Garage floor coverage recommendations

Looking to give my garage floor a new and cleaner look. It's 25 years old with some minor cracks and some older oil stains. Also has some pitting in areas from dreaded road salt. It's your typical three stall garage nothing fancy. My goal is to have a clean looking and durable coating that can withstand all three stalls being used by either vehicles or two somewhat heavy rolling carts. A huge factor is the road salt that MNDOT loves to use like it's going out of style. Yes cost is a major factor but I'm willing to spend a reasonable amount. I'd like to do most if not all the work myself. Looking to see what's worked well for you as I know it won't be a false advertisement for a product that doesn't work.

When I built my shop, I paid extra for a fancy coating to be put down that was supposed to make it VERY resistant to oil spills and the like. "It's a bit pricey" they said, but it sounded like a very good idea - the slab guys put it on. Turned out it freaking DISSOLVES under gasoline, so that was no good.

I debated about a DIY epoxy coating for my shop floor, but I questioned the durability of it. I understand it can be somewhat of a gamble applying to old, stained, concrete. It's still a "coating," which means it may not last forever, and will likely burn with welding slag and such, or scrape off dragging a 454 on a pallet. If the coating fails, what do you do? Grind it all off?

I have a friend who does concrete floors for a living. He met with me to talk about polished concrete, and he brought a colleague who does Polyaspartic coatings. This coating guy's business card had a picture of a sweet set fo Snap-On cabinets, sweet flooring, and a Maserati. Clearly outside my tax bracket. He said the Polyaspartic is the next step up from Epoxy, and the be-all-end-all of coatings, except it, too, will likely burn from welding slag and such. The Polyaspartic was going to cost me $11/sqft(CDN), which would have been over $12,000 in coating. Clearly outside my tax bracket.

I decided to go with the ground and polished concrete. First step was grinding with diamond, then densifier/hardener (which totally worked - drilling holes for the lift and the mill you could feel that the first couple inches were harder), then sand to (in my case) 400grit, then polish. It can still stain (especially if a spill stays there a while, but it won't burn or scratch or come off. The aggregate is visible, and adds a cool look to the concrete. I really, really, REALLY like the floor. It ended up costing $3/sqft(CDN), still more expensive than Epoxy, but it won't fail.

Pics and write-up here: http://www.gwellwood.com/tools/the-workshop-3/#polished-floor

I have been jealousy reading about cheap to expensive coatings for the garage floor for years. Knowing that I will accidentally destroy it in short order my solution is to periodically coat and recoat with zinsser water based primer sealer.

It's not hard and scratches every time I drag the tree stump/railroad anvil combo across it... But it sticks incredibly well to the damp,oily, dusty, crusty old floor no peeling or chipping. Recoats dry overnight generally.

Reflects loads of light and makes dust sweepable, only $16 a gallon. My ²¢

How much to have the garage floor bed-lined?

Vct is nice, until you spill gas on it.

Porcelain tile would be my choice, with very small grout lines.

I used to do garage flooring. Epoxy will burn from weld spatter, but otherwise pretty tough if you prep well and use quality materials. Another alternative is elastomeric coatings - same burn issues from welding, but creates a membrane that helps with fluids and salt issues. Personally, I like a good polish and sealant. You can also stain it for some cool effects.

We used the Rust-Oleum garage floor epoxy available at most places when we had a new 2 car garage built about 15 years ago. It's not a very heavily used garage but it's held up well enough and does the job of giving the floor a smooth non-porous surface for wiping up oil spills. Didn't use the colored flakes it comes with. It has cracked with the concrete and chipped in a few places from heavy jack use but overall happy with the result. For a used garage I suppose you could wash and/or treat with muriatic acid before applying.

Home Depot is your friend. They have rolled gray vinyl in a diamond plate pattern. It's easy to install (as long as you don't let it sit in the truck in the hot and stretch) It can be removed or cleaned under very easily. It is also easy to clean.

I'd post a pic but you have to hotlink for this forum (how 1990) so I can't, but trust me it's cool, cheap & easy!

carguy123 wrote: Home Depot is your friend. They have rolled gray vinyl in a diamond plate pattern. It's easy to install (as long as you don't let it sit in the truck in the hot and stretch) It can be removed or cleaned under very easily. It is also easy to clean. I'd post a pic but you have to hotlink for this forum (how 1990) so I can't, but trust me it's cool, cheap & easy!

I was looking at the rolled vinyl today actually. I wont be living in this house the rest of my life so having something "portable" that I could roll back up and take with to the next place would be nice. The other thing in this climate is not only the salt exposure in the long winters here, but the high humidity in the summers is very visible in the concrete, in fact it actually gets wet to the touch if it's humid enough. Makes the garage feel like a green house It's like a living breathing thing. I just don't see how a spray or roll on product (unless it's priced really high) can stick to the concrete with much permanency when all that moisture is pushing upwards year after year (plus road salt in the winters).

I have also wondered about bed liner as mentioned. I don't think I've seen anyone try it on concrete, albeit old well worn concrete.

Armorpoxy is the popular product with the Garage Journal crowd. They have a range of products, and you can get pretty elaborate but their SPGX seems like the most budget friendly option (around $0.65-0.75 per sqft).

I used the industrial two part epoxy available at paint stores $500 covered my 700 square foot shop. I acid etched fresh cement then let it dry for two weeks, it is really stuck on. If it chips it's because the cement under it chipped. We use the same stuff at work, on oily old floors after a good sanding and scrubbing with a floor buffer it sticks to those also. I added the shark teeth antislip powder, it doesn't add a texture but makes it less slippery when wet and oily.

In reply to drainoil:

Are you sure the moisture is coming up through the concrete?

If it's humidity in the air, the concrete may be absorbing the moisture from above. Floor coating or sealer would help prevent this.

If the moisture is actually coming up, then you have a problem with moisture under the slab, which is a completely different problem, and any floor coating or covering will make it worse.

BTW, there are concrete moisture test kits that will tell you if the moisture is coming up through the slab or not.

In reply to plain92:

My ex- did her garage floor with Rust-Oleum kits. Her garage is about 900 ft2 and she ended up using 4 kits to get decent coverage. Like any painting project, she said the prep was the worst part. It took her about 2 weeks between the prep and painting, doing half at a time and moving things from one side to the other. I haven't seen it in person yet, but it sure looks nice in pictures.

For a working garage, I still like a stain. I have tried several epoxies and haven't had great results.

I looked at epoxy and other coatings. But since I do metal fabrication in my shop none of them will hold up. If you don't mind the look of concrete your best option is a densifer and concrete protector. I used Prosoco Consolideck Densifier and concrete protector for my 24x30 shop. The big draw is I applied it all with a 2 gallon garden sprayer. No polishing or other steps needed for it to work. And the sealer still lets the concrete breath so no moisture problems lifting a epoxy. They make stuff specifically for salt also. May be worth a look.Consolideck

SVreX wrote: BTW, there are concrete moisture test kits that will tell you if the moisture is coming up through the slab or not.

I was unaware of this, thanks for adding this info, I will look into this before going any further.

And all of the responses so far are so very much appreciated! I knew I'd get great info here.

drainoil wrote:

SVreX wrote: BTW, there are concrete moisture test kits that will tell you if the moisture is coming up through the slab or not.

I was unaware of this, thanks for adding this info, I will look into this before going any further. And all of the responses so far are so very much appreciated! I knew I'd get great info here.

They should be available as cheap kits from the big box stores- probably in the flooring department.

It's essentially a piece of plastic you seal to the floor and give it some time. It will condensate on the bottom if the floor has a high moisture content.

Usually high humidity would result in a damp surface (condensates on the cold surface), not soak in deeply, but that might be a little different if your slab is more porous than normal.

There's tons of reading about garage floors on the garagejournal.com board. I haven't gotten into it too far but I think that polyurea coatings are supposed to hold up better than epoxy - don't quote me on that. I think a polished and sealed (or stained) floor would be a good choice as well. Porcelain tile is pretty indestructible (look at Jack Olsen's garage, he posts here occasionally as well as on the garagejournal.com board) but I'd be concerned about the grout holding up in a northern climate with salt and road slush

I did the polyurea in my safe room on brand new concrete and even using the whole kit for a one stall garage the coating on the 6x14 floor is thinner than I would like. I had planned on doing that room and the utility room with two one car kits and now I'm thinking it's going to take four to do the whole works. The coating is nice, though, even after rolling a couple large safes across it, but it doesn't get a lot of traffic.

I had a well used garage floor with some stains and also a crack that pretty much run all the way from one side to the other. Wanted a floor covering to cover the stains (mostly rust) but most of all to make the floor easier to sweep and not absorb fluids. Looked at epoxies but knew the floor would be well used and was afraid of scratches, weld spatter, etc. Also didn't want to spend a lot of money.

Ended up using Behr Concrete Sealer with the consistency of water and mixed it with a light gray concrete floor paint per Behr instructions. Before painting did a heavy duty scrubbing of stains and then pressure washing with 3100 psi pressure washer. Then washed down floor with diluted muratic acid at about twice the recommended mix. Then pressure washed again.

I let the floor dry for a few days with help of fans and no one walking on it. Then applied two full coats of the sealer/paint mix and spread out what was left over. Let dry for a couple days before moving stuff back in garage. Floor has been down 10 years and has been very durable and accomplished all that I wanted. The light gray covered stains and really brightened up shop with the overhead flourecent lights. Like all paint jobs the prep work is the key to a good job. This is not a shiny perfect floor but works for what I do. I suspect all in it was less then $150 for a 20' by 20' shop although that was 10 years ago.

I used POR-15 on a previous floor and was pleased with the results and how well it stood up over time. It was also easy to apply and didn't require quite as much prep to put down.

racerdave do you have road salt issues? I've seen a fairly rusty truck frame that was bathed in POR-15 and after several MN winters it's held up rather well. If that's any indication of their floor products that may be the leading contender at this point.

We don't have road salt, I'm in north Alabama. It held up really well in my normal usage, including jack stands and sliding and throwing things around on it. It was easy to apply too. Mine was the tan color. I did not use the flakes that came with it, but I did put the anti-skid stuff in it and was pleased with the result. Oil would come off with a wipe of a rag. I would use it again without hesitation.

In reply to jackson73 :

Have you had any problems with your Canoe since hiring them?