garage floor coating

[Dobi]

I am looking for a coating to lay down in the new pad. The garage is 30 or so years old so the concrete should be good and cured....

I spill lots of oil and fuel on the floor and the Mrs drives her car in and out all year round so needs to be durable.

What are the recomendations?

[mitcho]

depends what you are looking for. in my youth i worked with industrial floor coating applications and a 2 part epoxy with a grit/color of your choice seems to be quite good as far as cleaning and durability. just hose it off. we did a dodge manufacturing facility in Ontario along with numerous warehouses and shops. gives traction when the floor is wet, and is totally water proof. the downside, once mixed ya better get it on because when it starts to cure it goes quick. this can be delayed slightly by adding xylene (lovely stuff) to thin it out. to do it yourself wouldnt be that bad if you were shown how to apply it properly and would save you a bundle on contractor fees.

[rogue]

I bought Home Depot's Best and it was garbage. It peeled when you drove your car on it and the trells destroy it. Make sure that you really want to do this and then spend the money to get it done right.

[steve-o]

Make sure that you really want to do this and then spend the money to get it done right.

I agree.

One issue is that you have a 30 year old slab that has been exposed to and has soaked up gas, grease, oil etc. over the years. No matter how clean you think you have the floor these items will still exist underneath and tend to make you have similar experiences to Rogue.

Spend the money on a good heater, shelving and orgnization stuff, motorcycle gear or parts and if you must have something on the floor then buy a lay down rubber type floor and you're golden!

[dirtyboy]

Costco sells the rubber floor stuff but it seems very expensive to me.

[WR_Dave]

Steve-o is right, we had our old shop floor done at work a few years back and after paying $60,000 to have it "done right" the old oils and greases just kept creeping up into the floor coating solvents and it started to come off in chunks. Now we had a seriously bad floor. If you have to do something, I would make sure you build everything so the floor is basically accessable and then use an oil field indusrtial paint on it, so you can repaint every few years, you gotta clean it out once in a while. Be warned that this type of coating gets pretty slippery with anything on it. One other thing, if you put puck board around the bottom part of the wall , you can hose the place out quite nicley. JMHO -- WR Dave

[thirtyseven]

If your going to paint... Clean it out with acid first(remove car bicycle or anything precious first, your KTM should be ok)

[markvfr]

If your going to paint... Clean it out with acid first(remove car bicycle or anything precious first, your KTM should be ok)

Just make sure you wear goggles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqfOxm_1BE0&NR=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[markvfr]

This is a good thread, and I'm also interested in available products. I'm in a different boat from Dobi, as I will be pouring a brand new pad for my new garage, thus will not have the problem of old spills in the concrete. What would you suggest for a brand new concrete floor?

Thanks.

[Dobi]

I found this (Jay Leno uses it)
http://ucoatit.com/pgs/main.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There is a distributer in Okotoks. I read the instructions and may wind up grinding the top layer of concrete off and starting fresh.

I am going to buy the cleaner first and see if I can get the floor cleaned to satisfaction....

[markvfr]

Hmm, I looked up the reviews on UCoatIt and came up with a mixed bag. Here is one thread thats interesting and lists a few alternative products.

http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/u-coat- ... 49398.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Wolverine product looks like the way to go. From my limited research, thats my front runner.

[350scott]

The other option, which I have been considering is using a garage tile. Note, if you use quality tiles it is no cheaper than epoxy.

http://www.fastflor.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.racedeck.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mitcho]

those garage tiles look real good....

[dirtyboy]

I used to use the acid to clean the floor and then paint it in my shop at work a while back. We used to paint the floor every year or two.

[luckykiwi]

Cloverdale has a really good two pot epoxy, commercial quality , we have used it on shop floors, but as the other guys said you must clean the floor really well..just remember its like ice in the winter so warn the wife , mine ended up on her butt...my fault of course,,,