Garage Floor Finishing Ideas

[Halon]

I've been cleaning my garage up, and well one of these days I really want to do something about my gross floor. I've considered using garage floor pain, but my floor has a lot of small chips in it all over, a small crack, so I've always wondered how paint would turn out. Plus the floor is fairly dirty/greasy, so it'd need a hard core cleaning which I'm sure I'd have to pay someone to do which I'd rather not do. Plus you need to wait a long time for it to dry, and I don't want everything just sitting in my driveway for a week.

Someone once told me about some sort of garage tiles that you can lay down. Self-adhesive tiles, and you just stick them down 1 by 1. Anyone ever used those before? How do they hold up to jack stands? Cherry pickers rolling around? Oils and chemical spilled on them?

Just looking for some ideas I guess. Thanks.

[TkrPerformance]

I have the peal and stick 12x12 black and white tiles in my basement. they are not that thick and jack stands would go through them

[GREASEMONKEY]

They sell a coating made just for garage floors that works awesome, There are kits like this one:


http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...7&marketID=101

Or they sell just the coating itself at home depot, Or like bumper 2 bumper, etc..

This stuff works the best IMO, Tiles will crack and chip. The kits they sell come with a degreaser / cleaner that you can just put in your pressure washer tank and blast away. Or you can buy them separately as well.

If you want durability and a semi good looking garage floor this is the way i would go.

-Stephan

[turbotalon1g]

You've seen my place its the stuff at menard's was fairly cheap too.

[Speedfreak]

Saw these garage floor mat at Sam's Club, looked interesting for a garage. May be a good option for you.

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/pr...ategoryId=1064

[Halon]

Thanks for the comments! I've decided to just try the floor paint/epoxy like a couple of you suggested. I purchased all my stuff from Lowe's. I'll post up some pics of the progress in case it helps anyone else in the future. My digital camera has apparently been ganked so I need to get a new one, and will then share the pics.

Here is what I bought from Lowe's today:
- Rust Oleum 1-stall epoxy paint kit which include ($65):
2 part paint mixture
flakes for sprinkling on the floor
etching acid
- 1 packet of friction powder to mix with paint
- 1 Gallon of cement degreaser
- cement repair goop
- cheap plastic disposable putty knifes for the cement goop
- 1/2" nap rollers
- roller and extension
- cheap disposable roller pan
- stiff brissle broom

Total bill was $120. I am borrowing the pressure washer for free from my uncle.

Basically here is the process I'm going to follow:
1) Degrease & pressure wash the cement floor. Let it dry overnight.
*COMPLETED*
2) Repair any cracks/chips with some cement repairing goo. Allow to dry for 24hrs.
*COMPLETED*
3) Etch Cement using etching acid and stiff brissle broom.
*COMPLETED*
4) Pressure wash (no degreaser, just water) a couple more times to try and clean out any etching acid that may still be down in the pores of the cement Allow 24hrs to dry.
*COMPLETED*
5) Mix together the paint (I also got some friction powder to mix in which is supposed to help keep it less slippery). Apply 1 coat of paint to the floor.
*COMPLETED*
6) While paint is still wet, sprinkle the flakes that came with the Rust Oleum paint kit
*COMPLETED*
7) Allow several days to dry/cure before driving on.


Something to add is that I have a 2 stall garage, and live in a townhouse complex. The association would prolly blow their lids if I moved all of my garage contents into the driveway for a week. So for now I am just doing half of the garage (which is why i only bought the 1 stall kit mentioned above). I've moved everything to one side of the garage, and will just be doing one half. Once that half is done, I'm unsure if I will do the other half immediately, or wait until summer to do the other half. To complete the other half, I already have degreaser and the cement repair goo. So all I will need to but is another $65 paint kit, and some cheap putty knifes and a roller pan and rollers and I'll be good. In the end should total out to about $200 all said and done.



So, as of today Step 1 is complete. I used the degreaser and pressure washer, and got a good cleaning done of half the garage. Will get some pics once I get a camera. It's not perfect, but as good as this old garage floor gets I think.

[asshanson]

Nice, what are the advantages to this epoxy paint stuff? Easier to clean up spills and such?

[Halon]

exactly. Cement absorbs stuff, making it stain easy, and hard to clean up or keep clean. With the epoxy coating, you just wipe stuff of with a clotch, or a mop. Makes clean up way easier.

[asshanson]

Nice, I may have to do this since it's brand new bare cement here and my dumb motor mount even put a stain on the floor that sucked to get out. Would be easy since there is no repair work, just etch and coat.

[Halon]

I've "heard" coating new cement may not be the best idea since it still has moisture in it. I have no experience to prove that, just what I've heard. Apparently it's a good idea to wait a couple years before coating it.

[slowbubblecar]

I think it would be better to do the whole thing at once. If you waited a while to do the other half, it might not match or could look funny. Also, would you plan on overlapping the 1st side slightly when you did the second side?

[Halon]

I really can't do it all at once. I'd have all sorts of crap in the driveway for a week, and the association would go ape shit.

I do plan on doing about 55% of the garage on this first run, then there may be a slight overlap on the other half. I completely agree it's not idea, but it's how the cookies crumble for me i think in this situation. I also do not plan to live here forever, so I think it'll be fine for this house. WHen I move out in 5 years, and move into a real house, then I will take the time to do it all at once. But just don't think it'll work in this situation.

But thanks for the thoughts. And if anyone has anything to add to my little method I will be following, please say it because that's just my method I figured out after reading a little online. If I'm missing something, or something is wrong, let me know because this is my first time!!

[hellomynameis]

Porcelain tiles, VCT, or Epoxy paint is pretty common. Though, careful what epoxy you go for, some are really cheap and if not done right are pretty much guaranteed to peel and flake, especially from hot tires and moisture in the concrete.

Read up here: http://garagejournal.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=20

[turbotalon1g]

I've had mine for a few years now and it looks almost good as new, lots of dirt and grease are in it from me being lazy.

However, you should return your stuff as Menards is having a sale on the rust-oleum epoxy stuff for $49, I saw it last night on TV.

I also like Menards because they give a 10% military discount.

[rose0529]

Originally Posted by turbotalon1g

However, you should return your stuff as Menards is having a sale on the rust-oleum epoxy stuff for $49, I saw it last night on TV.

I did see that in the print ad as well, but i bet lowes will price match it if you bring them the ad, give you some money back.


Good luck on this project im interested to see how it turns out, this is something i would like to do as well, sometime here.

[Halon]

Thanks for the tip Aaron, I will definately try to get my hands on the Menard's ad, and see if Lowe's will price match.

As for the military discount, my wallet was stolen and my old military ID is now gone, so I can't take advantage of that anymore

[s1ngletracker]

thanks for posting info on this. It gives me a good idea of how much it will cost and what is involved. Really wanna do this...

[Halon]

Apparently the Lowe's formula is different than the one Menards has on sale. The one I have is labeled as "professional" so they didn't honor the price match. Oh well whatever.

I have step 2 completed. I've applied a cement repair goo to all the cracks/chips. There were a lot actually, but hopefully it works out.

If it all seems to be fairly dried by tomorrow, then I will etch tomorrow. If not, I will let it dry another day before etching.

[Halon]

Sorry, my digital camera has gone missing, so the best I have right now is shitty cell phone pics. But here is what it looks like after degreasing/pressure washing, and cement repair. Like I said in the very first post, I had a lot of little chips

[Halon]

Just got done etching the garage. I always heard about how bad the fumes were, but really it wasn't too bad with a fan on and the garage door open.

I basically bought a flower watering bucket. Filled it up with water and added the etching acid packet to it. Evenly applied it to the area to be painted. Let it sit for about 5 minutes. Then used the hard bristle brush to scrub it in. Let it sit another 5 minutes, then pressure washed it off, followed by squeegeeing. It's air drying now. If everything seems good, I may paint it tonight, or tomorrow.

Couple pics showing the acid going into the flower watering jug. Then a pic of the half of the garage wet with the etching acid soaking in for a little while.