Thinking about putting one of the coatings on my garage floor. It's so stained and hard to clean. Any of you done it yourselves? If so, what kind/brand?
OT: Garage floor coating
- Thread starter The Cooterpoot
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I’ve considered it several times. Youtube’ed a bunch of stuff and learned enough to decide to hire it done if I ever pull the trigger.
Wife says H&C or Sealkrete for DIY but she says none of the DIY products really work well. She says you are money ahead to have a pro come in and grind it and apply a commercial coating. She sold commercial and industrial flooring and coatings for twenty years so she knows.
PITA, get ready.
Clean, clean, clean again. Degrease x2. Then etch. Clean again. Let dry for days.
If you drive or do work on it, it’s likely gonna peel somewhere. If you’re not welding or anything with sparks, I’d consider just carpet tiling, or gym floor padding. If I had it to do over, I’d either stain the concrete, or gym floor it.
Clean, clean, clean again. Degrease x2. Then etch. Clean again. Let dry for days.
If you drive or do work on it, it’s likely gonna peel somewhere. If you’re not welding or anything with sparks, I’d consider just carpet tiling, or gym floor padding. If I had it to do over, I’d either stain the concrete, or gym floor it.
There is a small company out of NW Arkansas that have a new patented product and process that killing all the other floor coatings but it’s not available as a DIY. Someone has to be certified to install it. Have you been in a Walmart where the floor has been ground and sealed. That’s their product.
I was just about to say that the only advice I have is that this is really not one of those things that you want to try yourself. When you start getting high dollar quotes from professionals around town, it's easy to retreat to YouTube and convince yourself that you can save 75% by just figuring it out yourself, but I promise that it won't be worth it when your surface starts bubbling, peeling, etc.
If you just happen to be one of those natural talents with this kind of work, by all means go for it, but I regret making this a personal project back in 2020. Now I'm gonna eventually have to pay someone to remove what I put down and then do it all over again.
I just stained and sealed the house i just built. Cleaning is the key. Mine turned out great, but we spent no less than 12 hours sanding and cleaning. Clean, etch, stain, clean good, sealer. Eagle stain is what we used. Was quoted $7k for my whole house. I did it for $650 all in.
She's correct. We installed polyaspartic floor coatings in a business I used to own. Polyurea and polyaspartic are much better than epoxy. Epoxy peels like a mofo.
You really need to scarify the concrete to get a good bond. Then you have to vacuum the shìt out of it and lightly mop to get the dust up. I went to Omaha and trained on a dozen jobs or so before we did our first one. I sold the business because it started getting really saturated and cheap.
I'd hire it out myself because I don't think I could rent the equipment and get materials cheap enough to do it for what somebody else would quote me.
Mine was done professionally it’s slick as Owl S*** when wet just a thought before you do it
They make some great snap together flooring that will cover all the ugly. The good stuff has great weight ratings.
Staining new concrete is not too bad. The pores are still open and you can get really deep absorption. Still need to follow all the steps in DGW's example.
The problem with staining the garage floor on an older home is you will never get the stains from oil and other day to usage out and they will show through. Also, your sealer will not hold up to what we call hot tire pickup, same with epoxy.
The other problem is those same oils prevent good adhesion. Etching can help, but you have to grind if you want it to last. Then you have to get all of that dust out.
This video is really good. Notice it's a 3 man crew. When we went through training, my guys were separated and went at different times. You only want one guy max who's new. 3 new guys are going to 17 it up. 1-2 Bros who have nrver done it are really going to 17 it up. I haven't back rolled a floor in 3-1)3 years now and I would probably 17 it up just for being out of practice.
I like his combination of using epoxy base for adhesion and longer cure time, flaking to rejecting to cover the epoxy, and poly aspartic top coat. It's going to be super durable, won't peel, and will hold up to tires and UV. But the one drawback is going to be what @Yeti said... It's slicker than owl shìt.
The only traction when wet is from the texture created by the flakes, the top coat is like a gym floor when dry and a ice rink when wet. Another reason I sold the business is I could smell the lawsuit if someone driving in with snow on their tires and having water everywhere the next morning and breaking their neck.
In 2021 you could get a good polyaspartic floor for $5.50 per/sf in Boise, Idaho. After paying $20+/hour for labor, fuel, gear and everything else... Not worth it. I sold the business (a franchise) to another guy in town that really wanted it at the time. I made a little more than I had in it, but nothing spectacular. Looked a few months ago and he is out of business. So are the other franchise owners that signed up when I did in 2020 from Phoenix, St Louis, Portland, and Florida. It's a really low margin biz these days and you better have some other revenue streams to bolt on to it to survive.
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I've owned a few houses. Why do some garage floors stay fairly dry and some have condensation certain times of year? I figured this was a good thread to ask with some floor experts involved.
I do agree with that. The Sheetrock guys in our house weren’t too concerned with after they were done, so there was just a ton of hours of sanding or scrubbing on hands and knees. We rented the machine, which did a great job, but doesn’t get up close to walls, which is where most of the mud falls. But yes, getting up old oil stains will be an issue and probably leave you thinking it looks like ****
No Moisture barrier installed
Preferably in Harvest Gold or Avocado Green or a mixture of the 2 to cover all bases:
Yes, make sure if you decide to do it yourself (good luck) you check moisture levels and use a moisture barrier if necessary.
Most any of the epoxy coating will work. Some better than others, better finish, last longer, etc. It's the prep that'll get you, or lack thereof & lack of moisture barrier.
Drylock is good for a barrier & dura grip has some good products. Make sure your barrier is paintable. Some is just strictly for waterproofing.
If you don't know what you're doing, call a pro. If you have to DIY, make sure you clean & prep properly. If water beads up after you've cleaned, keep cleaning.
Drylock is good for a barrier & dura grip has some good products. Make sure your barrier is paintable. Some is just strictly for waterproofing.
If you don't know what you're doing, call a pro. If you have to DIY, make sure you clean & prep properly. If water beads up after you've cleaned, keep cleaning.
Yall have talked me out of it. I'm just going to cover it in flex seal tape
Yeah. After all my training, knowledge, experiences, etc... I'll just go with plain concrete in the garage and spend the money on rubber sheets and gerbils.
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