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Planning on epoxiing my garage floor this weekend. Going to clear out and prep tongiht and paint tomorrow.
Looking for peoples experience on the best brands that can be bought at a big box like Lowes, Home Depot, Menards, Farm & Fleet. Anyone have experience with this?
It seems rustoleum or behr are the brand they show on the websites maybe have a fwe more in store.
As a pro in this business, I would advise you to save your money for a better quality system available over the counter at pro paint stores.
Unless your garage floor is brand new (30 day old concrete) with a medium steel trowel finish for the surface, you need to do a lot more prep than the box store epoxy kits indicate.
At a minimum, a thorough high pressure washing to remove all surface dirt and grease or foreign matter is essential. Don't bother with an acid prep, it's not very effective and is difficult to control.
What you are seeking is an open, porous, accepting, clean & dry concrete surface. This is accomplished by steel shot blasting (Blast Trak or comparable equipment), or by grinding with stones (an Edco grinder or comparable equipment). You should be able to find "surface prep" equipment in your yellow pages, or perhaps even a contractor with the equipment who can do the prep for you at a modest charge per square foot.
The kits at the box stores I've seen don't have a good primer/conditioner coat to go under their top coat. At a minimum, you need several mils of the conditioner, followed by a minimum of 5 mils of top epoxy coat. For better durability and performance, especially if you are driving your car directly into the garage from driving it at higher speeds in warm weather ... more mil thickness is better to resist hot tire pick up of the coating system.
I prefer to top seal my epoxy garage floor projects with 2-3 mils of catalyzed two-part urethane. This give a much better chemical and abrasion resistant surface than epoxy, and also gives a better surface if you are broadcasting chip flakes into the epoxy surface for cosmetic performance.
For people who want to go as inexpensively as possible, I will do a two-coat system at minimum thickness but will give them no guarantee for performance or durability. If they want a better job that will look better and last longer with a guarantee, then a three-coat system over proper surface prep is required, and I will put down the 100% solids epoxy primer at 250 sq ft/gallon, the 100% solids body coat/color epoxy at 150 sq ft/gallon, and the 97% urethane at 300 sq ft/gallon.
Take a good look at the label of the product you are considering buying. The % of solids is what is staying on the floor, so if you are looking at a system with low solids, much of what you are buying is a solvent (which can be petroleum or water base these days). That greatly affects the actual installed mil thickness of your floor, and thin isn't good. With water base epoxies, you cannot exceed the application rate of the manufacturer or you'll have discoloration, if not trapped solvent and uncured material in your floor.
Install tips: pour each coat out in a measured area for the product that will not exceed what you can apply in 20-30 minutes. If you pour it out in a snakelike fashion, you can then squegee the product into a fairly uniform layer very quickly, followed by back-rolling the product without overlapping to help level the product. What I mean by not overlapping is that you cannot "walk" your roller strokes over from one to the next; you must take a stroke with the roller and then pick it up off the surface to move it over to the next stroke for each and every stroke. You must be consistent for your strokes; if you prefer to pull the roller toward you, do that on every stroke.
You will have to walk on the surface, so have your old steel golf spike shoes on, or a pair of those gardening spike shoes. When you come off the epoxy surface, be sure to step onto clean cardboard placed for the purpose so you're not tracking little dots of epoxy around the worksite. Allow the product to cure enough to accept the next coat per manufacturer's instructions for your product system, then apply the next coat.
Be sure to mask your edges ... I just visited a train terminal that had been epoxy/urethane coated and they didn't mask the baseboard at the edge of the terrazzo floor. So all around the edge of the floor are roller marks where the high gloss urethane is showing with a big gap of the old dull surface tile between where the roller hit the wall and the floor. Looks like a kid who didn't know any better did the install ... but it was done by a high dollar outfit that doesn't know what professional is.
For those who want a single coat system over an acid washed floor, I will not do those projects or sell the materials. It's a recipe for failure on most floors where a car will be driving on it.
FWIW, Rustoleum does have a very good commercial quality line of concrete floor epoxy systems. I would suggest that you contact their local distributor to the flooring trade to buy this line of stuff rather than the home use kits in the box stores. Similarly, you should be able to find S-W or Benjamin Moore product readily available in their pro stores. There are, of course, hundreds of labels selling into this market segment for pro use, mostly made by a few major manufacturers and the rest is either private labeled or from very small suppliers mixing stuff up in the back room of a paint or coatings store. Do your due diligence when buying this stuff in your local marketplace ... the prices are all over the board these days and the quality levels do vary quite a bit.
Please don't use anything from the big box stores or even the paint stores unless you want to be patching it because it will not hold up.
I was a superintendent for an epoxy coating, concrete restoration contractor for about ten years and can tell you that nothing will hold up from a big box store or paint supplier as good as an industrial product.
Find a Sika supplier in your area and purchase there product. I guarantee that in the long run you will be happier and have less headaches.
First you need to clean the area you're epoxying. The best way to do it is to pressure wash it and let it dry.
Then apply a coat of epoxy damp proof primer and let it tack up, about a 1/2 hour. Then apply your epoxy and broadcast the color chips on it as you're coating it.
I also advise you to purchase a pair of spiked shoes from the same supply house this way you can walk on the surface when it's wet and not mess up the surface or destroy your shoes. Do worry they are cheap and worth every penny.
Like I said I guarantee you will be so much happier doing this way. Here is the web site for Sika, you can contact them and find out who is there supplier in your area.
The most important thing to remember when using epoxy in to get it out of the bucket and onto the floor as fast as you can. If you take to long it will setup in the bucket and you will have to toss it.
What I do is mix it and dump the whole bucket on the floor and use a notched squeegee to spread it out then walk back and broadcast the color flakes on top , this is why you need spiked shoes.
Ditto sunspirit and busta, they know of which they speak, can't add to that.
I'm a painting contractor with over 30 years in the biz and have heard (and seen the results) nothing but bad feedback from people about any of the big box/consumer/homeowner products. I have been asked several times to "fix" a weekend garage floor project gone wrong and my answer is always a flat "no." Not only that...you make a poor decision right off the bat, you are pretty much farked going forward with a mess on your hands. I will not do a job like that... coatings sold in big box stores will not hold up for more than a year.
With paint and coatings you get what you pay for...Glidden, Rustoleum et al used to be good products but sold out to the big box store allure and are pretty much crap now...Behr has never been more than medieocre/poor paint marketed to ignorant homeowners from the get-go. Go to a real paint store where real painters go...there is a reason that professionals steer clear of big box stores.
Look into concrete stains - like anything good, more money and more work. You are absolutely not going to get a good-looking job if you use anything from a big box store for this project and it WILL NOT be a weekend project!
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yeah I'm pretty sure they stopped selling their garage 'epoxy' brands. thet got some matte paint know - which I think is not too bad for $30 and if the floor is not for cars.
I tried their garage epoxy before and the whole thing just peeled when winter came
Interesting...these guys obviously know what they are doing, i don't dispute that. Nevertheless i must pass on my experience. I don't think it really conflicts but maybe an exceptional case that (so far) has walked a fine line.
Self applied, in a NEW house and garage floor (maybe poured 4-6 months before..that is an estimate) using a Rustoleum kit from one of the big box stores...has held up pretty well in a few years in PA, which is probably a pretty harsh environment with the heavy road salt that they use. The only visible defects (there are very few and they are small) result from dropping something sharp and heavy ... probably would chip bare concrete too). The rest of the finish looks great so far.
Disclaimer and possible explanation: we have used pieces of scrap cardboard under the tires of most of the (3) cars pretty well year round. This year I realized that isn't great in the winter in PA and I think that while the floor holds up well, the constantly wet/damp cardboard may not be good for the car to sit on.
No scientific conclusions here, just anecdotal evidence.
Interesting...these guys obviously know what they are doing, i don't dispute that. Nevertheless i must pass on my experience. I don't think it really conflicts but maybe an exceptional case that (so far) has walked a fine line.
Self applied, in a NEW house and garage floor (maybe poured 4-6 months before..that is an estimate) using a Rustoleum kit from one of the big box stores...has held up pretty well in a few years in PA, which is probably a pretty harsh environment with the heavy road salt that they use. The only visible defects (there are very few and they are small) result from dropping something sharp and heavy ... probably would chip bare concrete too). The rest of the finish looks great so far.
Disclaimer and possible explanation: we have used pieces of scrap cardboard under the tires of most of the (3) cars pretty well year round. This year I realized that isn't great in the winter in PA and I think that while the floor holds up well, the constantly wet/damp cardboard may not be good for the car to sit on.
No scientific conclusions here, just anecdotal evidence.
LOL quit putting that cardboard under your tires and I'll bet you will find your floor coating stuck to your tires.
Just wanted to report back. First, if I were in my dream house I would probably consider hiring a professional but prices are crazy I only plan on being in this house for another year or two and my neighborhood is kind of low end so won't reap the money back on a sale, same as I woudlnt' with granite countertops or other high end finishes.
My garage is a one car so not too big of a space, I don't park a car in there just my motorcycle, want it to be kind of an additional hang out room, put a tv, pingpong table, couch, maybe have a little workshop area so its not like I have a car leaking fluids, or snow or salt falling off of a car.
My garage floor is probably about 22 years old, concrete seems very porous. I kinda skimped on some of the prep work and did the job half ass but actually surprised how well it turned out.
I cleaned out the garage, swept out the garage, powerwashed, took a metal wire brush around the garage. DIdn't use any etcher or degreaser just water and some dish soap. Let it dry and then vacuumend.
I bought Behr brand stuff at Home Depot for $74 comes with pretty much everything you need. They say its for a one car garage but only if you go on really thin. Your supposed to trim out the garage first. My concrete lip around the garage was really soaking up paint so ran back to the store bought the cheap 1 part epoxy and used that to trim out hte garage.
That stuff sucks doesn't coat at all and doesn't cover color at all. Then started painting with the behr stuff. Surprised how well it covered. Was scared of running out so wen ton thin for hte first 1/4 of the garage then realized it was going to last more than I thought and started coating heaveir. Was doing like 4x4 spots sprinking flakes and then moving on.
It's still drying but I'm pretty happy with the look. It's a little streaky in the first quarter I went on light but still drying so we'll see. Like i said mine is going to be more a room than a garage and cant speak to how it holds up to weather changes but happy so far. I'll report back when I go look at it today dry and in a good light.
If anyone has any questions about the process or the product just ask.
If I had more time and more money I would rent a one of those concrete grinder, just grind off the top layer power wash the garage and be ready to paint rather than try to clean off paint and oil with degreasers and etchers and then have to wash out. Just seems like a lot of work.
Also, if you are going to get a store kit stick with the berh, dont get spending $300 for big box products.
If you want a really good long lasting quality job and product step up to the 100% epoxies that are going to be $500 plus or hire a professional at probably $1500 plus.
My point I dont think there's a whole lot of differenc in quality between the $74 product and the $200-$300 product. Also, if your going to go cheap Behr has a higher % of solid epoxy than Rustoleum.
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