Garage floor epoxy paint

[Snipe Hunter]

Yes, I'm "remodeling" the garage. Building shelves, installing new lighting, fixing all sorts of drywall problems including replacing some on the ceiling, new insulation, peeling tape etc.


The last thing I'll do is paint the floor. I've never done it before. Have you???

Looking for a durable epoxy paint. Any experience with this, brands? How is it holding up? How did the application go? I intend to power wash the floor and clean with muriatic acid. Was a primer necessary?

[AUswimKC]

I’ve done it a half dozen times. It’s easy. But the key is prep prep prep.

I am a bit anal about it. But never had a failure. Floors I did almost 20 years ago still going strong. Always multiplied the waiting times in the instructions by three or more to be sure. 

I acid wash. At least twice. Sometimes three times. Need to remove all the glaze and be a uniform roughness

Sweep, wash, vac, etc. get all the dust up.

Let it dry. I always waited at least a week. Tape down some clear plastic after several days to be sure. 

Then paint. I never primed. I always broke a two car garage into six sections. Once you lay down a section you can’t go back. 

Then let it dry at least a week before cars and other heavy items.

My experience is only with the rustoleum epoxy floor products. Don’t even think about the water based stuff. Solvent based only. There are probably many other products now. But solvent based only. 

The last few times I used SharkGrit or whatever it was called by sherwin Williams and was happy with it. Do not use sand!

And don’t forget if there are any oil stains you need to be even more anal removing them. The first four times I did an epoxy floor was brand new concrete. The last few times was not. A strong anti greaser, pressure washer, patience, etc. make sure it is all up. Tire tracks are oily too. 

It takes an hour to paint it. It takes three weeks of prep prep prep and waiting to get it right

[Router-Jim]

I've used Rustoleum garage floor epoxy with the added speckles.  I did a thorough job of prep (acid etching and rinse etc)   The floor looked fantastic for the first year.  After that it started to peel where the snow would melt off the vehicles.  I'm sure it was the road salt that caused the flacking.  Very disappointed for the amount of work and expense.

[MarkSingleton]

Done it twice.  Once on a new floor ( the wood shop ) and the second time
was our three car garage.  Which I actually did in three stages.

    Prep work is key, as noted above. 

    The product/company I used seems to have expanded their product line
since I purchased. I believe I paid around three or four hundred.

    https://epoxy-coat.com/

[Mags®]

Why epoxy? Its a maintenance nightmare and always seems to fail. Investigate what it would cost to have the concrete polished instead. You'll probably find that there isn't much difference in costs.

[Turner52]

I did mine when I moved here about 6 years ago. Still looks great. I did not use epoxy. i acid washed the floor and rinsed a number of times. made sure it was dry. used a kilz primer and the Sherwin Williams oil based floor enamel. Bought some kind of parmesan cheese shaker from the dollar store and sprinkled a LITTLE silica sand in as I applied the top coat. I don't know where you live, but here in Wisconsin they do a smooth almost polished finish on the concrete. A little snow or even water turns the darn thing into a skating rink. Not safe that way For older folks like myself a fall could be bad. Very pleased with the results. Did it in the spring and didn't park a car on it for about a month.

[JohnnyEgo]

I contracted out to a specialist to do mine in 2012. They put in a polyaspartic, which is a commercial fast-cure product that I suspect is much more common these days. Also a lot of flake, so much so that it gives the floor a bit of a grit-like texture. At 9 years of Colorado winter, slush puddles of mag chloride, lots of heavy tools rolling all over it, and some impact damage, it's still holding up fantastically. No pealing, no flaking. The damage it does have is mostly impact damage I have done to it myself, including dropping a 30# steel plate on it. The accumulated winter dirt and sawdust wash right out every spring. Most oil and paint stains have washed right out, although I do have one area of spray paint overspray I tried to scrub off with acetone that was ill-advised and slightly changed the surface color where I scrubbed, but does not appear to have worn through the base coat or pealed over the years.

I am a big fan of the time-value of money, and for me, it was completely worth the money to have professionals put it in. One day to apply, one day to cure, and then the garage was in use and has held up great for a decade.

When it was put down in 2012:



Still there in 2021:

[Snipe Hunter]

I cannot buy oil based (I don't think) or solvent based in Maryland unless thee is a Low VOC solvent. I use a Low VOC solvent based car paint. . Probably should have mentioned that in the post. This is a low VOC state. I haven't looked into it yet though, most everything solvent bases is banned here unless it comes out of a spray can.

[MstrCarpenter]

I cannot buy oil based (I don't think) or solvent based in Maryland unless thee is a Low VOC solvent. I use a Low VOC solvent based car paint. . Probably should have mentioned that in the post. This is a low VOC state. I haven't looked into it yet though, most everything solvent bases is banned here unless it comes out of a spray can.

I would also suggest polishing the concrete. Although the floor can be polished to a super high gloss, it doesn't have to be. During the grinding stages a densifier is applied that hardens and binds the surface. A sealer is usually applied that can be burnished in and also provides the shine. The final appearance is dependent on how hard and flat the slab is. Usually only the paste or very top surface is ground exposing sand and Portland. Some areas might be ground down to exposed aggregate in limited areas if the pour was rushed or not floated good enough before power troweling. The benefit of polishing is that it is not a coating. It is easy to clean and maintain and can easily be buffed to bring back the shine in high traffic/abused areas without any concern of it matching the rest of the floor for the life of the concrete.