Home Maintenance Tips

Car Washing & Repair

If you do the work yourself:

  • Don’t wash cars on a driveway or street where soapy water may flow to a storm drain. Wash on a lawn or unpaved surface. Dispose of leftover soapy water in a sink or toilet, not the street, driveway, or storm drain.
  • If you change your own oil or antifreeze, recycle it! Never dump oil or any auto fluid onto the ground or into a storm drain or creek.
  • Repair leaking vehicles promptly to help keep fluids off streets and out of storm drains.
  • Soak up leaks and spills with an absorbent such as cat litter.

If you hire someone:

  • Use a commercial car wash where water is recycled.
  • Make sure mobile auto detailers use spill containment aids such as drop cloths when working in a street or driveway, and dispose of all wastewater in a sink, not the storm drain.
  • Be sure your auto service center recycles oil and antifreeze, and follows shop cleanup practices that protect water quality.

Painting & Furniture Stripping

If you do the work yourself:

  • Never clean brushes or rinse paint containers into a street, gutter, storm drain, or creek.
  • Clean latex paint from brushes and containers in a sink. Filter, settle, and reuse thinners and solvents for oil-based paints.
  • Dispose of unusable paints and thinners, thinner residue, and paint strippers at a household hazardous waste collection event.
  • Empty, dry paint cans may go in household garbage, or they may be recycled in your city.
  • Remove paint can lids before disposal.

If you hire someone:

  • Make sure that painting contractors clean brushes and containers and dispose of paint residues properly - never in the street or storm drain.
  • Professional painters must dispose of leftover paints and solvents as hazardous waste.
  • Contractors should use plastic sheeting or a dropcloth to collect chips and dust from non-hazardous dry stripping and sand blasting. Then sweep up and dispose of debris as trash.

Housecleaning & Window Washing

If you do the work yourself:

  • Send dirty cleaning water down a sink or toilet, not into a street, gutter, or storm drain.
  • Make sure trash can lids are tightly closed and recyclables are secured to prevent materials from blowing onto the ground.

If you hire someone:

  • Make sure people you hire understand that storm drains flow to the creeks with no treatment- so they won’t dump anything into the street, gutter, or storm drain.
  • Make sure people you hire dispose of potentially toxic materials properly.

Carpet/Upholstery Cleaning

If you do the work yourself:

  • Dispose of dirty cleaning solution down a sink or toilet, not in the street or storm drain.

If you hire someone:

  • Ask professional carpet cleaners where they empty their tanks. Make sure they don’t use the storm drain.
  • Professionals should dispose of cleaning solutions down a sink or toilet, or return to their company for disposal to the sanitary sewer.

Concrete, Masonry, and Asphalt Repair

If you do the work yourself:

  • Set up and operate small mixers on heavy tarps or dropcloths.
  • Plan ahead, mix only as much concrete, mortar, or plaster as you need that day.
  • Hose down mixers, tools, and trailers in a dirt area where rinse water won’t run into a creek or gutter.
  • Clean up with a broom, not a hose! Or wash fine particles onto a dirt area- not into a street or gutter.
  • Apply driveway sealants when no rain is forecast. Sweep first to prepare. Handle sealants with care and follow label directions.

If you hire someone:

  • Explain to your concrete contractor that rinsing trucks or equipment in the street or near a storm drain endangers wildlife in our creeks - and it’s illegal! Make sure your concrete contractor:
    • Establishes a cleanup area before starting work.
    • Minimizes use of water in cleanup.
    • Rinses equipment onta an isolated dirt area, away from streets or creeks. Or places a wheelbarrow under the chute and/or other equipment to catch rinsewater, and wheels it to a dirt area for disposal.
    • Rinses exposed aggregate onto a dirt area.

Lawn & Garden Care and Pest Control

  • Make sure no leaves or blown or raked into the street or gutter. Collect yard waste for composting.
  • Limit fertilizer applications to twice a year and limit application of all chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides.