Your Garage Floor

Ron Earp · 08-10-05, 11:08 AM

I finally got tired of using carpet on my garage floor and dealing with stains. So, I got Pat Barry, a forum member here who deals in garage floor and hangar floor coatings (really any industrial stuff) to help me out. And, help out he did!

He set me up with a multi part system that while is labor intensive is a very nice system. So, I was able to go from this:

to This (actually one more coat to go in this picture, the top color coat):

In about four days. The stuff seems very durable, comes in many colors, and is definitely different from the Home Depot stuff I've used before. Takes some time, but it is well worth it and this week while working on the Spec Miata I've had a few Valdeez spills but no trouble cleaning them up!

Shoot Pat a call or email if you need some floor coverings, the stuff is good!

Ron

Johan · 08-10-05, 11:26 AM

My big questions are:
1, Big fat Avon slicks are sticky. Too sticky for this floor ?
2, Can it be applied over a previous coating and still work ? The previous coating is a clear epoxy (Behr) over a bonder primer.

Your floor looks GREAT!

Johan · 08-10-05, 11:30 AM

Sorry, that was supposed to be THIS picture.

BenL · 08-10-05, 11:45 AM

What is the price of that stuff per square foot?

How much surface prep do you need to do? My concrete floor currently has a 10 year-old two-part HD expoxy floor paint that is flaking off in some areas.

Alex Hirsbrunner · 08-10-05, 12:30 PM

Hi Ron,

What did you have to do with respect to previous oil/fluid spills (of which I have many!).

Thanks,

Al

Ron Earp · 08-10-05, 01:20 PM

Fellows, I don't know all the answers but I can tell you a little about what I did.

Pat said prep is key, and having tried the Home Depot stufff and Behr I know that whay they claim as prep isn't enough. Basically, I etched my floor with straight muratic (hydrochloric acid) acid. Not dangerous, just wear gloves and have a lot of fans. I did this three times, until it would not bubble any more, then rinsed.

This stuff lifted the oil up (unless you have really big stains, then you should use concerte degreaser first, then etch) and left the surface rough, like 120 grit sandpaper.

Then went down two coats of primer, pretty thick stuff. These were allowed to dry over night, each one. Then went down two color coats, polyurethane, one Saturday night and one Sunday morning. The color coats were different colors and different from the beige primer so that you could be sure you got 100% coverage.

In the end, the floor looks very nice and seems to be holding up well. I am pretty sure it won't peel with tires, but I want to see what happens with chips and heavy metal things hitting the floor. I think it'll be okay.

Cost I'm not sure per foot. I had a lot left over, I could have done a garage much larger than mine pretty easily, so what I spent for my size was probably too much. I can't remember exactly, but around $700-$800 for the stuff and it would have been less had I been more careful in measuring. I have two gallons of primer left over and one gallon of color, but I'll keep it for touchup when needed.

I would not put it over a previous coating, although Pat might chime in here and say okay.

Jim Holden · 08-12-05, 12:37 PM

Ron:

Approximately how many square feet did you cover?

Jim

PS: Looks great.

**patbarry** · 08-28-05, 11:24 PM

Geez Ron, thanks for the accolades! I was just down on my hands and knees cleaning the oil and grease off my floor after engine assembly (I am not the neatest person in the world).

Let's see if I can remember the questions. You can go down over other paint, but it is highly variable. A Ron mentioned, prep is critical, so whatever you do now is only as good as what you did then. You can check to see whether the new paint will lift the old by getting a rag wet with MEK and wiping back and forth 25 times. Re-wet the rag, do another 25, and so on until you have wiped this small area 100 times back and forth. If the existing paint is hard and did not soften, you should be able to paint over it. If it did soften, you probably shouldn't paint over it, but if you really want to, there are other products available that don't readily lift old paint.

Will it chip if you drop tools? I have to say yes, but I pay my floor no respect and it is still holding up very well.

Cost per foot in materials for what Ron did is about $0.80 per foot (that's on the high end). Sundries will eat up another $100 or so.

Hot sticky tires? The worst is hot and wet (no comments, please). I always recommend waiting 7 days before parking a car inside. But if you've cleaned the floor well, the paint should not come up.

Again, thanks for the nice comments Ron. Sorry about extra material - you must have put it on too thin (or imagined your garage is bigger than it really is!)

Ron Earp · 08-29-05, 04:25 PM

No problem on the extra, it was just about 1/2 gallon of color and 1 or 2 cans of primer. It is thick enough, but I think I was off about 4 feet in length on the garage and that would do it.

Ron