Garage floor - 2 part epoxy recommendations?

[RichK]

I'm not sure if this is in the right area to post but I'm after advice from anyone who has used 2 part epoxy paint on their garage floor.

 

Thing is there is so much choice out there and wildly different prices, so would welcome any info from those who have painted their floor with 2 part epoxy on what they used, which supplier etc. And also info on how it has worn, and whether you have had any issues with hot tyre pickup or other wear.

[Tim Reid]

I'm interested too as this is a project on my list.

[Kris Mc]

Multi buy.... me too!

[RichK]

Garage prep has been a bit of a project so far. Having carried out quite a lot of work on previous cars in a dark and seemingly always dirty garage, in preparation for the Westfield build (which is supposed to be fun), I decided that the first job was to sort the garage, paint the walls and floor. Painting the walls was a pain, but I'm quite pleased with the result. Then onto the floor.

Several years ago I had previously followed internet wisdom and PVA'd the floor with waterproof PVA. Lesson learnt... the PVA did stop the dust, but just gathered dirt and was far from ideal.

So, the power washer was deployed to attempt to clean the surface, which proved surprisingly good a lifting the PVA. There has been much swearing at the effort of moving stuff from one side of the garage to the other, but worth the effort hopefully. .. in the photo here you can see a dark square which is the 'original' PVA coating, yet to be removed. The PVA was really that dirty... 

 

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[RichK]

After more pressure washing, and degreasing, scrubbing and cleaning, the surface now looks like this.

Browsing for information on epoxy floor (mostly information from USA) tells me that either I now need to acid etch or diamond grind.

I'm not keen on acid etching due to the health risks, so am now looking at diamond grinding. Have ordered suitable 4.5 inch grinding disk and dust extraction from amazon. Bring on the noise... 

Ever get the feeling that you have bitten off more that you first intended...?

 

[Weekend Warrior]

Hi Rich ,

In my opinion ,you’ll never achieve the results you need with a 4inch grinder and loads of blades , to get a good finish you will need to prime and latex the floor before painting 

The trouble is that the garage floor hasn’t been laid to a spec to accept such a covering ,commercial properties that  have painted  concrete floors are  generally power floated before being painted .

The  pva coating you previously put  down was just the first step in a process ,it’s done to stop the floor dusting and to provide a key /bond for the next coating ..

If your intent on diamond grinding contact a hire company such as A plant and get a proper grinder or scrabbler. Then go from there .

 

[Tim Reid]

17 minutes ago, RichK said:

I'm not keen on acid etching due to the health risks, so am now looking at diamond grinding. Have ordered suitable 4.5 inch grinding disk and dust extraction from amazon. Bring on the noise... 

 

I was looking at hiring a big floor grinder from HSS so interested to hear how you get on with a little one.

[RichK]

 

The pva was awful to be honest and picked up all over the place, as well as being difficult to clean. It also seemed to soak up oil. I am glad it is all gone now.

 

If the mini grinder fails I may have to go back to looking at hiring a large professional machine. 

[coilbox]

I painted my garage with epoxi about 2 years ago, and has been very good. Its easy to clean and pretty durable. Only has small chips in places where I´ve dropped a tool or similar, and a small stain from some brake fluid.

 

Prep is key for a good result, it was hard work. We cleaned the concrete with a pressure cleaner and detergents, then a light pass with hydrocloric acid to remove any grease. Then sanded and cleaned again the whole surface to give a good adhesion for the paint.

 

Painting was the easy part, 2 thick layers with 24h drying time.

 

The only recommendation they gave us was to avoid epoxy if we had water filtrations or humidity through the concrete. As epoxy forms a non permeable layer, if the floor has humidity from underneath if can peel off.

 

Also the price depends of the colour, the base is transparent and and then they add the dye. Red dyes where much more expensive than others, for whatever reason.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

I’ve seen a lot of clients have expensive floor treatments over the years, the only ones that seem to last regardless are the (ceramic?) tiled treatments.

 

Of the Epoxy coverings, and some of them were eye wateringly dear, most seemed to have issues even with fairly thorough prep. However, most of the builders didn’t sand or grind back, so that may be significant.

 

The best lasting one I ever saw, they got a commercial company in to do it, that used to the workshops at the clients business, and that was the full works, machine cut back with one of the big industrial machines, plus various other prep stages. That floor was superb, twenty years later, still looks in amazing condition too. Though heaven knows what it cost

[BigSkyBrad]

I epoxy painted my garage floors and can say that not only prep is important, but also good quality concrete to start with has a lot to do with keeping the paint in place. Quality dense concrete that has been power-floated (my previous garage – paint was bulletproof) is way better than crap airy concrete floated with a 4x2 (my current garage – flaking if you just look at it, let alone drop something). Never paint new concrete - leave it for at least three months for the salt etc to come to the surface, then prep it as per the paint instructions.

 

Tip – if you park your car in the same spot each time, bond four carpet tiles on top of the paint where the tyres sit, to prevent hot tyres/pressure degrading the paint, especially if the car sits for long periods.

[RichK]

Thanks for the comments and advice guys.

 

I think I'm going to go ahead with the epoxy option rather than tiling, but it does look like surface prep to provide a good key for the epoxy is the most important part of the operation. The concrete in my garage is over 10 years old and other than now being a bit dusty and with a few cracks is in pretty good condition and has a smooth finish.

I'm also looking at using a specific epoxy primer suitable for garage floors with oil stains that also claims to offer some protection against damp. My garage has always been dry, and has dried out very quickly after the pressure washing so hopefully no problems with damp to worry about, but I think it's worth the primer coat to penetrate the concrete as much as possible to ensure a good key for the top coats and stop any issues from the odd oil stains. It all adds to the cost but it feels like it will be worth the investment... 

[Kris Mc]

I decided to spend more on the walls as the floor was made of lots of additions where the garage has grown over the years 4 sections of different concrete all cracked... how thick is the epoxy, will it still cover a bumpy floor (not bothered if it’s not level) and can it be put over regular floor paint?

 

My floor has 2 coats of trade paint from screw fix on a unprepped floor and seems to be fine so far.   But I’d love epoxy.

 

ps the parking bays keep the toys in a sensible place so the kit car fits behind without getting out and moving every time. 

[RichK]

I love the parking bays👍

I was all set to use Screwfix floor paint, but then started looking at epoxy, and ended up deciding i'd like to try and do it as at the moment I have no project car in the garage so have a rare opportunity to finally sort the workspace as I'd like it.

 

As far as I can tell epoxy really needs a good  bond to the concrete above all else, which means the floor can be acid etched or ground with 40/50 grit diamond disc. It is not a thick coat as far as I am aware so surface prep is required if there are bumps and cracks you would like to cover. I have a few cracks which I will fill with epoxy repair compound and grind smooth (hopefully).

 

I had an hour this evening before it got too late to make noise so had a go at test grinding the floor. After much faff setting everything up and then more faff modifying the dust guard (I removed the bristles on the dust guard in the end so I could moderate the very light pressure required more easily, as my first attempt left a few small grooves) and I think it looks like it will work with a 4.5 inch disc. Local spots needed a light hand sand with 40grit sandpaper just to finish and I also experimented doing the edge with a belt sander. I think it should be do-able without having to hire a larger diamond grinding machine, although it's quite tricky to maintain a perfect flat finish with such a small disc. Only slight other issue could be the amount of hoover dust bags needed, as this test area half filled a bag which seems the limit before they start to clog. They are very cheap though (as was the vacuum cleaner 20 years ago) so not a major problem hopefully. 

 

 

 

[Geezergs]

I've done a fair amount of work in garages both domestic and commercial, the best option which can also be the most costly is resin floors, great finish and if applied properly very durable.