garage floor coating

I am looking for comments, suggestions or recomendations for a garage floor coating. The floor is 350 sq ft of new concrete and obviously prepping the floor properly is key to success. I want durability and I am thinking the two part types that use a catalyst are the best. One brand I have been looking at is U Coat It. Any other brands? I just left Home Depot and was not impressed with their Behr "One Part Expoy" coating.
http://www.ucoatit.com/pgs/main.htm

 

I've had success with H&C's concrete stains [available at SWP] it wears well and recoats well!

I've not used any of the epoxy floor coatings.

 

look at Sierra from Rustoleum. This is one of the best that we have sold. Works great with the propper prep. If the floor is brand new you have to wait at least 30 days. And if the floor was not set up for paint, then you have to either acid etch it or scareate it.

 

The floor was poured in August. I'm doing the drywall/paint now and getting close to the last thing on the list..the floor. When the slab was poured, I had the contractor do a light broom finish to give the floor coating some bite. I will do the muriatic acid etch and go overboard with the cleaning. I only want to do this once. Rustoleum also has a two part expoy product at Home Depot. I'll take a closer look at that too.

 

I believe you are not going to get the longest lasting finish with these products. I have seen companies that only do this kind of stuff like Floor Guard. They start with an impressive machine that is like a bunch of steel marbles that take off the top layer of the floor with a rough texture. They then do two coats of some industrial coating with a heavy clear coat on top of it. This finish I have seen last for years. The others, the tire tracks start to lift the coating off within 5 years. I will do a two part epoxy, but I start by telling my customers there are companies that just do this.

 

Having a company do a garage is not cost effective.

A brush broom finish, without sealer is MORE than adequate surface prep.

I would use 2 part epoxy.

 

I used the 2 part Rustoleum epoxy on my garage 3-4 years ago. I am very happy with the results. The floor gets a lot of traffic and spills and it pretty much looks the same as the day I put it on.

 

Sierra is a professional coating. When I say we sell, it is not ussually to DIYers, We sell to a few different companies that do nothing but garage floors. So far, Sierra is slowly taking over P&L's coating. Because Sierra is water based, it is easier to work with. but holds up as well as the solvent based. Of course there is a clear to go over the top. that is what gives the coating the ability to resist tire wear. As fas a prep, the machine that takes off a layer is call, usually, a scarator. I recommend to anyone painting concrete to scarate as well as acid etch it. Some people decide just to etch.

 

So? What was the verdict? What product did you use and what tips can you offer from what you've learned?

Thanks!
SkydiverMN

 

About half of my garage floor is damp sometimes, but I can't rightly recall at what points during the year (besides melting snow from cars...). I want to use the epoxy finish and I intend on doing all the prep (muriatic acid only). Will the occasional wet floor cause issues down the road or is the bond between the epoxy and concrete pretty strong?

Thanks.
SkydiverMN

 

put a rubber rug on the floor when you think it is getting wet. if the water is coming from underneath, then yes you will have issues down the road.

 

I taped a plastic sheet to the garage floor yesterday and went back to check on trapped moisture. What I found was strange. The floor itself was visibly wet and moist to the touch over most areas of the floor, but the area under the plastic sheet was dry. Could I be getting surface condensation for some reason? The concrete's pretty cold to the touch but is it actually cold enough to cause condensation?

I'll try it again in a couple of different spots and see the results. Anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks!
SkydiverMN

 

if the part under the plastic is dry then yes it is condensation and you should have no problem with the floor sealer.
My father in law put down a epoxy sealer on his shop floor about 6 yrs ago and it has held up very well don't remember the brand but it was water based because we cleaned up with water. His brother runs a machine shop out of there and gets a lot of wheeled traffic so I am impressed with how it has lasted.
remember Murphy was an optimist

 

I am planning to paint the garage floor. It has never been painted and it has some dirt and oil stain on it. What kind of prep do I need? What is acid etch? Can I do a decent job without going through "scarate" prodeure?

 

Prep it with a good detergent and/or degreaser and scrub scrub scrub. Hose it off. If water still 'beads' then scrub scrub scrub with more degreaser. Focus extra time on specifically greasy areas. Make sure you remove all cleaner from the concrete. The acid etch is used to make the concrete like sandpaper for the epoxy or paint to adhere well. Hose that off (and watch the grass die during the next week). Now you're probably ready for painting/epoxy....

Prep is key, don't wuss out on it. And you can quote me.

Good luck!

SkydiverMN

 

I guess it will require lots of elbow grease to remove those grease. Thank you for your help.

Kevin

 

if the concrete still feels smooth after you etch it with acid, then you must scarate or grind it. failure to properly prep the surface will lead to a failure.

 

I've purchased 2 Quikrete Epoxy floor kits for my 2 car garage. Personally, I've found the prep work that I've done is a bunch of work.

Initially, I used a Zep Chemical concrete degreaser that I've purchased from Home Depot ($9 bottle, I needed 2) and it required a bunch of scrubbing/power washing, and then some straight liquid (Zep recommends 50/50 for stubborn stains) to just sit on a few spots. Yeah, my concrete pad's almost 40 years and there's been quite a bit of oil that's dripped over the years.

Once the degreasing was done twice and then rinsed with the pressure washer, I let everything dry. Then I used Quikrete's Concrete Resurfacer to fill in holes and plug any spalling. Once allowed to dry, I used the pressure washer to clean any dust, etc. Then I mixed the citric acid etcher and applied this onto the floor and scrubbed with a deck cleaning brush. I found that this helped remove additional dirt but didn't really make the concrete like sandpaper, though it's most certainly not smooth. There are a ton of tiny tiny holes in the pad (a fraction of a mm), and I feel that this will allow good adhesion of the epoxy. Also, the concrete does appear to be slightly bleached (a bit whiter, if nothing else), but overall, the acid etch wasn't strong enough. Quikrete says to NOT use muriatic acid, so I didn't.

At this point, I've spent MANY hours doing prep: cleaning/degreasing, resurfacing, etching, cleaning again. I'm now ready to start the actual application of the epoxy. It'll be a 2 step process, with each half being done about 2 days apart. I have a bunch of woodworking equipment that'll have to be moved from one side to the other.... Assuming the humidity is low enough and the weather's warm (we're talking about Minnesota here) it'll get done late this week.

So that's where I am with the whole process. Overall, it's been a ton of work for the prep, but everyone says this is the most important stage.

Good luck.

SkydiverMN

 

It seems like lots of work involved. What will be the benefit of painting the floor other than to prevent the concrete from dusting? I am trying to see if it will be worth the effort. Is there are short cut? What will happen if I just wash and paint?

 

Generally paint isn't a good choice for a garage floor. If you just want to clean and coat - use a concrete stain.

 

From what I described below, you think I'm ready to paint?

As I mentioned the etching didn't make it similar to 120 grit sandpaper. Truly, I felt the concentrated citric acid that's used in the Quikrete isn't powerful enough. I was expecting total nastiness from the etcher (melted shoes, burned skin, bubbles, and white nasty WWI style trench smoke/gas), but nope, just about nothing. With all the work already invested I'm really not into etching again....

How thick can you apply this stuff? Should I just roller it on as I would paint, enough to cover sufficiently but not glopped on?

Thanks.
SkydiverMN

 

If I were you, I'd give Quikcrete a call before applying to make sure that the etching wasn't actually supposed to visibly do anything. A free phone call to the help line is a heck of a lot less frustrating than having to redo it.

SirWired

 

I recently completed re-doing my garage which included the garage floor. I used the Behr 1 part Epoxy from Home Depot and am satisfied so far.

I can not stress enough that the most important factor is prep. Get plenty of cleaner/degreaser and muratic acid or other concrete etcher. I also recomend renting a floor buffer, for about $35 you can get it from HD with the stiff brush.

Secondly, make sure you wait enough time for the floor to dry. I waited 2 weeks (only because I couldnt get to it the weekend after I cleaned/etched...I think one week is sufficient) I then used a concrete bonding primer (2 coats)

Once I painted I put on 3 coats of low gloss sealer. This gave the floor a great look once it was done. The paint goes on suprisingly easy and the whole job came out better than I expected.

You can see pictures here: http://www.doityourself.com/did-it-m...garage-remodel

I just started parking on it today (I gave the paint about 3 weeks to dry). Ill post back in a month or so with more pics...

 

What is the difference between the two, concrete stain and the 2 part epoxy? When do we use concrete stain or epoxy paint? I am a little confused.

 

A concrete stain is a thinner coating and seldom peels. It doesn't hide as well as paint but doesn't need as much prep. it will need recoating every so often to keep it looking nice.

Paint and/or epoxies need the concrete prepped well! While it will wear better than a stain will, failure to prep the concrete properly will lead to adhesion problems. If/when the coating starts to peel, there will be more work involved to prep it for repaint.

A stain will color and seal the concrete, a paint will give it a nice solid looking finish and epoxy is paint that dries to a harder film which allows it to wear longer before it needs to be redone.

 

I got 1/2 of my garage completed on Saturday. Both my Dad and Dad-in-law were busy rolling and tossing flakes down. It was ideal in that I really didn't have to do all that much but watch those guys workin'. I grabbed a beer and acted as the supervisor.

What I did notice is that even after painting 4'x4' sections then throwing down the colored flakes (per directions in the Rustoleum Epoxy Shield kit) that the flakes were only somewhat adhering to the paint, mostly just sitting on top. Now that the floor's dry, it seems that as I run my hand across the floor, I can pick off many of the flakes. I decided to use a stiff bristled brush to remove most of the non adhered flakes, and clean up the concrete floor. There are still plenty left in the floor, but I was expecting the flakes to soak into the paint as it looks like on a friend's floor. Now that I think about it, his floor is much more glossy than mine, so it's very possible that he also used a glossy topcoat/sealer. I would think that this would then seal in the flakes...

Is my level of chip adhesion normal for no topcoat or was the paint not put down thick enough? I doubt it was a thickness issue seeing there wasn't any paint remaining by the time I was finishing 1/2 of the garage floor. Rustoleum has very accurately portioned out what's required for a single car garage, no more, no less.

Have others experienced this level of chip adhesion? Thoughts?

Thanks!
SkydiverMN

 

The way the flakes felty on the top of the paint is normal...once you use a sealer, your floor will feel smooth, you will not feel the flakes at all. But beware...the sealer really does make the floor very slippery. They sell an anti-skid additive for the paint, but I heard that it makes the floor hard to sweep, like sandpaper so I opted not to use it...

Throw a few coats of sealer on it and you will be good to go.

Also, an update,
we were parking on the floor for a week and the paint peeled a little (about 3in X 2in) where my wife parks...only two spots (back tires). My side has been fine. Its not that bad, hopefuully that will be it, the rest of the floor still looks great...

 

I used the anti-skid additive in the paint and you can slightly feel it, but I doubt it'll change the way it'll clean. Those non-adhered chips will hide a ton more dirt under them than any micro fine sand will. Why couldn't you put that same no skid stuff in the sealer/top coat paint? I was at Lowe's today and looking at the Quikrete's topcoat product (I used Rustoleum's, but ain't they all the same people?) and there was no mention about using any additives, etc.

I think that I'll give Rustoleum a call and see what they say. If I can't add the stuff, then I'm not gonna use it. This is MN, and it snows, rains, etc. (like most places). That means it'll be slippery, and I can't have that.

Thanks for the reply!
SkydiverMN

 

I imagined the non skid stuff would feel like sand paper, then I imagined if my whole floor was sand paper, what a pain in the a$$ it would be to sweep...lol Thats the only reason I did not use it...

 

The Rustoleum additive that I used on one side is very, very fine sand (or whatever it is). On the other side I used a different brand and this one uses a bigger granule. You can see the small pieces of sand on this side of the floor, but I'm sure that it won't cause an issue with sweeping. Both will work well with controlling slipping, one's just more visible.

Anyone have a thought about a topcoat? My friend's floor used a urethane topcoat but I'm not sure about it beyond that. Rustoleum sells a 2 part epoxy topcoat, but I'm not into waiting another week before I start to park on it.

Thoughts?