Clean/etch concrete for paint--- advice needed

[sixdogs]

Despite a thorough search I am now confused about the use of muriatic or phosphoric acid for prepping my 42 X 60 metal walled shop with power-troweled floor. I did my 25 X 25 garage floor last year with muriatic and used Sherwin Williams Amorseal 1000 solvent epoxy coating and it came out great.
The shop floor is inside a pole barn metal building and would likely be harder to rinse thoroughly plus be harder to vent while etching. I use a respirator. Plus, I now wonder about the residual amount of muriatic remaining and impact on my tools or metal building.

I had planned to use diluted muratic acid, scrub, rinse and let dry before epoxy. After searching I am not so sure if that is the right path. Maybe I should scrub the few grease spots with muriatic and use phophoric on the whole floor? I don't know.
I could also just use a degreasing area on the areas with no grease spots. The floor is 8 years old and only oily in a few places. I don't want to grind or shot blast it. I am now thinking to maybe just use a chemical degreaser and call it good. It's basically a shop for auto and farm equipment.
Could someone familiar with this steer me in a better direction than I am now going? Thanks in advance.

 

[Cat_Driver]

Process of painting concrete floors
Painting concrete floors is a considerably long process, and the concrete floor should be prepared before applying paint to the surface.Proper surface preparation is one of the most important processes in painting concrete floors. The concrete floor must be degreased and cleaned before painting the floor. There are various degreasers and degreaser chemicals available in the market for this purpose. Depending on the future use and the place where the concrete floor is located, either a general purpose or a heavy duty degreaser should be used.

Depending on the age of the concrete, it should be checked for any curing compounds used. Newer concrete has various curing compounds which cause interference with the adhesion of the coating on the concrete. Another thing to be checked is the moisture in the concrete. If there are any traces of moisture in the concrete, it should not be coated and painted. Painting should continue only after the moisture is removed, along with the source of moisture being determined and eliminated.

After the concrete floor has been degreased and checked for moisture, the floor should be checked for its profile. If the concrete is hard and unyielding, the paint will adhese weakly to the floor. To have a favorable profile on the concrete surface, the use of an acid etcher is essential. The best profile for a concrete floor to be painted upon is similar to the feel of medium sand paper. There are many acid etchers available in the market for this purpose. Once the acid etching is done with, the entire surface should be thoroughly washed with water to remove any residue of the acid. If available, household ammonia can work as an excellent neutralizer of the acid along with water.

Once these processes are over and done with, the actual painting of the concrete floors can start. Depending on the use of the flooring, the proper paint and coat should be decided upon.

For general maintenance on dry and wet floors, epoxy-based paints are a good deal, while if one needs a non-skid floor, silica sand should be added to the epoxy. Silica sand mixed with epoxy, however, makes the surface difficult to clean. If the concrete floor requires higher security from abrasion and other chemicals, a higher gloss finishing should be used. Such a glossy finishing can be achieved by using a two-component top coat. The quality of the floor coating should also be taken care of. Scrimping on money on anything related to building and construction will only mean more expenditure in the future on repairs and maintenance.

 

[sixdogs]

Catdriver--wow--thank yoiu.
What do you think about using muriatic acid to etch when the fumes or residue can be very damaging to metal? I will be in a metal building after all.
The floor is eight years old adn is not very oily. I planned to industial chemical clean and then power wash. It was power troweled so the finish is not real smooth. Suppose i could get by without an etch or can you think of an etch less endangering to metal?

 

[skipmarcy]

Catdriver--wow--thank yoiu.
What do you think about using muriatic acid to etch when the fumes or residue can be very damaging to metal? I will be in a metal building after all.
The floor is eight years old adn is not very oily. I planned to industial chemical clean and then power wash. It was power troweled so the finish is not real smooth. Suppose i could get by without an etch or can you think of an etch less endangering to metal?

I used some of that Rustoleum epoxy coating for my garage floor 3 years ago and then again in my new shed earlier this year and what they have in the kit is citric acid in a powdered form. You mix it with water and it did a great job of cleaning the concrete with virtually no fumes that I could tell. I liked it much better than muriatic that I've used in the past.

I used a stiff acid brush on a stick to scrub with and then sucked it up with my shop vac. Hosed on some rinse water and sucked that up with the vac. One more rinse like that and like said already, be sure and let it dry enough before painting. I also used it on my front and back porches on the house and I have metal siding (steel) right down to the concrete and after 3 years I see no signs of corrosion.

 

[studor]

I just helped my neighbour paint his 15 year old garage floor with epoxy. We just used TSP (tri sodium phosphate). Maybe just try that first

 

[PA hayseed]

Are you sure you want to paint it? Why not stain it. Concrete stain has evolved dramatically and is now widely available in all big box stores. Besides, stain doesn't ever peel. You still have to clean and etch, you have to do that to all surfaces regardless of product utilized.

 

[sixdogs]

Thank you. I want to paint (epoxy) it to brighten it and make clean-up easier. I have a separate barn for most equipment storage and this is sort of a nice shop plus I may hire out to do work for others and want a real nice image.
I'm going to scrub the floor with grease remover and then try to find some of that citrus or TSP to etch it.

 

[Danno1]

Thank you. I want to paint (epoxy) it to brighten it and make clean-up easier. I have a separate barn for most equipment storage and this is sort of a nice shop plus I may hire out to do work for others and want a real nice image.
I'm going to scrub the floor with grease remover and then try to find some of that citrus or TSP to etch it.

A friend who owns a machine shop, used a Rust-oleum epoxy kit in his office. He used a Benjamin Moore product (M40) out in the shop. The Rusto was junk in days. The BM was bomb proof.

Based on this I used BM M40 epoxy in my garage. It's expensive, but I only wanted to do this once. Has been fine for 4 years now.


Haven't used this stuff, but there's a ton of info on this site:

Polyurethane & epoxy Floor Coatings Options Page | Seamless Epoxy Floors | Epoxy Basics



.

 

[Wineslob]

We make a "safe" system for "painting" concrete.

Duckback Products - Home






moddies, if this violates the rules, let me know, or delete.

 

[dodge man]

I'd recomend etching it with something, but what I don't know. I orignally painted mine without using an epoxy, just plain paint, and it didn't hold up well. I think at that time the concrete was still curing and the mositure coming out of the concrete made alot of it come loose. Then about 6 years later I power washed the entire thing, but there was still some of the original paint left on. I should have either sand blasted it or used something stronger to etch. I used the epoxy paint in the kit that has the little flakes you spinkle on it. It came out great but there are a few places that it has come loose. I think mainly from the concrete being to slick, it had a very slick finish in places. It seemed like it was pretty pricey also, a few hundred bucks to do my 28x30 shop.