Garage flooring advise needed

Don’t use a cement stain. It will not hold-up to hot tires. Use a garage-specific epoxy paint if you want to go the inexpensive route. Proper preparation of the concrete is crucial for the best results. It will need to be cleaned of any oil or other residue and preferably acid-washed to provide a good surface for the epoxy to adhere to. I did my 2 1/2 car garage about 9 years ago in a two part epoxy and it is still half-way decent. I did get some tire lift eventually in a couple spots so I will likely recoat it again soon.

How hot do tires have to be in order for them to lift the stain? I have a pond spill way in my drive that is always wet…that would cool down anyone’s tires before they got even close to the garage…1/2 mile long driveway…

-- Greenwing

I would definitely consider the two part industrial epoxy coatings.
You will have to prep the floor first for a complete bond but it will outlast you.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Where do you buy such epoxy coatings? The 2 bays I am working on, total up to about 576 sq ft…

-- Greenwing

Oh…One more thing…It is not a smooth finished floor…It’s rough cement…

-- Greenwing

You can get the epoxy coatings at Lowes or Home Depot. As far as “rough” cement I guess it would depend on how rough you’re talking about. A slightly rough surface is ideal for the epoxy coatings, but if we’re talking craters here you may need to use a self leveling compound first.

As far as the mats and such, they hold-up to regular traffic well but I wouldn’t jack a car up on them since the jack stands have been known to cut through them.

If you look at my workshop post you can see the floor where I used the two part epoxy on the floor that I got at Lowe’s. I used it on my upper garage (its a double) and on my shop which is an L-shaped space with about 350 sq feet. The upper has held up well but my shop floor has had some peeling due to moisture since it is much lower than my upper garage.

But I would do it again. It lightens up the entire shop and makes clean-up of glue, poly and other finishes a breeze.

If I remember right it is about $50 a gallon and 1 gallon will treat a single garage.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

I don’t think I could get this floor to a nice slick shiny surface…Isn’t that what the epoxy coatings attempt to do?

Here is a picture of the floor… It’d take an awful lot of leveling compound :-)

-- Greenwing

Why don’t you get an estimate? They make self leveling mixes for industrial floors.
My brother used to apply them all the time. He often did aircraft hangers with the stuff.
(50,000 sq ft)

bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

They do this on those home improvement tv shows all the time, you have to clean it good, use a self leveling compound and then mix and apply the epoxy. before the epoxy is totally dry, you sprinkle some colored flakes around to make it look nice.

I wouldn’t think it would take that much leveling compound (although i have no real experience in the matter). I think you can also have concrete guys come in and do a more traditional coating on top if the self leveling stuff wont work.

Wow that is a rough floor! In my neck of the woods self leveling material is expensive. Epoxy paint will help the apperance but Zack may have the answer you need to get a smooth and acceptable finish.
Good luck with you project.
Jim

-- A duck that brags on his own pond, soon swims alone.

Once I clean the dirt and wash the floor it will be even rougher…

:-)

-- Greenwing

Can’t tell much from the pic but it looks ideal for a self leveling epoxy. My borother used a steel bearing bead blaster system to roughen the floor prior to application. Then they just flooded dammed off sections of the floor with resin and spread it out to even it.
I have some in my warehouse that’s 20 years old and still no chips.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

I would go for the natural cement look you already have.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Curious as to why you would go for a raw natural cement look? The current floor sure isn’t very attractive after 13 years…

-- Greenwing

I have the new cabinets,22 inch counter top with pegboard and 6 under cabinet lights installed…I decided afterwards that they looked so nice, I had to get a better floor…I rented a cement grinder and did the entire floor (should have done this before the cabinets because of all of the dust I now have to clean off of and out of them even though they were covered up with plastic)...I have also pressure washed several times and filled in cracks and holes…Waiting on all of that to dry today and tonight…

I will be covering the floor tomorrow morning with the first coat of Rustoleum Epoxyshield Garage Floor Coating (purchased from Lowes because they had it for $42 bucks per 1 gallon kit – 30% off on sale)...I bought 5 kits, not knowing how much this stuff will soak into the roughened up floor…I’m guessing maybe a gallon will cover 150 sq feet or so…I have roughly 500 sq feet of floor…It’s a 2 part epoxy paint…I am going to do 2 coats…I’m using the 1st coat as a primer and I hope it helps level out the bumps and low spots in the overall floor that the huge grinder couldn’t get out…The 2nd coat will have the pretty colored flakes and hopefully end up smoother…Then possibly a 3rd coat of clear epoxy with some non-slip additive on top of that…Each layer will take 24 hours of drying time…It will take at least a week before I can move my tool boxes back inside the garage or park the car in there…

Hopefully the floor turns out looking like this:

For those of you out here that have never looked into this, take my word for it…It is a hell of a lot of really dirty work to prepare a rough floor for epoxy…:-)...Doing it yourself is a lot cheaper though…I had an estimate given to me by pros of $3,000.00 to do this floor…I’m currently out-of-pocket, roughly $700.00, but have put in a “lot” of man hours…$300 for renting the grinder and purchasing the required grinding stones…$300 for the 5 epoxy kits plus rollers, degreaser, cement repair stuff, trowel, etc…$100.00 for some needed assistance…More costs are coming for any additional epoxy kits I might need for the 2nd coat (won’t be as many gallons needed for the 2nd coat) and then the clear coat of epoxy if I decide to do that…

RaceDeck garage floor tiles are nice but would have been close to $2,000.00 delivered…They would not have worked with the floor being so uneven and sloped to the center…Also they have a very annoying plastic sound when walking on them…

-- Greenwing

It will be really nice when it is finished

-- Ed Collinge- Edmonds, WA.

I think you’ll be very pleased when you are finished. The important part is not to put the cars in the garage too soon. You need to let the epoxy harden fully before putting hot tires on it. I think I had to wait almost a week when I did mine, but they may have improved the formulas since then.

You made the right choice and you will be pleased.
It’s a big investment but it will also last for the life of your garage.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

The instructions do say to let it cure for a whole week before parking a car on it…

I have the first coat applied…I can say for sure the epoxy doesn’t help at all with the little low spots…In fact they might be more noticeable…BUT, what does help distract your eyes from those is the colored flakes you can toss on top of the epoxy…I tried a small area of them at the end of the first coat…Here’s a sample of the small area I put them on today…

The first coat only took 2 gallons of epoxy…I was surprised it didn’t take more because of the roughness of the floor…250 square feet per gallon as advertized…

-- Greenwing

2nd coat is all done…Flakes are also done…The finish is not as glossy as I was hoping and it didn’t fill in the pitted spots like I was hoping, but I am very happy with the way it looks so far…I’ll actually finally be able to sweep the garage floor…

:-)

-- Greenwing

Looks good in the picture. The stuff doesn’t level well and tends to form to the contours of the floor. Just think of th pits as adding traction. :)

Yep!...I was going to finish the thing off with a high gloss epoxy finish but will keep it the way it is…Extra traction and all…I did double the use of the colored flakes to help with traction and they do help cover up some of the flaws…

-- Greenwing

Looks really good, let it cure for the recommended number of days before doing anything on it.

-- //FC - Round Rock, TX - "Experience is what you get just after you need it"

wonderfully jelous looks great greenwing just wish i had a large workshop

andy

-- cut it saw it scrap it

You can bet money that I am going to let it cure…hehe…Too much work involved to mess it up at this stage…Actually, if you have a nice smooth floor, this stuff would be great…

I did have one bad gallon of epoxy…The can of additive was 3/4 crystalized when I tried pouring it into the paint…Called the 888 number and they are going to refund the cost of that kit…

-- Greenwing

Who did you rent the grinder from?

-- Chris

looks good …. now come paint mine.

-- making sawdust....

Rented the grinder from a local place…It isn’t a big chain…Coweta County…Seems easy enough to find them…Bad part is I had to pay them $85.00 to deliver and pickup the thing and I am only 5 miles away from them…It’s definitely a 2 man lift and will not fit into a car…

You also have to purchase a set of cutting stones…$45.00 for a set…My 500 sq ft didn’t even put a dent in the stones, so they will last a long time and do a big area…I rented it for a day and a half…It is too big and bulky to get close to the edges or cabinets so be prepared to also purchase a hand held grinder stone…That was an additional $20.00…The hand grinder stone seemed to do a better job than the big grinder…Not sure why, other than maybe a different type of stone…

Beware of the cement dust if you might be doing it yourself…I covered my new cabinets up with plastic and dang if the dust didn’t get even on the inside of them…

The next step for this project…CLEANING UP THE MESS!!!

-- Greenwing

Looks like a great job. I covered the floor of my shop with rubber mats 3/4” thick. It’s a lot easier on the legs.

But it is tough to roll carts around on.

The mats were horse mats that they put in the bottom of horse stalls. I got them at a farm supply business.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

I was actually considering heavy rubber mats at one point myself…

-- Greenwing