EVERETT – After shelling out thousands of dollars to drivers for damaged paint jobs, Snohomish County has found a cheap and simple fix for its leaky parking garage.
Plain old household vinegar.
For years, the sealed underground garage has dripped a milky substance onto parked vehicles, leaving behind spots and streaks and drawing thousands of dollars in damage claims.
Over three winters, the county received at least $25,000 in damage claims for at least 30 vehicles.
County officials now are using vinegar to clean up those streaks and spots.
“It was never a giant drain on the county, but it’s always nice when we’ve been getting $3,000, $4,000 and $5,000 claims to be able to avoid them, and that’s what this will do,” County Council chairman Dave Gossett said.
“I think it’s very smart and whoever came up with it deserves a commendation.”
Nobody was immune. The spots and streaks have even landed on County Executive Aaron Reardon’s pickup. And more recently, the new county facility director’s maroon 2007 Toyota Tacoma truck was hit with the problem.
“My new truck had about 20 spots or streaks on it,” facilities director Mark Thunberg said.
Vinegar would do the trick, Thunberg had heard.
“I tried it, and every one of them came off with ease,” Thunberg said. “We’ve now outfitted the garage with clean rags and vinegar.”
Vehicles are more likely to show up with spots and streaks during rainy winter months, when vehicles track in snow or rain. The water pools on the concrete floors and seeps through cracks that naturally occur as concrete cures.
Inside those cracks, the water picks up lime and calcium from the concrete and drips on vehicles on floors below, leaving white streaks and spots.
Dozens of drivers had filed claims with the county for damaged paint jobs since the $29 million garage opened in 2004. The garage holds 1,200 cars for the county government workers and Everett Events Center.
Republic Parking attendants in the garage have used the vinegar method to clean spots on seven or eight vehicles since March, Thunberg said.
Hopefully, drivers will cooperate, and the cleaning technique will prevent future damage claims against the county, Thunberg said.
“We’re talking about a person’s personal vehicle, and I don’t know if you can really force it,” he said.
“Really our hope is they allow us to give it a try because it doesn’t damage the paint. The worst case is nothing will happen; the best case it will remove the calcium and lime deposits and away they go.”
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