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Forest Road

New garage floor paint

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Forest Road

I'm finally building a much needed garage at home. Ok it's a man cave which will most likely NEVER house a vehicle overnight. I don't have a basement and in tired of freezing my arse off in the ole shed.

The floor will be poured concrete with 3 courses of block around the sides. I'd like to use a long lasting industrial finish on the floor. I've been looking into 2 part epoxies. Rustoleum and Behr are easily available but I fear the may be another big box store hoax. Also looked into Rexthane @ Sherwin Williams and it sounds promising even @ $400 gal.

Essentially I want something that will hold up to gas, oil, thinners, chemicals and spilled beer and my kids.

Thanks in advance

Kevin

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rmaynard

I have seen the Rustoleum product on a garage floor, and after three years it still looks good. Secret is making sure that the concrete is completely cured before painting, which could take some time. After proper curing, the floor must be dry, dirt and oil-free before application.

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Fun Engineer

If you want to learn all there is to know about epoxy floors and floor coatings go to www.garagejournal.com

Go to The Forums at the top of the page. Scroll down and go the Flooring section.  All you need to know is there.  There is a lot of information, mostly good from DIY and the professionals. If it doesn't allow you to see the pictures or all the posts all you need to do is join the site, no charge and it will give you full access.

 

I had Epoxy-Coat installed by Performance Floor Coating Systems, INC  Cost was about $3.25 a square foot. I could have bought the product and saved about half but I figured my time was worth something and considered that I would have to eat up a weeks worth of vacation to do the job.  After watching the two guys do the work I'm very glad I paid to have it done. (My wife didn't want me doing this on my own either :eusa-think:  Smart lady) They arrived about 4 in the afternoon, had it ground and first coat (primer coat) on by 9pm.  Went to town to get a room and dinner, returned around 11pm and finished the second coat about 1am.  Returned the next morning around 10 and put on the clear coat with anti skid. I was walking on it the next day and put things back in the garage a week later. This would have taken me about 4-5 days if I was lucky and I wouldn't had done half as good a job.  This is not like painting walls where you spread the paint thin.  No you squeegee it on think and roll and back roll it.  Not saying that a DIY cant do it. It just takes a lot of planning and more knowledge about the process than most people have.

 

You'll find a lot of information on cleaning, grinding, rolling, back rolling etc on garagejournal. Epoxy-Coat is located in Michigan but has installers all over the US.  They do a lot of work for the Federal Govt and NASA. Their installer traveled over 250 miles to do the work. No extra charge. I had a base color of beige with the beige chip blend. Clear on top of that with an anti slip added in the clear top coat. The anti slip is a must if your going with epoxy. It's the slipperiest floor out there.

 

If you want more information email Epoxy-Coat.  They have a banner add on garagejournal.com   The gal that monitors garagejournal.com for them is Christine. She's very knowledgeable and will help you out.  If you want to see my thread on my floor search for burleyfarm. Here is the title of the thread  Epoxy Coat Installation by Performance Floor Coating Systems.

 

I don't have a basement either and the garage is where we spend a lot of our time. I'm with the tractors and I built my wife a small studio for her silver smithing and jewelry making. I use a propane fired radiant tube heater for heat and supplement her studio with electric baseboard heat.

 

Unless you do welding or very heavy metal fabrication the epoxy is the way to go.  I have been doing all my welding outside.  I just built a pole barn for the heavy metal work, welding and painting.  Otherwise the epoxy would get all messed up. So it does have its drawbacks but nothing that you can't find a way around.

 

Good luck with your project. If you have any questions pm me.

Edited by Fun Engineer
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64s

Given you are probably not going to use it for vehicles,  most of the name brand products will work.  As Bob said, the key is prep.  The floor has to cure, usually a minimun of 30 days, and it should be etched with muraitic acid, washed and let dry.  The easiest way to test for dryness is to tape down a piece of plastic (12 x 12) on all four sides and let it sit for a day.  If the plastic has condensation on the floor side, let it dry some more.  When dry, paint.  And if you decide to park cars in it, just let the tires cool down by parking outside for a hour or so, its the hot tires that usually cause the paint to fail.  Lastly, I assume you are above grade.  If below, and not enough of drainage under the slab, hydrostatic pressure will cause any and all coatings to fail.  You can use the taped plastic test to test for it.

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rmaynard

Wow, after reading that, if I ever decide to epoxy my garage floor, having a pro do it sound like the way to go.

 

Just to go off on a tangent for a moment, now that I have retired, I do some handyman work at a retirement community a couple of miles from here. One of my customers, an 83 year old widow, drives a 2009 Jaguar XF. Her garage floor is painted with epoxy, plus she has carpet on top of it. When I ask her why she had carpet on her nice garage floor, I thought she would say that she didn't want to mess up the painted floor, but she replied, "sometimes I drive barefoot and when I get out of the car I don't want my feet to get cold". :laughing-lettersrofl:

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Fun Engineer

That's pretty funny Bob. I'll bet you've got lots of stories from working there.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

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kaiser

what about mats? there are some pretty cool floor coverings available now. they are rubbery, but not actual rubber. some have a glue down front lip that prevents water from entering, plus they are mildy insulating and easy on your feet.

tough enough for cars to park on as well.

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Fun Engineer

My issue with mats was twofold. One, water would get trapped underneath it. And two, I live on a dirt road and it would constantly be full of dirt. it's much easier just to sweep the dirt up off my epoxy floor then mop it. You do however need a special mop. Cotton mops tear apart. I think what I have is a mop made of microfiber.

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Edited by Fun Engineer
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Don1977

One of the main things is don't get any oil on the floor before you epoxy it. It almost impossible to get oil out of a concrete floor.  We did my friends garage

and used a steam heated pressure washer on the floor and still had the epoxy come off in some oil soaked areas. I think we used Sherman & Williams.

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Forest Road

Thanks for the replies! I checked out the Garage journal site and all I can say is wow! I've looked into a few options and I'm Still leaning towards epoxy. Sherwin Williams seems to be the way to go. Easily available and time tested. There seem to be several smaller companies online who claim to have this or that over everyone else. Well S&W has been around for a long time. Should I need more product I doubt Ill have any problems finding more several years down the road.

I'm happy I looked into this now. I hadn't given much thought to cure time. Guess i was a little ahead of myself again. We're pouring the slab next week. Ill plan on painting the floor in September. Until then NO oils or other chemicals allowed in daddy's man cave!

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953 nut

:twocents-twocents:  Be sure to use a good vapor barior under the slab, a little 6 mil visquine will save a lot of vapor pressure transfer in the future. I used the Epoxie two part with the colorful sprinkles in it about two years ago and love it, easy to do and has had no issues.

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Fun Engineer

Second what 953 nut said. You might also want to consider a special reinforced plastic that is designed to go under concrete. My research indicates that over a short period of time , regular plastic or visquine will break down. You definitely need a vapor barrier.

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shorts

When we built the new house the building code required a radon barrier and ventilation system under the basement floor, it consisted of perimeter drainage system inside the footers and 6 mil visquine under the floor slab for a vapor barrier, anyhow it appears that the breakdown factor for most plastics is due to UV light, a non issue with 4" of concrete for protection

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Forest Road

Thanks guys. I have a builder taking care of the garage for me. Im basically picking out colors at this point. And I think 6 mil plastic barrier is standard code in NJ.

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HorseFixer

I am with fun engineer on this. Back in 2009 when I did my horse stable I used Epoxy Coat. I am very happy with the results.

 

Just click the thumbnail below with the tractors stacked in my signature I think its on Page 5.

 

~Duke  :wh:

 

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Forest Road

Thanks for your input. I went ahead and ordered a kit from Epoxy Coat. After the sale I called them with a few questions. Primarily concerning diamond grinding vs just etching. In the end I'm not using it.

Found a contractor locally with very good pricing. I've seen several of his competed jobs and I'm impressed.

If anyone i interests in a deal on Epoxy Coat PM me. I have a 500sqft kit. Grey w Blue speckle and clear top coat.

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