GARAGE FLOOR PAINT

[frank_f15]

ANYBODY had any experience with paint for garage floors? my son want to paint his new garage floor. was looking at epoxy paint at home depot.

 

[Cliff_Johns]

I know it smells terrible. I know you have to prep the floor very carefully. I know I would have someone else do it who had the proper breething aparatus, the epoxy for garage floors is really nasty. Do make sure the stuff you use is designed for garage floors (which you probably already know, but it never hurts to say.) because the regular stuff can pull up with hot tires even if it is epoxy.

Cliff

 

[Knight9]

Frank,

There have been a few threads on here that my help. Check out Covering Garage Floor and Garage Floor Options .

Good luck.

Kevin

 

[r0GuE]

They were out of the garage floor paint at Lowes and the counter girl (what was I thinking) told me that it was the same as the porch paint. She mxed it up for me, and we painted the floor (oil based). I have been hauling it out to the highway ever since (on the tread of my Jeep rubicon).

Now I'm wondering if I could even paint over that with the epoxy, or if I need to peel it all off. I may just say the heck with it and live with the uglyness to avoid the pain in the butt and the chemicals... /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[JimR]

Should your son paint his floor. Make sure he adds sand to it. There is nothing worse than walking on a painted floor with wet feet.

 

[Junkman]

Paint it once and you will be painting it forever after wards. I would use a concrete sealer and not use any paint of any form. I have never seen a concrete floor paint that would stick to the concrete for any length of time. I believe that it is the chemical composition of the concrete that causes it to lift. My clear concrete sealer hasn't lifted in 20+ years.

 

[Poppa]

Personally, I can't see spending the money to paint a concrete floor. Unless it is the finished floor of a house and as appealing as that is to me, my wife would say it is too cold. Regardless, Junkman's post has me wondering if maybe sealing the floor first and then painting might not be a good idea.

Mike

 

[PineRidge]

A know-it-all who lives in the neighborhood painted his new concrete garage floor using the 2 part epoxy. He was bragging about how it would keep his floor clean and good looking. He's been in the home now about a year and it's already coming up on the high traffic areas. Guess he didn't know as much as he thought he did. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[frank_f15]

we seem to think alike /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif i am trying to talk him out of it, a garage is a garage, keep it clean, but paint ? i am not sure of! different generation i guess /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[r0GuE]

The reason we did it was that it was already painted and peeled and patched and just looked horrible. Now that I realize that paint doesn't stick, I'll just start saving up to replace the floor. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[Junkman]

get a floor sander or put down a paint remover and then clean up the residue with muriatic acid to clean the rest of the cement. It will be a messy job to do, but it is better than spending what it will cost to remove the old floor and then pouring a new floor.

 

[r0GuE]

I may do that dor the interum, but the floor is pretty shot. It was once heated and the pipes have cooroded and froze and broke the heck out of it. I patched it last year with vinal patch, but it still looks terrible.

 

[dieselsmoke1]

Mine's been down about a year now, covering garage floor , still holding up good. My floor was fugly, now a showpiece. I would definitely do it again.

Lots of work to do it right. Good luck if you decide to try.

 

[Junkman]

I was talking to a paint manufacturer representative this past weekend, and I learned why paint doesn't stick to the garage floor where the tires come in contact with it. He told me that when you enter the garage with the car, that the tires are "hot" and as they cool, they contract and pull the paint from the surface. I believe that this explanation is correct, because I remember my parents home where the only place that the paint was missing on the garage floor was where the tires came to rest on it when the cars were parked over night.

 

[r0GuE]

My Jeep Rubicon has GoodYear MTR's on it. They have BIG tread. Typical mudder type if you can picture it. The peeled it right up and left a tread pattern on the floor. No doubt in my mind that what you say is correct about the contraction.

 

[jinman]

I'm not sure how it's done, but I've been in a lot of corporate jet hangars that have beautiful floors. I know it's an epoxy compound, pretty thick, and some I've seen even look like they are clear-coated. Whatever the process, I'm also sure it's pretty expensive. Since landing gear tires get very hot, are under tremendous weight, and have a large surface contact area, the "stuff" on those floors must be pretty rugged. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[em14]

Frank,
I would suggest that you talk to a paint company tech. I did and I am glad I did. I talked with a Sherwin-Williams tech and he even came out to look at the shop and make suggestions. First off there are coatings that will resist the "Hot Tire" problem ... they are used in Industrial applications such as Hangars, Automotive Centers, and so on. The ones that I talked with him about were Epoxy and Urethane. The application of the epoxy coating is one were you needed to watch the humidity closely. If the floor is new there is usually no need to etch the floor with acid. Just use a rotary sander. Like the old floor waxing machines and use 60 or 80 grit mesh and slowly sand the concrete. What you want to do is to break the surface so the coating has something to hold on to. Incidentally, this is how you remove the coating or prepare the floor for a change in color etc,. I don’t want to get into to much detail as every product has a set procedure for surface prep. I would stay away from using acid if at all possible because if you aren’t careful you can cause all the metal in the garage that is not protected to rust. Again, go to a paint company / coating company and get them to have a tech contact you. Then have him come to your site. Then make your selection.
I’m happy with how mine turned out. I installed it myself. I was in a hurry to get the floor protect and our humidity when I wanted to install the coating lead me to a S-W Urethane Based Coating and since I am not going to have a Hot Tire situation in this shop every thing is fine. BTW, you should cover the “control” joints with a flexible joint filler and be sure to get into the method of installing this. I can see my joints but I have to look a little bit and nothing like nuts, screws nails can fall into the crack.
Good luck,
Leo