Coat new garage floor?

[corn18]

We are closing on our new house 6 Aug. It has a 3 car garage with a standard smooth concrete floor. We are in the midwest, so some snow. We keep our garage very neat and tidy but over the years it seems to get rubber marks and the odd oil/grease spill on it.

Wouldn't mind getting the floor finished but not sure what to do or how much it costs. Just want something that doesn't stain like concrete. I don't mind doing it myself.
What would you recommend?

Thanks, Corn

[Conissah]

I am looking to do the Rust-Oleum EpoxyShield kit that Lowes sells. For my ~500 sq ft garage it would be around $120 for the kit. Can put whatever color chips in you want, can clear coat it, and looks quite good.

[Drv4fun]

I've treated my garage with the epoxy. It turned out really nice. But over time its not as nice as it was. One thing to note is that concreate will absorb water, so a wet car, melting snow etc, will disperse but with the epoxy it will just sit there. You'll have to squeegee it out. Also to keep it clean I have to vacuum with my shop vac then mop it. It looks nice but a lot more to do to have it look good. However if you are going to do it, do it while the concrete is still "new", once you get some stains on there, that area will need acid etching and cleaning prior to epoxy. If I had to do it again I would, but I would not add any flakes, they make it difficult to find anything that falls on the ground. I'd also apply more of the clear top coat.

[MPOWER5266]

I coated mine, I wish I did something like swisstrax.

[TheWatchGuy]

the kits you get from Home Depot and Lowes work well and last for a little bit under normal use. If it gets heavy use, I use Sherwin Williams Macropoxy 646. I use it at work (Industrial Construction) and it stands up to a beating.

[zx10guy]

I also coated my garage floor. Didn't even drive a car in there so it was totally virgin concrete. Per the instructions, it recommended pressure washing the floor first which I did. There was some etching solution that is to be used first and then the paint which you mix from two cans.

The floor stayed nice for a few years but after a while where the tires from my cars would sit, the paint/epoxy started to pull up. I found this to be the case with my cars that had soft performance tires. The garage floor at my beach house I haven't coated and have managed to keep it clean from any stains.

[F32Fleet]

Porcelain Tile. Last a lifetime, because it's thermally stable, durable and doesn't absorb water.

This is thebtype of tile which you see in dealerships.

[dreamingat30fps]

When we bought the house the garage floor had just been painted with that regular crap with the flakes they sell at home depot. That started peeling up pretty much right away. 2 years I go I debated between going with some of those plastic tiles or doing an epoxy coat. Ended up going epoxy, I paid a company to do it because basically they had to grind off all the previous crap that was on there and I sure as hell had no desire to do that. I think I paid like $1,200 maybe which ended up being like $300-500 more than doing the tiles, but I really like how it came out and so far 2 years in it still looks perfect.

[Carnut12]

I’ve had both the tiles and epoxy. Currently I have Racetrack Tiles. My last house I had Epoxy, I was lucky that I bought the house and had a week between buying and moving in so I went and did the floor when the home was vacant.

A few points I would give for epoxy-
1- Only get 2 part epoxy, there is a garage forum that stays on top of the best available for the price.
2- You still need to prep even though it is “New”, it has to be etched so the epoxy adheres better.
3- How new is the concrete? If it’s too new it’s still curing. You should do a Water Test to see if you have any issues, no matter how good of a job you do if you have water issues the epoxy will peel.

Tiles are self explanatory but I will just say they were fairly easy to install, you just need to cut the sides. They can be replaced if damaged, but I’ve had mine for a good 7-8 years and none are damaged. They do expand and contract in heat/cold, make sure you follow the instructions to leave room on the sides for this.

Which do I like better? Honestly I like both, but if I move I think I might go back to epoxy. I live in New England and although the top of the tiles aren’t difficult to keep clean some stuff does get under them and that I am not a fan of. At some point I need to pick mine up and pressure wash the concrete and put the floor back.

Good luck with your decision, join the garage forum it gives discounts to forum members too.

[Hagasan41]

I had my 3 car Gregg floor professionally coated using Legacy products. The floor didn’t last more than 2 years and started to peel up from the vehicles hot tires. Total waste of money. Covered up my mistake and went with Racedeck flooring and couldn’t be happier.

[jimbobiggens]

Please stay away from the DIY epoxy Lowes and Home Depot have. That is a waste of money. That thin stuff looks good and goes on easy; and if all you have is foot traffic it will last forever but - - it won't hold up to car traffic. Do yourself a favor and hire an industrial flooring contractor and tell them how long you want it to last.

[lsturbointeg]

just finished installing my RaceDeck flooring free flow design this week! freakin love them! my garage previously had expoxy but it showed wear and tear over the years from the previous owner.

[spencers]

If you want epoxy to last, diamond grind and then 100% solids epoxy coating.

[stevenc]

Epoxy it before you move in. Did my father in laws a month ago before they move in and it turned out great!

[essejM3]

Originally Posted by jimbobiggens

Please stay away from the DIY epoxy Lowes and Home Depot have. That is a waste of money. That thin stuff looks good and goes on easy; and if all you have is foot traffic it will last forever but - - it won't hold up to car traffic. Do yourself a favor and hire an industrial flooring contractor and tell them how long you want it to last.

Mine has lasted for 15 years with soft racecar tires, and all kinds of lawn tractors?

Looks just like the post above mine, but less shiny at this point.

[TheWatchGuy]

Originally Posted by essejM3

Mine has lasted for 15 years with soft racecar tires, and all kinds of lawn tractors?

Looks just like the post above mine, but less shiny at this point.

as with most coatings, a lot of the durability is dependent on the prep work. if you prep correctly, youll get good results.

[ericsbestshot]

I had my garage done. Completely worth it. And prep work is definitely key. Mine wasn't prepped really well and has chipped in a couple of spots. I have a feeling they cheaped out on the application. Next time I wouldn't mind paying more for a top notch job.

[iminhell1]

I just finished working for a company that does floor coatings. I wasn't there long but here's what I did catch on to.

These are the companys my work uses --> https://www.tennantcoatings.com/am-e...s/default.aspx
--> https://www.sherwin-williams.com/pai...tings-interior

Prep:
The pores in the concrete need to be open for it to take and hold any coating/sealer. We did this by grinding the floor. I don't know if this is a machine you can rent anywhere, but I doubt you can. Also the stuff we used was either propane, 440v or 240v. It's big heavy shit. Detail work was by hand with a grinding wheel on an angle grinder.
I don't know anything about the chemical etch method. But I really would be leary of that way ... what is the toxicity or it (thinking it's basically battery acid) and when you do open the concrete and then use water to wash it, you just added a moisture variable. If you don't get all that moisture out, the concrete can soften/rot.

The other thing you need to consider is the edges. Like where the sidewall meets the floor. There is a gap there. Is moisture going to get under the floor? For the most part, moisture is the enemy.


On the Downloads tab you can read about the various stuff they have and the chemical resistances. So about the layers and such. I didn't find anything about how to apply them (which should be similar with any coating used).



The one coating I'm curious about is a truck bed liner for a garage floor. I know I spilled some on mine (bare old concrete) and it's been there for better part of 15 years now. Can't get the shit to come off.
I know with something like Raptor Liner you can add your choice of color (or metallic flake) and then spray it on. Going to cost more but the added cushion might be nice. And there's tons of colors you could do.


Far as what cost for pro stuff would go, I want to say it's around $100/sqft and up. But I really don't know.


The other thing you can do it to add thickness you can use very fine sand on the wet coating. For the shop floor and industrial stuff that pretty standard. It adds a lot of impact resistance to it. Depending on how fine the sand is and how many top coats you go, you can leave it textured or you can still get a smooth finish. Totally up to you.

[Marmugmotleocay]

I had Sonogard applied on my average 2 car garage floor in 2010 for $2000. They ground the concrete down to fresh concrete and the Sonogard is self leveling. It still looks the same when clean. I couldn't find a picture with the X3 so my M235.
The second picture the first day I could put stuff back in. It no longer has a Mazda flag and the toolboxes are in different locations plus a larger TV.

[apirumann]

Originally Posted by lsturbointeg

just finished installing my RaceDeck flooring free flow design this week! freakin love them! my garage previously had expoxy but it showed wear and tear over the years from the previous owner.

This looks fantastic now but what about spilling stuff? Can you remove them piece by piece easily to clean the spills after installation?

I don't recall how many times I dropped a nut, bolt, screw etc on the ground for the life of working on cars. It would be a nightmare if you drop something under or near the jack stands that you need to remove the tiles to get to.

How about jack stands? Are these tiles sturdy enough to hold the weight of the car on jack stands?

One more question to epoxy coated garage owners. Do you need to reseal it within x amount of years?

[dreamingat30fps]

Originally Posted by apirumann

This looks fantastic now but what about spilling stuff? Can you remove them piece by piece easily to clean the spills after installation?

I don't recall how many times I dropped a nut, bolt, screw etc on the ground for the life of working on cars. It would be a nightmare if you drop something under or near the jack stands that you need to remove the tiles to get to.

How about jack stands? Are these tiles sturdy enough to hold the weight of the car on jack stands?

One more question to epoxy coated garage owners. Do you need to reseal it within x amount of years?

This was one of the things that worried me with the tiles. I have similar type plastic tiles in my back patio (ended up getting them for free so what the hell) and I do find a lot of dirt and debris does end up getting into the openings. I've only had those for less than a year so I guess we shall see what happens.

As for the epoxy I'm not sure if you have to reseal or anything. I was personally not told I had to do anything.

I will just say they were fairly easy to install, you just need to cut the sides. They can be replaced if damaged, but I’ve had mine for a good 7-8 years and none are damaged. They do expand and contract in heat/cold, make sure you follow the instructions to leave room on the sides for this.






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