Concrete floor finishing?

[v8dave]

Attached is a pix of my 30'x50' shop with the walls up and ready to set out the roof trusses. The walls are 10' high and with the scisors trusses it will have a a greater that 12' clearance in the center 1/3 of the building. This will allow a car lift to extend fully and have nearly 6' clearance under the lift. The shop has 9'x16' and a 8'x8' vehicle doors. The 8x8 is in the back and is for the tractor. The shop has a bathroom, but other than that it is currently a clear floor.

Before I build an enclosed work area in the back, I want to seal the concrete floors. I don't want oil stains from my projects and old cars to mark the floor permanently. Not to mention the abrasive concrete dust of an unsealed floor.

I don't particularly want to put down lineoleum floors. The best way would be to epoxy paint/seal the floor. But that is fairly dangerous (slippery) with oil and antifreeze spills. In fact epoxy is even slippery with plain old water.

So, what is the collected wisdom about sealing concrete floors? What do you: 1) recommend, 2) how to apply it, and 3) Any gotchas about your approach?

Dave

 

[JJT]

About 8 years ago I sealed my garage floor with a clear water based sealer from either UGL or DAP, water still beads up and any oil drips from an oil change, wipe right up.

I put the stuff in a bug sprayer and sealed the 1000 sq feet in about an hour. If memory holds it took ~4 gallons

 

[v8dave]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( About 8 years ago I sealed my garage floor with a clear water based sealer from either UGL or DAP, water still beads up and any oil drips from an oil change, wipe right up.

I put the stuff in a bug sprayer and sealed the 1000 sq feet in about an hour. If memory holds it took ~4 gallons )</font>

Good idea, how did you prepare the floor before the application?

Dave

 

[shade2u2]

I just had a floor poured in my barn/garage which is very similar to yours but a little smaller. We sprayed the concrete with 'SprayNSeal 25' by Chem Master to cure and seal the floor just after the pour. This product is recommended & supplied by the concrete company. I was concerned about the floor being slick after the sprayed on layer turned out to be pretty smooth, so a couple of days later I applied another coat with a roller instead of with a sprayer. The roller left some texture though nothing that I would call "gritty". You may try a thick mat roller or any that may leave a bumpy texture...

 

[dmccarty]

Shade2u2,

What kind of sprayer did you use for the ChemMaster? Was it just a plain old pump up sprayer? We are building our house and the concrete guys rolled ChemMaster on the floor but did not do a very good job. Spraying might work better than rolling.

Thanks,
Dan

 

[Egon]

A 50/50 mixture of boiled linseed oil and kerosene will seal it also. Can be applied by a hand sprayer.

Egon

 

[Cliff_Johns]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( A 50/50 mixture of boiled linseed oil and kerosene will seal it also. Can be applied by a hand sprayer.
Egon )</font>

How long does that take to dry? Seems like it would leave a greasy feel forever.

Cliff

 

[ikline]

If you have any more pictures of your project, could you post them. This is the exact size I was thinking about starting later this year. thanks

 

[Egon]

It takes afew days.

Egon

 

[hockeyhead]

Any company that deals in floor paint, including the box stores; lowes, home depot etc. will have additives to add all the texture needed. by the way nice out building.