Painting Garage Floor Pro/Cons How?

[NY_Yankees_Fan]

We are thinking of painting our 2.5 car garage floor after 16 years of dust and looking at plain concrete. We have the normal oil stains, etc for a garage of this age and usage. What is the best way to prepare the surface, and paint? Oil vs. latex vs. epoxy, etc. Any good web sites for info on this? OR are we asking for a maintenance headache with painting the garage floor?

Thanks in advance for your help.
/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Rick Jay]

Are you still using it as a garage for your cars? If so, I think eventually the tires tend to scrub off any paint. I painted our garage floor once (about 12 years ago) using a paint specifically designed for that application. It looked nice for a short while. What seems to happen is that when the car is parked on the paint with the tires warm, when they cool they contract and "grab" the paint. Eventually there were a bunch of spots where the paint was removed.

It did seem to keep down the "dust" that concrete generates.

Maybe the newer paints are better. If you really want it to look nice continually, I think you'll be making it an annual project.

~Rick

 

[thcri]

Tom,

I don't have much experience on painting garage floors. One thing you do want to watch is the type of material you use that will prevent being slippery when damp from the moisture. I have seen too many garages that are that way from painting or even sealing.

murph

 

[WCarlson]

I have had better luck with the two part epoxy paint than with the "garage floor paint" you buy at the local hardware store. However, even it doesn't last forever. I have had to spot it and then put another coat on every couple years. The floor has to be clean and then etched with muriatic acid. The two part epoxy doesn't lift when a hot tire sits on it the way the vinyl does and it is impervious to most normal garage chemicals, on the other hand welding slag will burn it. Problems show up when formerly spalled concrete that has been patched exudes what looks like a salt. It causes a bubble that lifts a spot of the epoxy then you have a patch job coming. Regardless of the minor problems, a couple years wear beats what I have had with vinyl and beats the concrete dust and oil stains I have had without paint.
The next time I do it, I am thinking of trying the two part from Griot's Garage. It looks pretty good.

Bill

 

[normde2001]

I have had pretty good luck with Home Depot's "Behr" one part epoxy garage floor paint. The most important thing is preparation. Wash the floor down with "TSP", and muriatic acid on bad spots. If water beads up on the bare concrete, paint won't stick to it. If the paint is properly adhered, the tires won't cause it to lift, however I use rubber mats, (also Home Depot), under the tires to resist wear and rubber marks.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

>>>We are thinking of painting our 2.5 car garage floor after 16 years of dust <<<

I too have not had good luck with painting the garage floor, hot tires ended up removing the paint. To keep the dust down you can use a product such as Thompson water seal,(cheap), or better yet go to your local concrete supplier and purchase a concrete waterproofer. (expensive). They have different types of sealers some made for marine applications, bridges, airports, etc. It is a clear liquid that usually comes in 5 gallon containers and you spray it or roll it onto the floor. First coat is sucked up right away by the concrete and subsequent coats take longer to be absorbed. No shine, nothing slippery, but helps to keep the dust down. Of course you want to thoroughly clean the floor first. Really seals the concrete. Cost is about $125.00 for a 5 gallon container. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif I would try the Thompson's product first (Home Depot) and see if that does the trick for you. Certainly for a few dollars it can't hurt. Good luck!

 

[Anonymous Poster]

My wife and I applied two part epoxy to our garage floor four years ago. We park our cars in the garage every night, no tire pickup yet!! The acid etch process is the most important step. I added sand to the epoxy to improve traction, when wet, works well. One thing I found out, the hardway, epoxy will not standup to welding. However, my next garage will have an epoxy painted froor before I move in.

Goodluck

 

[timb]

Anybody have any experience with the stuff from "Griot's Garage"? I've gotten their catalogs for years and always thought their garage floor paint would be a nice touch when I build a new garage.

Griot's Garage Paint

Tim

 

[CTyler]

One of my neighbors painted his garage floor. This guy is as nit picky, clean freak, do it by the book as you can get, very **** retenetive.

I don't remember the name of the product he used. It was designed specifically for garage floors. It had multiple stages for prep work.

Anyway several months afterwards paint(epoxy?) started coming loose under the tires where he parked his car. I know the company came out, investigated and gave him money back.

He has fixed it few times, the rest of the floor is ok though.

I have seen several floors that have been painted and they have all had problems. However...The only one that I KNOW was preped correctly was my neighbors.

 

[ELMO67]

I, too am planning to HAVE my garage floor painted. I did a lot of research for this subject, one of the better, I think, products appears to be a true two part epoxy or polyurethane paint. The people I spoke with recommended grinding the floor, not acid etching it. If the flood is very smooth as mine is, apparently an acid etch will not make the surface coarse enough, where grinding it will. They use a large diamond impregnated rotary machine to do this, not something you could rent easily or cheaply. The "system" as it is called, is either a 3 or 4 coat deal with a fine grit silica added between coats. The silica is added not only as a slip protection, but supposedly it gives a lot of impact protection to the floor and coating system. The estimate for a 3 coat 28x 28 floor and a 10x12 foot storage area was approx. $2600 /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif. It sounds expensive, but it really did look like a quality route, I think that the durability factor is a plus, also I don't really want to spend the time it would take to do 3 coats of a paint with extremely toxic fumes. The paint is marketed by Sherwin-Williams. The people that came out to give me an estimate were from a company called Aviation Flooring, they mainly do aircraft hanger floors. They have a web site, aviationflooring.com, based in CT. Good luck!