What to Coat Garage Floors With?

It needs to be professionally done - I had it done at one of my homes.

1. Concrete is skim ground with a flat diamnod wheel
2. Acid etch
3. Epox put down and cures for 24 hours
4. Flakes or designs added (if desired) followed by a super hard clear coat (anti-skid if desired).

The end product is a nice looking customized surface that is durable, won't pull up, and is easy to clean.

The cost can vary anywhere from 5 to 8$/square foot - shop around

 

There's at least a few dozen threads on this very topic here over the years. The search is your friend.

 

I am with you, for all the info, no one really says what an available good epoxy is. Getting a professional to do things is fine, but I still want to know what they are using, or know that they are using something that will actually last. Of course I get that it is all about the prep. The fact is you can rent a grinder, etch it with acid yourself and then put on the coating. So perhaps a pro can recommend a product that is generally available?

I hear some pro's use epoxy first, and then a top coat of a polyaspartic paint, for hardness and light stable attributes?

 

Good timing!..Had mine epoxied yesterday and looks amazing.
Apparently key is to grind off old paint and contaminents from concrete first, ie, good preparation .
So process was..floor grinder, grind out and fill any cracks, base coat, flakes added, sets then clear. Clear coat was still tacky when I got home last night but dry this morning.
No cars for 3 days till cures properly.
Was going to use Rustoleum DIY but decided to let a pro do it as old epoxy paint had to be removed.
Here's a pic..
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Big difference between the stuff you by at the hardware store labelled "epoxy paint" and what is being put down as above. The stuff from the store is ok, if you just want something cheap an cheerful, that you accept will peal and will need to be re-done every so often. I don't know a huge amount about it other than you'd be comparing apples with oranges!

If you want a "proper job", as they say, epoxy screed or tiles. (As an aside did your cost comparison above include the cost of tile adhesive and grout? That can easily add 50% plus to the cost of tiles per sure foot covered.)

I've just painted mine in epoxy paint as I didn't have the money to do anything else, and the boss was not impressed when I mentioned garage and tiles in the same sentence!! Its fine, keeps the dust of the concrete down, but does peel here and there and isn't a uniform colour; but a £50 for a double garage I was fine with that. Maybe next time I get the tiles and I'll sneak in some underfloor heating

 

Griots Garage offers a 2-part garage floor epoxy/paint that works great and is super high quality. I did it myself on my previous house’s garage floor, worked great for years, never peeled. Moved into our new house a couple years ago, went with a cheaper product found at Sherwin Williams, started to peel in the first month.

Lesson-if you want to do it yourself, nothing better than the Griots Garage products.


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Great! Griots Garage products are super high quality, you’ll be pleased!


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I just bought some 100% epoxy from armorpoxy (most of the cheaper stuff you see is water based) and am in the process of applying it. You can rent a concrete grinder from Home Depot if you want to do the application yourself. The prep work is key.

Scott

 

Do yourself a favor and please listen.
I am a serious DIY guy. I do most of my car and house repairs.
I wanted an nice epoxy garage floor and I did all the research.

In the end that research steered me away from the DIY epoxy for garage floors.
The primary part, as mentioned is the prep.
Poor prep = poor adhesion = paint separation after hot tires cool on the epoxy floor.

I had a coating company do mine.
1. Shot blasted the entire floor to reveal fresh concrete.
2. Sealed all the seams
3. Epoxy coated with paint color flakes
4. Urethane top coating.

Here it is after 5 years of use:
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I'm in the epoxy floor business, and can talk for hours about this stuff. The most basic steps to follow if you plan to do it yourself are as follows:
Rent a grinder, with dust collection.
Grind, grind, grind, then grind more.
Chase out ( take a hand grinder with V shaped cutting wheel, and cut 1/4" out of the crack)
Fill those cracks with a crack filler.
Vacuum floor with concrete vac in both directions. then blow out with electric leaf blower.
Use a high quality 100% solid epoxy. Look on the data sheets for the solids content.
Apply flake into the wet base coat, you just applied. -on a typical 2 car garage, you'll need 50lbs or so. Can get away with less, but less isnt more....
Scrape excess flake off, and vacuum floor.
Apply polyaspartic topcoat( Ideal as it wont yellow) or Epoxy top coat ( if you dont care if it yellows)
Optional -Apply Urethane topcoat with aluminum oxide.

There have been a number of discussions on flooring if search for epoxy.

I personally think its not something you want to do yourself. The equipment costs 20k and up for a decent setup, and its very specialized to concrete work. Leave it to a company who stands behind their work.

Things to stay away from when shopping for Epoxy:
Be weary of 1 day coatings - I dont trust them. They cure too quick in hot climates, and dont have the "bite" epoxy does.
Be weary of any "professional" who uses a power washer, and acid to prep the floor
BE weary of anyone who offers a lifetime warranty.

I love to jump on the floors with my guys to do the epoxy. ITs fun. ITs just also very dirty, dusty, and vary manual labour intensive. Its well worth to hire someone to do it.

 

Great info. Thanks for taking the time to post that.

As for the equipment cost. No ****....this was the day they shot blasted my floor and started the seam seals.

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As long as the company stand behind their work then its fine. I used a new crack filler many years ago

Thanks you! As I said, I can talk epoxy all day long. I totally nerd out on it. My main business is custom closet organizers, but we do custom garages as a side business. I'm a car guy so I love it. I also nerd out over the epoxy since its fairly scientific. Much more than one would think.

In your case, thats overkill for a residential garage. When we do typical home garages ( 2-5 car) . we dont bring out our heavy machinery. Those **** Blasters, truck generators, and vac's are super heavy duty. They're meant for 1000 Sq feet and up. Like a warehouse. If I had to guess, I'd say that trailer, and equipment it holds is worth 100k or so. You know what your floor costs, so think of the breakeven. Chemical alone is probably $3 USD/ Sq foot. I'd love to see the full setup in action.

 

The guy who did my floor sub-contracted the concrete prep. He said it was more than he wanted to personally handle...1500 square feet.
That guy was a friend of his and I think he did it pretty cheap as they were headed off to another job. Some rail road bridge across town.
I showed up and was shocked at what was going on. My new neighbors thought I was insane....so they figured me out early.
They were here and gone in about 2 hours. Amazing.

But it has held up amazingly well. Worth every nickle.

...and it is shot blaster, not **** blaster. hahahaha

 

I see you raised the door tracks since. Lift on order?

I love the size of that garage. Mine is too shallow (22 feet)

 

Old eagle eye at it again...nice catch.

The garage door guys around here wanted between $3,800 - $4000 to do the highlift conversion and add the Liftmaster 8500's on the two doors. $4,000?...no ****ing way!

So, I found a place on line and bought a two-pack of the 8500's for $600.

DDM Garage Doors took all my measurements, door weights and built up a high lift kit with the proper springs, cables, pulleys and track for $500.
http://ddmgaragedoors.com/

Two weekend's later...tada!

Lift is in the works....scissors lift that will sit in the floor underneath the TR8.
No real rush. Perhaps this fall. But I do intend on doing my own engine out so it has to go in within the next 6 years (ducking for cover)

 

Get a 2 post. Nuff said

 

Too ugly.
Takes up too much room
I have certain "look" I am after when it is not in use.
Yea, I am that vain....you know that.

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I don't care to look at the garage doors and their tracks on the ceilings so I went with motorized all wood carriage doors that open outward. They operate either remotely or via a wall switch and are very quiet.

http://www.carriagedoor.com/pdf/carriagehouse_wood.pdf