Garage Floor

[Don H.]

We have just started on my long

[Tom L.]

Re: Garage Floor

Congrats on the garage!! I waited for mine too. When I did mine I only followed the instructions that the manufacturer of the epoxy called for. I used "Epoxy Coat". (http://www.epoxy-coat.com/?gclid=CJP...FQJx4AoduSMAOg) While I can't directly answer your questions I can say this about the product I used. It WILL scratch when dragging a jack accross it, it WILL chip if you drop a wrench or a part and if you jack your car up with a jack that has wheels that don't roll well it will damage and chip the surface.

On the orher hand, If you only plan on using it as a storage garage and not a "working" garage the stuff is great. Easy clean up of spills, easy to keep clean and NO hot tire peeling. The bay that I use for storage only had been intact for 6 years now. The one I work in, not so much.

What type of epoxy are tou planning on using? just curious. best of luck!!

[Tony S.]

Re: Garage Floor

Hi Don. Congrats on the new garage. Post a photo!

[Don L.]

Re: Garage Floor

Hi Don. For what it's worth, I just had an epoxy floor done on my 14 year old garage this spring. I had a contractor do the work because I've seen and heard of do-it-yourself projects go bad and owners regret not having it done by experienced and warrantied experts.

The first thing the contractor did on my floor was to grind a skim cut off the floor. Some others do an acid wash and others still use a shot peen process. This removed stains and gave it a rough surface for adhesion. Just before he did the grinding, he filled all cracks and "divots". The grinding smoothed the repairs so that they are now invisible. I'd say the floor's finish after grinding was comparable to 60 grit sandpaper, maybe a little rougher. The first application was a clear sealer. Soaked right in. He then applied the base coat of epoxy, sprinkled the 4 different colors I had chosen and let it cure for 24 hours. Next day, he came back and added a coat of clear on top with the non-skid compound sprinkled in. He rolled the top coat, sealing the non-skid into the clear and was done. The hardest part for me was that I had to move everything out of the garage for a week. Mama wasn't too happy with my tool chests and other car stuff in the laundry room. The lift had to sit in the driveway and the Corvettes went to the neighbor's. Good people - he has a C6 of his own, so he understood.

Of course I haven't gone through a winter yet, but I'm very happy with the results. Good luck with your project. You'll love the floor when it's done, I'm sure.

[Dick W.]

Re: Garage Floor

There are specs for finishing the concrete on several sites on the internet. I finished my floor very smooth. I used Sherwin Williams Armoseal (solvent based) on the floor. Had no problems with chipping, hot tire pickup, etc. As far as solvent resistance, any product you use should be resistant to Skydrol hydraulic fluid. It is one of the strongest penetrating solvents out there. If it is resistant to that, you will not have to worry about anything you would use in your garage.

[Rob A.]

Re: Garage Floor

The quality epoxy systems bond to the floor chemically so the type of finish, broom or trowel, does not matter. Both floors I've done have smooth trowel finishes. They look great and hold up well.

[Paul J.]

Re: Garage Floor

To add to Lynn's comment, these coatings can also "hot lift". If you want epoxy on the floor, then you need to hire a proffessional contractor to prepare the slab and lay the floor. For the reasons that Lynn suggested, I stay away from epoxies and paints. I use the water based concrete sealers from the local home center. These water based sealers are easy to apply, last a long time, are indestructable since they soak into the concrete, and prevent moisture migration from the slab. They're cheap and easy to clean up. Below is a thread discussing garage floor coatings. There is a lot more in the archives.

https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthre...t=garage+floor

This thread discusses the things that you should be considering when you build your garage, like putting plastic under the slab and spacing your recepticles, etc.

https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthread.php?93651-Corvette-Workshop-Looking-for-Ideas-Show-yours-Off&highlight=garage+floor

[Thomas N.]

Re: Garage Floor

My suggestions are if you haven't poured the floor yet, lay down poly under the floor. This acts as a vapor barrier, which is one of the culprits of paint lifting from concrete floors, and it helps keep the concrete contractor "honest" by not making the concrete too soupy. This was a comment by a building contractor. If it is too soupy, too much of some of the ingredients floats to the surface, and this thin layer is what you see that breaks off in pieces with time. Also, I recommend 6" instead of 4". That way if you want a lift, you have plenty of footing. Also, more concrete means more of a path water vapor needs to go through. Also, I'm not sure the size of your garage or your geographic region, but relief cuts in the floor will cause a place for the cracks to mitigate to. As concrete cures, it shrinks, and pulls aways from the footing walls, and puts stress into the slab. This stress has the tendency to crack the surface. With the relief cuts, the cracks will go into the relief cracks.

As far as epoxy goes, any two part epoxy works well. Sherwin Williams has some great industrial epoxys. I did my floor with expoxy from McMaster-Carr, and it has held up well. To me the smoother the concrete finish, the better. That way you can squegee water and mop the floor with ease. Epoxy coatings are relatively thin, and when you drop items, you actually are chuncking up the softer concrete underneath the coating. But keeping the dust down and a nice surface are the advantages of the expoxy.

Just my 2c. I kind of like to do things overkill.

[Gary C.]

Re: Garage Floor

Don,

John Hinckley's post on what to do up north on garage floors is very good. In addition to the visqueen vapor barrier, IIRC John put foam underneath the visqueen.

As far as the concrete finishing goes, concrete contractors often like to use the fiberglass threads as a bonding agent. Not recommended. Leaves little threads that have to be burned off.

Finish should be smooth, not rough. For epoxy the finish will have to be shot pined or acid washed prior to putting the epoxy down for best adhesion.

Be careful with concrete additives. The only one I used was the additive to prevent surface cracks. Check out on the epoxy floor websites to see what they say about using concrete additives.

If you're going to put in a two post lift. Make sure there's at least 6 inches or more concrete, 8 inches is better, where post anchors will be.

As Dick said Sherwin Williams AmorSeal is good and normally the best bang for the buck. It's also ADA rated skid surface. If you do it yourself, the cost will be less than a $1.00 per square foot.

Good luck.

Gary
....

[Larry E.]

Re: Garage Floor

We have just started on my long awaited “dream garage.” I have followed the threads here & planned in my mind for years. I hope to have the cars in it for winter but due to the weather little to no other interior finishing until spring (Iowa). One of the first things I hope to do is coat the floor with a good epoxy. The question I have is what finish to the concrete floor will be best for adhesion of the coating next spring. I have discussed it with the cement contractor and we know it should not be very smooth. What do you all suggest? Thanks, Don H.

Don: Just thought I would add my 2 cents worth in this. I had no luck with longevity with epoxy coating on concrete. I gave up on the idea and went to RaceDeck
tiles on the floor. They look great; easy to install and clean. I should have done this at the start. You can have any color you want. Picture is below. Larryrace deck.jpg

[Paul J.]

Re: Garage Floor

My suggestions are if you haven't poured the floor yet, lay down poly under the floor. This acts as a vapor barrier, which is one of the culprits of paint lifting from concrete floors, and it helps keep the concrete contractor "honest" by not making the concrete too soupy. This was a comment by a building contractor. If it is too soupy, too much of some of the ingredients floats to the surface, and this thin layer is what you see that breaks off in pieces with time. Also, I recommend 6" instead of 4". That way if you want a lift, you have plenty of footing. Also, more concrete means more of a path water vapor needs to go through. Also, I'm not sure the size of your garage or your geographic region, but relief cuts in the floor will cause a place for the cracks to mitigate to. As concrete cures, it shrinks, and pulls aways from the footing walls, and puts stress into the slab. This stress has the tendency to crack the surface. With the relief cuts, the cracks will go into the relief cracks.

As far as epoxy goes, any two part epoxy works well. Sherwin Williams has some great industrial epoxys. I did my floor with expoxy from McMaster-Carr, and it has held up well. To me the smoother the concrete finish, the better. That way you can squegee water and mop the floor with ease. Epoxy coatings are relatively thin, and when you drop items, you actually are chuncking up the softer concrete underneath the coating. But keeping the dust down and a nice surface are the advantages of the expoxy.

Just my 2c. I kind of like to do things overkill.

All concrete mixes have specifications which set the water to cement ratio (W/C). When this factor is increased (i.e. more water), the mix adhesion and strength is compromised. The primary causes of this is the truck operator adding too much water when the pour is made in order to get it to flow down the chute, and by bullfloating the surface once the concrete is placed. On interior slabs, workers love to bullfloat the surface to get that smooth surface. This sucks the water to the top of the pour, increasing the W/C and weakening the mix at the top. When this is done on an exterior slab, or any slab that is subject to water and below freezing temperatures, the weak top part of the slab will separate from the aggregate and flake off. This is called scale and the process is known as spalling.

Forget about relief cuts, because interior slab cracks seldom follow them. All concrete will crack and even a properly poured interior slab will have them. You can use wire in the slab to keep the cracks from opening up, but interior slabs don't move much and it is not necessary to do this.

Finally, epoxy (or any paint) will not adhere to a concrete floor that has no "tooth". Contractors spend hours prepping floors in commercial and industrial slabs to get enough roughness for the epoxy to stick and stay.

One other thing, if you put any kind of "specks" into the painted surface, you'll never find that screw you just dropped. Of course you'll never see any dirt on it either, until you lie down to slide under the car.

[Steven B.]

Re: Garage Floor

Don, some good advice above. I helped a couple of friends do their floors the past 5-6 years. One had good luck with U-Coat-It, originally an industrial product, in his shop that also stores his Corvette. No lifting of the coating yet but it was prepped as per the instructions. Another used the Rustoleum product on a pour about a month old, did a cursory job of prep and it began lifting around thresholds in less than a week. Another had a fellow stain his floor, 30' X 60', with an industrial stain, and the apron outside. He has a shop in it plus stores 2 Olivers, a pick-up and a couple of mowers. The stain was covered with a clear coating. Although only a couple of months old so far so good. Coincidently, I was at S-W Thursday and looked at their product. The sales guy gave me the name of a small industrial facility nearby that used it and I plan on going over there and checking it out. Proper prep and a quality product was the key for these guys so far.

Steve

[Chuck B.]

Re: Garage Floor

I used Rust-Oleum Epoxy Shield Garage Floor Coating seven years ago. It has held up great for a working garage. Three engine pulls and two body pulls, with no chipping or lift up. The floor was one year old when I applied the product following the manufactures instructions to the letter. I used an insulating blanket and have hot water radiant heat under the concrete floor. Never a moisture problem because temperature of floor is 55-60 all Winter. Great place to hang out when the snow flys.

[Don H.]

Re: Garage Floor

Thanks everybody. We are putting down plastic, then 2 inch "blue board" (insulation) and pipes for future heat. What I am specifically asking for is how to finish the cement. A friend who has been in the concrete business all his life suggests to only use a light broom. Don H.

[Dick W.]

Re: Garage Floor

Donald, light broom will be more than enough "tooth" for the top coat. I acid etched my floor, even though it was new concrete when I painted it. I could turn a Bobcat skid steer loader around on the floor, only leaving black marks on the surface. Hot slag from using a cutting torch will burn spots in it though.