Garage Floor Paint

**Phat Tuna** · 03-05-2008 11:08 PM

rustolium garadge floor epoxy. I Etched, they recomend not to dry throughly dry and I applied one thick coat. Even sprinkled the little paint chips. Seven years later I am not getting peeling where the tires are but a little wear. The only word of caution it is VERY slippery when wet! Do not run into the garadge after you have been in the pool and expect to stop.

**hotrodmarlin** · 03-06-2008 11:30 AM

I sell commercial and industrial epoxy systems and I'm not sure about many of the "homeowner" products you guys are talking about.
Most of the products you are all talking about will probaby work just fine.

the best advice I can give: Spend more time cleaning and prepping the slab
than anything else. 90% of the failures I see are contractor error due to poor surface prep. 9% is the wrong product for the application. And much less than 1% is actual product failure.

acid etching: if you do this make DAMN sure you flood the floor and mix some baking soda with some water to neutralize the acid and flood the floor more. If there is any acid left on the floor you will get delamination of the coating.

actually, epoxy will normally stick fine to moist concrete. The problem is the transmission of vapor and moisture trying to "get out" after you cap it off.

This is unrealistic to do in a residential garage but Polished concrete is taking over epoxy and urethane systems in serious garage areas. you basically polish the concrete with diamond polishing discs and you can take any plain concrete to a glossy shine. There is nothing to pop up, it's resistant to water and oil and it don't get slick either. Very expensive to get into but the market is growing bigger every day. Here are some pics of the JKS motorsports job we just finished.

**rarhomes** · 03-06-2008 11:48 AM

Nice::

How come the polishing does not expose the aggregate?

Do you put something on it to protect it after it's polished?

Do you have any more info?

**Double D** · 03-06-2008 01:52 PM

Hotrodmarlin - you do nice work. Whatcha doin next weekend?

Thanks for the tips

**Gringo** · 03-06-2008 02:03 PM

Great job.

And I cannot even find someone in this country who can install overhead garage doors. I got three brand new ones that are just about totally screwed from people who don't know what they are doing trying to install them. I never even got to use them.

**hotrodmarlin** · 03-06-2008 02:42 PM

Rarhomes- pm me and I'll give you my number or I can send you some stuff if you are really interested. Yeah, sometimes the aggregate shows. Some people want it to show so you basically shave the concrete down to get to it and then polish. The look really depends on the concrete and the guy finishing it so if it is a new job planning on polishing, you can get whatever results you want. If it's older distressed concrete, you never really know until you start.

To get the best results, there is a chemical hardener used that basically reacts with the concrete to densify the surface even more. It's the same stuff they use on Lowes and Home Depot floors without the polishing process.
There is some wax like stuff that is sold to keep the shine but I really don't see the need for it. A 3000grit polish will look great for years without doing anything.

For epoxy there's something I forgot to mention- you can use old golf shoes with the metal spikes for putting it down if you don't want to buy epoxy shoes.

**StalkerOutfitters** · 03-07-2008 07:25 AM

I used the Sherman Williams two part in the warehouse and my garage at home with excelent results. The system is simple and has held up extremely well. That is in florida though so I would check with them on your climate.