I'm sure this was discussed to death some where but I can't find it so :eek: What do you guys use for floor covering if any...Paint..Tile... ???. I haven't been able to find anything that will work better than plain old concrete.
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I'm sure this was discussed to death some where but I can't find it so :eek: What do you guys use for floor covering if any...Paint..Tile... ???. I haven't been able to find anything that will work better than plain old concrete.
Mine is plain concrete and will probably stay that way.
Plain old concrete, but with a sealer applied to keep it from sluffing off dust.
two part epoxy floor paint when it gets bad scrap the loose stuff off roll a coat on hot and heavy .its about time just do not have the money to blow
Plain concrete,,with thin sheets of particle board,and a liberal coating of polyester resin,gelcoat,,paint,etc splattered on...the usual,for a fiberglassers shop..:D
Plain old enamel paint with a hardner, the $20.00 a gallon stuff, lasts a year or so. My garage is overdue by about 2 years, maybe in the spring.
Maple & Oak! Old dance hall! 8-)
I used a two part epoxy finish that I found at Home Depot. I needed two kits for +/- 700 square feet. As it dries, you sprinkle the little "fairy dust" flakes. The flakes add some texture so it's not too slippery to work on.
I'm not near as rough on the floor as Pat and Jerry, but I certainly haven't babied it either. Five years old and still looks pretty good. Cleans up nice with hot soapy water and any stains wipe off pretty well with acetone.
I washed the floor real well with hot soapy water and etched with muratic acid prior to application. The process cost was about $200 bucks and I did it in two weekends (half at a time).. I'm satisfied with the result - but If I had it to do over, I'd go a bit lighter on the flakes..
right now mine is just plain ol cement......the day I have a bigger shop that will be just a shop....then i will go with some kind of epoxy piant to clean things up where the project car is and rubber matted flooring for benchwork areas
glennsexton----- How dose that hold up to welding, burning, paint overspray??? I see you use jack stands don't they chip the paint???
Thanks
Glen my brother used the same stuff on his house in Washington State. It looked great when I went to visit him last year!
My main shop floor is ceramic tiles, my dirty area is just concrete painted with 2 pack epoxy floor paint.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...r0919Small.jpg
Glenn's looks similar to mine, I used the Rustoleum kit available at the big box and other hardware outlets. Mines been down for 9 years now and still looks good. There's a few spots where I must have let some chemical or other stand too long and there's some slight discoloration, but otherwise, as Glenn says, a quick mop and it looks like new. To respond to some of your additonal questions, I've used stands, dropped steel and iron pieces, plasma cut above it, had welding slag fall, and all sorts of automotive fluids, and the coating has held up beautifully. The meanest thing I did was get some epoxy paint overspray on it that I ended up dulling a small area with the cleanup, but it didn't hurt the adhesion.
I put this on fresh, cured concrete, so the cleanup was comparatively easy. The kit contained a pre-cleaning substance (my guess is TSP). I wondered about etching the concrete with acid, called the tech help line for Rustoleum, and they were pretty negative on that idea. I don't know if that was CYA so that acid injury wouldn't come back on them, or that the etch from the cleaning material they supply is sufficient, though barely detectable. Following their supplied instructions to the T the process went fairly easily, and the results have been terrific. Considering how cheap it was/is it's great value.
Edit: here's a pic before I was completely moved in and you could still see most of the floor.....the sheen is only moderate.
I have 2 part epoxy on mine. Its 8 years old and could be repaint in the high use areas.
Mine's holding up real good. The jack stands have not bothered it, welding splatters but doesn't stick. I've had hot stock, i.e., a chunk cut with a torch fall on the floor and not leave marks. Over spray - well, it does stick - but caught quick it will wipe up with acetone. Like I mentioned, the flakes add a bit of rough and that's good for a non-slip finish but they do catch the gunk and there's bit of scrubbing necessary if I let over spray get too hard.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...28/camaro7.jpg
I used the 2 part epoxy from Menards. I didn't have quite enough for the garage to cover the whole floor, so I used the cheap gray concrete paint around the outside, added a little black to the gray & did a 6" wide stripe to set it off a little. When I did the camaro shop floor I did it the same way just to keep them the same. The "Z" shop pic was taken when the floor was freshly painted. The garage pics. below are recent. Floor was painted in 2002 for my daughters graduation party so it has just about 10 years on it. (still have her graduation pics hanging on the wall lol.) Both garage & shop are about due for a freshen up, although the only real wear is where we drive the car & truck in & out every day. The walkway areas still look pretty much like new except for a couple paint spills & scuff marks.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../Laminator.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...abinetDone.jpg
Bob, as I am building a new house and the garage will be new. Will I need to prep before using the epoxy ? This
Yup, and you'll need to give the concrete some time to cure before applying anything over it.
On new builds of a floor not poured yet,why not consider a heated floor??.
Don, what Gary (pro70) said..................like any coating it needs clean, prepped and cured ground surface. The other step I took was to double check on moisture creep. I did have a vapor barrier laid before the concrete was poured, then taped a roughly foot square patch of plastic sheeting in several locations for a couple days to varify that no condensation formed. You hear/read often that a coating (especially cheap ones like I used) has failed in patches or completely, which leads the commentor to condemn all coatings. My guess is their failure was more likely due to some prep or application failure even when they're convinced they did everything correctly.
Just to complete the thought about new builds that have not the floor poured yet,might want to look into the requirement for a two poster lift.One place I contacted said at least a 6" base.When I comes to those kind of installs,I would want a company that does that to do it with a building permit all legal like.
Might want to check with the guy doing the concrete, Don... Years back when we built the big shop, we had coloring and some other stuff I no longer remember the name of put in the concrete when it was poured. If my feeble memory serves me correctly we had to wait like 90 days before putting and sealant or paint on the floor.....,..Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Dalton
Yes, a minimum of 90 days is what they suggest on the product label.
Hey fella's I'll bookmark this thread and visit it again when we get closer . It is a slab construction and they pour the thing in less than a day. Using the coloring seems difficult as they arrive and just unload really fast. I thought well with the garage empty it would be a good time to do the floor. I'll mark the date they pour the slab and start counting. The moisture barrier did get my attention and I can do that when the forms and rebar/wire go in, right ??
Thanks Again
Before the rebar/reinforcement for the slab..............visualize it under the layer of concrete. Your contractor should know how to do this and have the proper material.
You want to put the vaporbarrier between the dirt and the concrete. the contractor puts the color in the concrete before they pour it.
Recently got this link from another site that is packed full of information here it is :
Garage Floor Coatings