Garage Flooring Experience?

SquadraCorse

SquadraCorse

Coast to Coast
Anyone have an epoxy coating on your floor? I bought a house and close on the 30th of this month. First thing I want to do is epoxy the garage floor. I've had experience with the stuff before and the person who put it down didn't prep right. Needless to say the entire thing flaked and chipped so we had to scrape the entire 5000 sq ft floor up.

I've been looking at this kit as it looks very complete, just wondering if anyone has any experience with other brands and how their quality is?
http://carguysflooring.com/default.aspx
 
I have epoxy flooring in my shop. It has held up extremely well. Prep is EVERYTHING. If that concrete is not ABSOFUCKINLUTELY clean, the paint will peel up. Also, do not dismiss the importance of the acid etching as described in the instructions that come with it. (Mine came with citric acid prep.)

My floor was VERY dirty, but there were no oil spots. I rented a floor buffer and scrubbed it with phosphoric acid, and rinsed many times. I used a shop vac that had a water ejection pump to gather up the copious quantities of water that used and get rid of it efficiently.

FloorCleaning.jpg


When I was done, you could have eaten off of that floor. I made sure the temperature of the concrete and the paint were within the parameters on the instructions. It was winter when I did it, so I had to get it warm, and keep it warm for a while. I put a thermometer on the floor and covered it with insulation to be sure the concrete was warm enough.

The results were excellent. That was 4 1/2 years ago, and the paint is still in nearly perfect condition. The concrete has gotten a few chips from things being dropped. (Not the paint's fault.) A few small spots have peeled, ether from moisture intrusion, (I am below grade,) or places that I patched and did not cure/acid etch the new material adequately. It also shows some wear where my desk chair was.

Oil spills are a snap to clean up. Routine cleaning is with a shop vac, and once a month or so, I wet mop with some Simple Green. It cleans up beautifully.

ShopPainted640.jpg


Moral of the story: Follow the label instructions to the letter. If you think the concrete may not be totally clean, clean it some more.
 
Prep is key. Do it right and you won't be disappointed. My garage came with a coated floor, so I didn't have to do it. But one of the places I worked at had ripped up some linoleum that had been poorly applied directly to concrete, and instead of putting down some other kind of flooring, we just epoxied it. Absolutely brilliant stuff. And the place I work at now has a 20,000sf shop floor that's epoxy coated. It's a high traffic shop, and we do not take it easy on the floor. It still looks great.

The brand we used was ArmorClad I think... but to be honest, most epoxies are the same. The specs you'll want to look at are coverage and working time. How much are you going to be able to cover and at what price? Also, how long do you have to lay it down? Working time can vary depending on how much hardener specific brands tell you to use. That also has an effect on things like flex and compressive strength. But to be honest, for a residential garage, even the minimum strength is adequate. You're not going to be driving heavy fork trucks on it.

and prep it right! can't say that enough.
 
I was just going to say "Prep and etch" but these guys already said it wayyyy more eloquently than I could so....

If you have even one spot thats not clean enough the stuff wont stick and will flake and peel from that one spot and continue spreading...so prep and etch!
 
ANy time you're working with surfacing concrete, the etching is the most critical part. YOu want to use the harshest, nastiest thing you're comfortable with.

Officially, you're supposed to use the highly corrosive miuratic acid, but the slightly safer substitutes contain a diluted hydrochloric; they work great too. The absolute weakest thing you can usually get away with is concentrated trisodium phosphate and a steel wire-brush, but that takes FOREVER and doesn't always guarantee a properly etched surface.
When you dilute the acid to etch the concrete prior to application, ALWAYS pour the acid into the water, NOT the other way around. YOu'd much rather have pure, undiluted water splashing on you than pure, undiluted acid.

Any time you work with strong, concentrated acid, keep a box of baking soda around for emergencies.
Probably a great thing to have in the garage anyway, seeing how it's both an excellent fire suppressant for oil fires, and neutralizes battery acids.

Etching is *critical* to getting a permanent finish, because it's basically dissolving the top layer of the concrete to give your epoxy coating something to bite into.
 
I wouldn't think you could actually etch the concrete with TSP. I may be wrong, and it may be possible, but like you said I imagine it's not easy. It's more of a cleaner and degreaser than anything else. And most TSP sold nowadays isn't even TSP.

I would definitely use it as part of the prep though. We used TSP to do a through cleaning after removing all the shitty linoleum and adhesive, and then we followed up with whatever etching compound was in the kit. (this was 10 years ago, so my memory is foggy) If your garage has oil or grease stains, definitely use the TSP before etching.
 
YOu definitely can't etch with TSP, you're right. THat's where the wire-brush comes in.
Even still, it's a halfassed job for yuppies whose minds conjure up a picture of the gaping holes in the floor in the movie "Aliens" whenever you mention the word acid, and it's marginally better than nothing.
 
Thankfully the previous home owner seems as mechanically inclined as my girlfriend, so I don't think the garage has seen any oil as they used it primarily for storage and not actually parking or working on cars.

Thanks for the detailed input fellers
 
man there are alot of options out there... i went carpet... i know it sounds bonkers but it is AWESOME!!! i willnever epoxy a floor again after it!

now about 9 of my buddies have their garages done... we jsut went over the epoxy in my bro's garage with outdoor carpeting same as mine... it is great. pick up an old vacume and you can keep it clean no problem. any major spills i cut it out and replace the part of the carpet (besides i have never replaced it, just goes away hahaha)
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ill grab a pic of my bros garage for you my carpet is about 5 years old now
 
Catbird said:
YOu definitely can't etch with TSP, you're right. THat's where the wire-brush comes in.
Even still, it's a halfassed job for yuppies whose minds conjure up a picture of the gaping holes in the floor in the movie "Aliens" whenever you mention the word acid, and it's marginally better than nothing.
Click to expand...

Makes sense.

And to be honest, ever since seeing fight club I've actually been a little more afraid of the other end of the pH scale.
 
here are those pics of my bro's garage after we carpeted it..
carpet is great in the winter keeps the moisture down in the concrete and nto on your tools and bikes, and keeps it warmer, in the winter keeps it cooler... all around a good have

ixwe51.jpg


comes in handy after wild partys!
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It looks nice, but my 900's carbs are incontinent. I'd have to get her housebroken before I would even consider it.
 
I want to make a coupe corrections to some of the info here.

Muriatic acid is simply hydrochloric acid pre-diluted to 20%. I would not care to use it as floor cleaner. Too much safety and health hazard.

I used phosphoric acid. It is much less obnoxious to work with.

The purpose of the acid is not so much to "etch" the concrete as to lower its surface pH. Concrete is strongly alkaline, and the epoxy doesn't like that.
 
When I bought my house, the first thing I did was paint the floor. Being new construction, there were no oil spots, but I did use an etiching acid prior to painting it. At the time, there were limited options for colors and I wanted to paint black and white checkers. Of all places, Home Depot had the floor paint, and because at the time I was house poor, I needed the cheap option. About $200 bucks, and over 40hrs of hand painting, I had the result I was looking for.
The floor held up well, for about 5 years, a few chips here and there from heavy drops but it did very well, especially for the price. If I were to do it again, I would go with the U-coat it product, but I had no regrets with the job.
 

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That checkerboard is exactly what I've been wanting to do in my shop. Well, that pattern, I want to lay down the rubber tiles so it's a little nicer to sit/lay on.

Nice 7's by the way! Where do you run events in the race prepped one? Off topic, I know, but we're all gear heads, right? ;D
 
Phosphoric acid isn't so bad. It is often sold for the purpose of removing rust stains from concrete. It doesn't make fume and isn't dangerous, but does the job nicely. Also perfectly safe to put down the drain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphoric_acid

It's a little stronger than the citric acid that comes with some epoxy floor paint "kits."
 
Wolverine coatings are where it's at in the epoxy field. They are basically the rhino liner of epoxy coats. There are guys all over the place swearing by their durability. I personally plan to stain my floors with ferrous iron sulfate and then epoxy clear over them with wolverine's sealer. Good stuff.

http://www.alphagarage.com/
 
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