Garage - New construction, Floor coatings and Car Lift opinions / Ideas?

[gnihcraes]

I’d go for it on the DIY epoxy. I’ve done 3 garages with very good results. I did my Mom’s old house in 1992. It still looked great when she sold it in 2016. The only place with a nick in the epoxy was where I slipped with a pry bar and actually gouged the concrete floor.

I used Sherwin Williams Tile Clad II. I just checked with the industrial products store here in Loveland near the local airport last week and the Tile Clad product is still available. They can tint it to virtually any color. You can add chips if you like that look. Or you can add silica for traction... or you can just go with the product itself and be careful when there’s snow on the ground. You can also pick the sheen—from roughly eggshell to gloss.

For what it’s worth, I just used the product itself with no additives for traction in my Mom’s garage. She ranged in age from 55 years old to 79 years old when she was living with that floor and never complained about it being too slick. In fact, I recently offered to re-do her new house garage floor to add some silica and she doesn’t want it! Stubborn old bird at 81 years old. She likes to be able to mop the floor and is afraid the traction additives will make it hold the dirt.

Even though your floor is new, I’d suggest at least doing an acid etch. Muratic acid is readily available and not as scary to work with as it sounds. You’ll also need to wait some period of time before coating your brand new floor. Buy the rollers the guys at the Sherwin Williams store tell you to buy. I tried some el cheapo rollers one time and they melted—leaving a fuzzy, gooey mess in my white floor. Whattamess!

If you sign up for the Sherwin Williams loyalty club thing, they’ll send you coupons periodically for 30-40% off. I think you should be able to get the price down to $1.50/foot. Whatever you do, DO NOT use the crap the big box stores sell. It WILL flake off and it’s a pain in the rump to remove it and start over.

Definitely a DIY-able task if you’re at all handy around the house. I’m going to be doing around 1000 ft. worth of garage space at my house sometime this summer if I can find the time. I’d be happy to talk with you about it if you’d like to PM me your contact information. I’m not affiliated with SW in any way—just a satisfied customer.

Thanks! I believe my father has an account with SW and could get a bit better pricing.

If I were doing a new garage I’d opt for dyed concrete. Worked in a shop once that was done that way and it was awesome compared to all of the shops I’ve worked in with any kind of coating. The problem with most of the coatings is they will scrape off or peel up. Drag a floor jack across it and your pretty floor probably won’t be so pretty anymore.

Interesting, hadn't given it much thought. It probably will depend on time and who's doing the floor work. I'll have to talk with my contractor. He's a two man show and I'm sure he's farming out the finish concrete work.

https://protective.sherwin-williams....3aproduct-6878

This stuff.

It holds up to all kinds of abuse. Torch slag, welding slag, chemical spills, etc. Although plasma spray has left some surface damage. A floor jack won't even begin to touch this stuff when it's applied right.

I've never seen a coating hold up better to abuse than this.

Although, as with all things coating related, the quality/longevity of the coating is only as good as your prep.

Brand new concrete will be pretty easy to get a good coat on.

Older stuff needs to be prepped really well...

Thanks, I'm Looking into it! Yes, I'd prep to whatever the directions say to do. New or old concrete. My old garage would need some cleanup etching, and I might just use the cheapo DIY stuff on it. Thanks!

Look at porcelain (not ceramic) tile. It’s what all the car dealerships are using now. You can get them nonslip, extremely water impermeable, harder than concrete, and on a good day, <$2/sqft. Make sure to back butter and respect your expansion joints.

Hmmm are we talking about normal floor tile or something more specialized? I've done lots of tile work around the house and not sure I'd use any of it for a garage floor. That would be a few long days of setting tile. ha.

I used the Rust-Oleum Pro kit for my shop floor when it was new. That was two years ago. I couldn't be happier with the durability and looks of it. But...the concrete still needs to be etched for best results, even if new.

I drag tools around, I drive a tractor on it, I weld in my shop, I use a plasma cutter, I'm constantly pulling a steel-wheeled car jack around, have a motorcycle lift I move around, drop tools, wood, etc., on it...it takes a lot to even scratch it. Even dragging sharp steel pieces across the floor it hasn't cut thru to the concrete yet...just a surface scratch here and there. It's also impervious to diesel fuel and gasoline as far as I can tell. And, it's reasonably priced.

I did it myself. It was a good day's work but it wasn't difficult. The hardest part was getting the color chips spread evenly. You can also buy a bag of "no slip" stuff to throw on top. Etching was the most labor intensive because you have to really scrub the floor to get the best result. I used some kind of concentrated citric acid stuff because I was worried about poisoning my dogs and ruining the lawn. Worked fine.

Attachment 74368

Cool. I'm not going to be gentle on the flooring/garage, but not abusive either. I might only coat the workshop side and leave the car lift bay side concrete.

I’ve also used the rustoleum with great results. I’ve used it in three different garages with good results in all. If you use chips, throw them as high as you can and they will disperse as they fall and give pretty good even coverage. My thought has always been that if it starts to flake I could buy an additional kit for touch ups under $100, but I’ve never needed to. I drag a floor jack across mine all the time.

No surprise, your results will be based on the quality of the prep.

All good information! I appreciate it!

One thing I know is that "Painting" a floor isn't an option. I did that years ago in the house basement floor and it just never lasts. A painted garage floor would look shitty pretty quick.


I just want to figure this out before I have to start moving stuff from one garage to the other and building workbenches and stuff. Hopefully new concrete cure times and floor coatings can be done fairly quickly. I'd like to do something or nothing before moving crap in.

[CoGirl303]

these guys are worth a look.


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[Eric P]

I'm gonna be the engineering ass here.

Its concrete, not cement. Cement is the grey powder used to make concrete.

Concrete is about $150 per cubic yard. Going from 4 inches to 6 inches shouldn't cost you more than 1 cubic yard for most conventional garages. This price is for high quality concrete, ask for CDOT Class D concrete.

4,500 psi with a maximum water to cement ratio of 0.45 and a 5 to 8% air content is code for concrete in Colorado to resist freeze thaw damage. Most residential concrete contractors cheap out.

If exposed to salts, solvents or other corrosive materials you need a concrete with fly ash and low water to cement ratio to reduce permeability. 4500 psi concrete with these adds no cost with these. Fly ash also eliminates efflorescence and a chemical reaction with salt. Outside denver metro. Aggregates react with cement, class f fly af is needed to mitigate this reaction.

Joining should be a maximum of 2ft per inch thickness to reduce cracking potential. Joints should be at least 1/3 the depth of the slab. To really minimize cracking and hold any cracks right, add MACRO fiber reinforcement. 5 to 7 lbs of fiber per cubic yard. Adds about $10 per yard. Could also eliminate jointing and rebar.

Most important, the finishers should NEVER add water to the surface during finishing. Water increases the water to cement ratio at the surface which leaded to scaling/flaking of the surface when exposed to freezing or salts. Finishing should be minimal, over working concrete may make it look nice, but also cases the same thing for concrete exposed to salt or freezing.
Curing, should always occur. Cover with a wax based curing compound or wet burlap for 5 days. The burlap must be kept wet. If curing compound is used, it must be applied so that you see no grey.

Sorry if this insults any contractors here, but not following these or cheating out on materials causes the most distress to concrete in Colorado. You see it every day.

[Eric P]

Waxing the concrete is a good option also. Helps seal the surface to keep oils from penetrating. Easy to reapply or patch.

[NFATrustGuy]

I want Eric P to come act as on-site supervisor and ball-buster the next time I have concrete poured! Highly knowledgeable and great info! I think I'm going to save your post for future reference.

[crays]

Its concrete, not cement. Cement is the grey powder used to make concrete.

It was put to me this way, many years ago (from another eye-rolling mud guy), and it stuck with me:

Cement is the what's in the box you buy from Betty Crocker, Concrete is the cake you eat after preparing it properly.

[JohnnyEgo]

I had a polyaspartic floor put in by Mile High Coatings when I moved here in 2010. All the damage to it is self inflicted, where I've dropped heavy things that have torn up the supporting concrete. Hasn't chipped or peeled even in these areas. Has held up very well to a lot of Colorado winters worth of dirt and mag chloride. My neighbor rolled out a Rustoleum based DIY the same time I had mine installed. It's peeled off quite badly.

I will say the look is quite different between what I have and what my neighbor did. His was pretty smooth. Mine had a mega-ton of flake that gave it a bit of a gritty feel, like really fine sandpaper. Plus, I didn't have to do it myself, which was a plus on the time-value of money side of things.

My one bit of caution would be that new concrete can absorb a lot of the base product, so don't go on the coverage estimated on the can if you are going to do it yourself. I'd plan for 50-75% of the estimated coverage, tops.

What my floor looked like when it was minty new:




Still looks decent after years of hard use.

[Bailey Guns]

Rust-Oleum makes different products. The standard product doesn't seem to be nearly as highly thought of as their Pro line. I used the Pro product. My experience with it has been good enough that I'd not only recommend it, I'd buy it again if I had another floor to finish without even considering anything else. My guess is if someone has had a bad experience with the Pro line they didn't prep the floor properly...in which case it isn't going to matter what they used.

ETA: Whatever you go with, make sure you let the floor cure long enough so it's dry enough to put the product down. There are various methods for testing moisture levels, some scientific, some not so much. Ask your concrete guy (or EricP) for tips on this.

[ray1970]

Still looks decent after years of hard use.

Setting your toys on the floor to take pictures isn't what I'd call "hard use".

[JohnnyEgo]

Haha, true. It was the only picture I could find within the last year where the floor wasn't covered in dirt to make the judgment. It more commonly looks like this until I get really cranky and hose it all out: