Brain Melted: Garage Floor Coating, ver. 327

To be brief, we bought a new home in October that came with a small detached two car garage for me (16.5'x19', ~315 sq.ft). I hated the floor coating that was in there (cheap behr concrete paint in a bad color) so am rushing to get something else done before I have to move all my stuff from my current garage situation in mid-december.

Plan was to get few grinding wheels, remove the paint, and do the polished concrete thing w/ a sealer. Hasn't worked out that way.

First surprise was that half of the floor had some sort of super hard coating already put down (black stuff in pics below). The brick red is the behr paint crap.

After grinding throught it, i'm now into the aggregate. This means that the goal of a solid color of polished concrete is now kaput. It also as the old coating came up, it's become clear the concrete below is not very level and/or has been damage from the coating coming off.

damage:

old coating almost fully removed:

yesterday I got through the last of the old coating, except for a little bit along one wall. Still need to grind the last of the pain only off, but that'll be this coming sunday when we get back from familypalooza-2016: the turkeyblaster.

So that will leave me with concrete that has been mostly smoothed out, except for where there's some damage from the old coating that was too deep, or very small aggregate voids and the like. What it definitely won't be is perfectly level-smooth, more smooth to the hand and for rolling. I don't have the $$ or time to re-pour (or want to give up the height), so that's what i'll be working with. The good news is that it seems very ready to accept a coating. It feels like 400 grit sandpaper, so pretty sure the pores are nice and open to grip.

I had done some searching previously, but now that I'm committed to doing a coating, I've really fell down the rabbit hole and pretty much saturated my noggin. I'd like to get some input from y'all.

Goal is to keep it at or under $2.00/sq.ft. I think this means some of the better/thicker build coatings are out. I would have liked a thicker self-leveling option to help with the unevenness if y'all know something I don't.

Currently thinking this might be the best option after doing some patchwork on damaged areas: http://www.rustoleum.com/product-catalog/consumer-brands/rocksolid/garage-floor-kits/polycuramine-metallic-garage-coat-kit

Comes in around the price point I want and some research seemed to point towards good durability. I figured the metallic would be a good mix between hiding the non-completely-level character but still not be a black whole of specks when you drop a bolt/nut. Plus it comes in blue Also, since it's stocked at lowdepot, I can get it in the timeframe I need for moving stuff in.

Anyone have any experience or thoughts/suggestions/random brainfarts?

Thanks!

That's a 1-car garage, barely.

In terms of me actually doing GRM things, yes, you're right. It's also in a decent DC neighborhood and 1/2 mile from a metro. It's enough for me for now. I planned on doing a build thread in the near future, but no time yet. I'm about to turn 34 and this is the first time I've ever actually owned my own garage to set up and work in how I'd like it.

There's a (2) car pad outside that my wife will use for parking. and my rallyx car parking.

Look at epoxycoat. After skimming threads on garage journal it sounded like one of the best options to me. A 2 car garage (500 sq ft) kit is like $300. It will be more than enough to do a nice thick coat in your garage, and they have a wide variety of epoxy and chip colors.

I would share pics of mine but stuff is blocked at work.

I did a 20x20 garage, my brother and I laid it on a little too thick on the first half started running thin on the second half. Its got a mirror like finish where it is thick, where it isnt so thick, its more of a matte finish, but its obvious the concrete absorbed what was laid down (versus painting over like you see with cheap kits that seem to just peel off after a short time)

I went with black epoxy, its a pain in the ass when you drop something sometimes but it looks goooood.

these guys? https://www.epoxy-coat.com/ and https://www.amazon.com/Epoxy-Concrete-Clear-Coat-500/dp/B00C7VX38Q?th=1

looks like they have a thicker premium version that would be within budget, too. hmmm..

thanks!

Following with interest.

Congrats on your purchase! You have your own garage now

I initially posted pics up of my polished floor, but then took them down because you said you didn't want that.

But then I read through it again, and you didn't like the aggregate. My shop floor is ground and polished, and the exposed aggregate is very sexy.

You will find the pictures and such here:

http://www.gwellwood.com/tools/the-workshop/#polished-floor

If it's even enough, the polish still looks like an good option. Lots of folks intentionally go down to the aggregate for the look. Otherwise, I'd look at epoxy. Personally, I'd skip the budget epoxy and go more industrial. Years ago I had a garage organization business. We used a Pratt & Lambert epoxy. Cost is about $400 for a 2-car garage for a lighter grade industrial - 2 coats. Went on with a roller. The super high solids, self-leveling epoxies go on with a squeegee (although you can build up a little with the lighter stuff). Cost is about double. Your prep looks good for either polish or epoxy - although I'd be tempted to go for a little finer grit. We never had a coating failure. The only caveat. If you weld, epoxy doesn't stand up to that kind of heat. TBH, if you've gotten past any spalling I'd stick with the polish though.

Just curious, what did you use for the grinder? Floor polishing machine or dedicated grinder?

I spent many thousand of dollars to get the exposed aggregate look on my polished concrete floors. It's awesome.

Not sure it'll be even enough for polishing. There is some minor spalling, especially where it came up w/ the old coating. Skinny, do you find yourself "losing" stuff on the floor in the aggregate? that's my biggest concern

I started with a 7" turbo diamond wheel (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0050XGN58/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and it's what i've done most of the floor with. I've also been using a dust guard and shop vac to keep it under control. after about wearing myself out trying to cut through the old coating, I bought a 4.5" PCD wheel. it was too aggressive to really use on the concrete, but I used it to cut through most of the old coating so it was much easier to finish off with the turbo wheel.

grindy grindy!

I also already purchased a foam velcro disk and 200, 500, 800 grit pads.

There are a few spots where the grinding popped a small piece of aggregate out of the floor. Bit of a wee crater, but not the end of the world.

If you keep the floor clean (and you will, once it's polished, it looks SO good), it's relatively easy to find stuff. However - how old are you? The older I get the less I can see the things I drop, the less I care about the things I drop, and less fun it is to get back up off the floor.

Since the floor was done, I've continued finishing the shop, as well as rebuild the trans in my truck, and other minor repairs. I've dropped things, and found them all - so far.

I love the finish. If you've ground it all down, you're so close to done I would NOT put any coating to hide all that goodness. It is so beautiful. It will also add to resale.

Stupid question- will it be warm enough for any sort of coating to cure before you have to move all your stuff in?

bluej wrote: these guys? https://www.epoxy-coat.com/ and https://www.amazon.com/Epoxy-Concrete-Clear-Coat-500/dp/B00C7VX38Q?th=1 looks like they have a thicker premium version that would be within budget, too. hmmm.. thanks!

I went with the standard kit (not the premium), exactly like your second link on amazon, and its still pretty darn thick. I think with your garage being smaller than mine you should have no coverage issues.

And lets be honest, I had coverage issues because it was my first time working with the product, on a hot day, we erred on the side of putting it on too thick on the first half of the garage, by the time we were running short on the second half it was kind of too late to try and fix it as it was already setting, already had chips thrown down.

As long as when you are spreading it out and hitting it with the roller and it and it looks wet, you are good. It should sort of fill and smooth your rough spots easily, I had a couple divits in the floor from god knows what and several of them are now just filled up with a pool of hardened epoxy.

I didn't do the clear, I figured if I did that it could have made up for the areas of thin epoxy on mine and would have turned out glossy everywhere. At the time, I needed to get my stuff out of storage and just decided to live with it for now. Well that and SWMBO was not exactly interested in me dropping another couple hundred bucks for the garage floor when there is plenty of other home projects we need money for.

I have since put in a lot of shelves and I could easily shuffle stuff out of the way to clean and clearcoat the floor in the future.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: Stupid question- will it be warm enough for any sort of coating to cure before you have to move all your stuff in?

This is pretty much what I'm realizing will screw me up right now.

There's a clear protective coating that cures down to ~35* called NOHR-S that's looking like may be the best option. purchase: Nohr-S polyurea review/info: Nohr-S infos

Process would probably be:

-finish turbo cup grinding
-fill small voids w/ an epoxy filler. better to have a grey spot than a cavity I think.
-proceed w/ the 200/500/800 pads
-probably due a dye process. something that's just pigment only. TBD
-proceed w/ polyurea coating. Can be tinted, so that might be the way to get the tinted clear look instead of dye first, then clear coat.

End goal would be to keep aggregate look, but lighten up the overall color (something like sky/electric blue would be ideal per my tastes, see:username ) but w/ the overall look of a polished concrete. that process make sense?

Skinny, I didn't see (may have just missed it), did you put a sealer down? Also, I'll be 34 next month. Also have good eyes

thanks!

Yes, there is a penetrating sealer.

You could keep the aggregate, but stain it a colour you want before you seal it, maybe?

I just did the rock solid kit for my 6x12 root cellar, and you will want at least three stalls worth for a two car garage. I was able to stretch the single car kit to cover the floor, but it isn't as thick or as good a coverage as I would like.

bluej wrote: It's also in a decent DC neighborhood and 1/2 mile from a metro.

50-year mortgage? What neighborhood / cross-streets? I grew up in Takoma Park MD and went to high school in DC. drinking age was 18 back then...

SkinnyG wrote: You could keep the aggregate, but stain it a colour you want before you seal it, maybe?

I think this will be the final answer. looking into water vs solvent (acetone) based dye systems now.

AC, We're in Brookland now. Well, on the northern part, almost michigan park, right up michigan ave from the metro. I work in Silver Spring and my wife is halfway down georgia ave from there, so we looked pretty heavily in Tak park. Came really close to pulling the trigger there too. it's a nice place. My wife's office used to be on the little main street. Thankfully no giant mortgage on the new place. My wife has been in DC for 16 years and bought when she first got here, so she's been able to ride it up.

I comparison shopped a bunch of different polyurea options and am going to be going w/ Nohr-S from legacy industrial. The "300 sq.ft." kit is $360 shipped to me w/ their blackfriday kit deal (10%), which includes 3 gals of nohr-s, 1 gal of nohr prime, and grip mix-in. Not the cheapest, but looks like a great value for the product you're getting.

Still need to figure out a dye/stain solution for beforehand, but legacy has said it works well over them.

Interested in how this works out for you. Keep us updated.

A bit late to the party, but what about sticky backed vinyl tiles? They seem to be more durable than most of the coatings I've seen and they are replaceable when they are damaged. You can choose the colors and styles, etc.

Another thought would be the interlocking plastic tiles like swisstrax, etc. Not cheap, but they seem to be a pretty awesome solution that would be easier to install.

failboat wrote: Look at epoxycoat. After skimming threads on garage journal it sounded like one of the best options to me. A 2 car garage (500 sq ft) kit is like $300. It will be more than enough to do a nice thick coat in your garage, and they have a wide variety of epoxy and chip colors. I would share pics of mine but stuff is blocked at work. I did a 20x20 garage, my brother and I laid it on a little too thick on the first half started running thin on the second half. Its got a mirror like finish where it is thick, where it isnt so thick, its more of a matte finish, but its obvious the concrete absorbed what was laid down (versus painting over like you see with cheap kits that seem to just peel off after a short time) I went with black epoxy, its a pain in the ass when you drop something sometimes but it looks goooood.

When first reading their list of colors the Bright Red sounded pretty nice, but then I saw it required 2 coats. Second thought would be the Bright Blue (Assembly Blue.) Definitely considering this come springtime as I just got my house with 2 car garage. (est. 20'x22' ish.)

I have a polished floor in the shop at work which is about 7500sqft and it is awesome. The building is old (97) and we work on semis so it gets a lot of use but they filled any spalling with an epoxy then ground and used a chemical stabilizer. We are four years in now and maybe 35,000 oil changes and it has held up well.