room to work, and I have an old bedsheet (that would otherwise have been thrown away) that I put under the bike stand, to catch any falling grease or dirt, and soften the impact of dropped metal tools on the bamboo flooring.

easyupbug 

I have two stands, one gets cardboard where I lube chains the other naked floor. Other than chain oil no real issues. As said above cleaning/solvents other then alcohol wipe down is done outside or in a ultrasonic.