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For almost every part of the country, winter means cold, snow, or rain, and if there’s one thing your garage or shed doesn’t appreciate, it’s water sneaking in! It blows in when the garage door is open. It lingers on umbrellas, boots, and cars. It drops off your vehicle in frozen chunks and slowly puddles on the floor. Besides being an annoyance and making your garage or shed dirty, water left unchecked in your space can cause tools and equipment to rust, and mildew or mold to grow.

Besides water, there’s the mud, slush, and ice melt carried in from tires, feet, and paws! By the time spring rolls around, you don’t even recognize your formally spotless VersaTube structure. But not to worry, this year can be different! Check out these tips so when spring comes, you can enjoy the sunshine instead of dealing with a mess in your garage.

Find and Seal the Culprits

Moisture can enter your garage through the smallest of cracks. Weather strip every door and window to prevent cold air and condensation from creeping in. If you installed weather-stripping last year, do a careful inspection and repair or replace as needed. After weather-proofing, check for any light coming in under your garage door. If there’s any, the door may be misaligned.

Besides the obvious doors and windows, moisture and cold can enter your garage through any hole or crack. Most common is a dryer vent and electrical outlets. Have a crack in your concrete floor? Now’s the time to caulk it - before your vehicle drips water into it for the next couple of months.

Dry Water Diligently

Snow and water dropping onto your garage floor can’t be that big of a deal, right? Sadly, that’s wrong. Though it’s only a small amount of water, moisture in your garage or shed, and even condensation on the windows and in the air, can cause items to rust. Your tools, equipment, and even appliances can start to rust just from that small amount of moisture. Simple fixes are the solution here. Run a dehumidifier to combat condensation in the air, and as much as possible, dry things off before leaving them in your garage or shed. Quickly wiping off your vehicle when you pull in the garage may be a bit of an annoyance, but, if doing so stops items from rusting, that could end up saving you a lot of money in the long run.

Consider a Garage Heater

If you want or need to keep your garage or shed warm all winter long, go for a garage heater. A forced-air garage heater can safely warm the space, making it comfortable to work in while keeping moisture out. A garage heater is totally different than a regular heater. Do not try to warm your garage or shed with a regular heater.

Inspect Frequently

If you don’t need to put anything in the shed all month, you’d probably rather skip that trek across the frozen backyard, but finding out your weather-stripping is bad on the windows in a couple of months is going to be too little too late. Hello moldy boxes and ruined Christmas decorations! Make a quick inspection at least monthly and you can save yourself a lot of trouble.

With just a little attention to detail, and a healthy hatred of water in your space, you can keep your VersaTube garage or shed clean and dry all winter. When spring cleaning rolls around, your VersaTube structure will still be clean and dry so you can focus all your attention on that honey-do list.

Sorry, we don’t have any suggestions to deal with that one!