Floor finish in the tractor garage

[Patches]

Thanks everyone, the comments were helpful.

It comes down to a few things to consider:

- Smooth floors are easier to clean but can be slippery when wet.
- Many coatings are suspect to wear, chipping, or hot metal when welding, grinding, etc.

I decided to go with the epoxy floor and see how long it stands up for my particular needs. There is a garage mat I could get should it be slippery.

I sanded a few areas where a lump formed by inadvertently including a bit of dirt, etc, before applying the final coat.

Attached are a few pictures, including aforementioned canine who saw nothing wrong with hopping over the barrier to come and find me - or tracking epoxy coating on my brick cobbles, either.



We'll see how this one holds up.

Cheers,

Jon

Jeeze, thats for your tractor; I was just going to ask when I might move in :thumbsup:

 

[joe48]

ditto

becareful how smooth you make it when trowelling, because when you add sealer or epoxy it maybe TOO smooth, and you might fall on your a-- when its wet. don't askhow I know.

ditto: yep I found out the hard way. also if going to be high traffic area with lots of dirt grease welding etc. don't waste your money on epoxy, cause even the best won't hold up to that abusive use it's only on the surface. put on a good silicon sealer ( ask your concrete supplier for recommendations , they often carry it) , put it down when concrete is still green , usually in one or 2 days is best. It will soak in and provide long lasting protection and can be touched up and won't be noticed, cause it looks like bare concrete.
Also save yourself money and use fiberglass (fibermesh) inside of rebar and wire mesh. Much easier to pour and work without all that stuff to trip over, and you'll have fewr cracks and don't have to put as many joints in a large slab. Most mason contractors around here all do it that way now for floors.

 

[powerpace]

I see you already did epoxy. The problem soon to found out is dirty tires and gravel chewing away. FEL and other attachments being lowered and chewing away. I would go with the rubber mat under the the tractor. I bet it looks good.

 

[o2batsea]

I guess that epoxy will be OK. It certainly looks pretty. For something that small I would have considered it, but in my case the size of the barn makes it too costly. Besides, knowing what's what now the barn is built, I wouldn't have done any sealing or treatment anyway. The tractor and all the other wheeled vehicles come in often so muddied up that I have to shovel up the mess with a square point after it has dried. I would have gouged the finish off or at least made a mess of it by now. In addition, I can always just hose the thing out when it gets too filthy.

 

[PA hayseed]

Thanks everyone, the comments were helpful.

I decided to go with the epoxy floor and see how long it stands up for my particular needs. There is a garage mat I could get should it be slippery.

I sanded a few areas where a lump formed by inadvertently including a bit of dirt, etc, before applying the final coat.

Jon

Loooks good to me. You will be able to see in there better now, depending on the sheen of the sealer. I did my basement with the el cheapo lowes stuff and it added a tremendous amount of reflective light.

Did you get all of the epoxy off the dog?

 

[JonKioti]

Well, the floor has been down for a year now and apart from a tiny spot where I dropped a hammer claw first, it looks the same as it did when I put it down.

Although I had occasional water on the floor, I took care when walking on it after Joe's sage advice and never had a problem.

There is much more light with the reflection from the floor.

The dog's paws eventually came clean, however the paw prints on the paving bricks outside as as clear as ever.

We didn't get much snow this year, but each time I backed the tractor in to 14 degrees C, it was great to know any snow would melt off.

Cheers,

Jon