Garage Floor Coatings

[Virgil Perkins]

Would appreciate opinions regarding the pluses and minuses
of Polyurea and Epoxy coatings for cement garage floor., especially if you have had experience with either. Thanks in advance, VP

[Mike Baillargeon #15848]

Virgil,.... Is a product like Race Deck completely out of the question?

Mike

[Virgil Perkins]

I am not familiar with that, Mike

[David Greenburg]

Race deck is a hard plastic tile.  Whether a tile of one kind or another  or coating is best depends on your personal circumstances and how you use your garage.  I’m trying to decide which way to go in a new (to me) garage. I had a PVC tile in my last garage, which looked great, but was not completely watertight, and fluids would get trapped underneath, and did show some tire staining.  If I go the coating route, it will be polyurea.  If you really want to geek out on this question,  there are sites like Garage Journal where you could probably spend a week reading threads on what is the best coating or tile for a particular situation.

[TonyZappone #2624]

I have had experience with epoxy.  I have a marginal job on the new house I built in Saratoga Springs 11 years ago.  To cut to the chase, and eliminate a lot of useless discourse, the biggest problem comes with the preparation.  The concrete must be etched with acid, and then coated with epoxy covering.  From my experience, and experience with a friend, the breakdown comes with the acid process not being neutralized properly after the etching process.  When this happens, the epoxy does not adhere properly.  Somewhere near you is someone who does it right, whose past work can be inspected, and whose customers can attest to the quality of the job

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

How would it stand up to a steel-wheeled jack running over it with the front of a car sitting on the jack?

Bruce.

[76eldo]

For what it costs to have a professional epoxy coating done and the time in between coats and having to empty your garage, Racedeck is a great option.
You can design your own layout and it’s very comfortable to walk on.
You can use a floor jack on it and even roll an engine hoist with an engine on it with no problem.
The big problem with any paint is stains from gas spills and  other fluids.  Also tires peeling the paint off after sitting for a while.

This stuff is the best option in my opinion.

[Mike Baillargeon #15848]

I also kinda like the flexibility of a Race Deck type product.....

In that if I have relocate to a new garage, you can just pull up the floor and take it with you to the next place....

Mike

[Jim Miller]

I had my floor done with epoxy professionally, simply because of the prep work. They went over the floor with a giant sanding pad, applied a leveler, color, sprinkles, UV top coat. Very nice has held up very well cuts down dust easy to clean. The only drawback, on an unsealed concrete surface the water from rain or snow soaks into the concrete (which doesnt do it any good long term). Once the floor is completed, the water and snow lay on top and you have to squeege it out. Its been down 7 years now.

[Bob Kielar]

My opinion polyurea is better then epoxy. It has a impact rating of 400lbs epoxy is 100lbs and is more flexible and uv protected. Polyurea is the basecoat then they do a Polyaspartic top coat. There is a wide range of colors available. I just had a quote done for my new garage and it's about $4.75 a square foot not cheap. For new concrete it has to cure for 45 days. It only takes a day for the installation you can walk on it after 12 hours place heavier objects after 24 hours drive on it after 48 hours. I did another new garage with the brand you get from the big box stores and it peeled in two years. We have the polyurea in a two car garage for are daily drivers no problems at all. We live in Wisconsin where they use a lot of salt. It also came with a lifetime warranty for peeling and chipping. If you want more information this is the company I hired TSR concrete coatings web address is www.tsrconcretecoatings.com.

Keep Cruzin,

Bob Kielar

[carlhungness]

      If you have ever worked on a wood floor you'll never go  back to anything else.
I swear by them for comfort, looks and personality. Henry Ford figured out he got more production of a man working on a wood floor as opposed to concrete, easier on the feet.
     

[Jeff Hansen]

I used the UCoat system from U-Coat-It.  https://ucoatit.com/

Once dry, I then applied their UGloss-AF top coat after scattering aluminum oxide on the floor with to prevent slippage.  It's been 15 years since the application and it looks just as good today as it did then (other than the dirt I track in!)

As with all products, preparation is they key.  Clean the concrete THOROUGHLY, acid etch, and rinse THOROUGHLY.

HTH,
Jeff

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

When I was making my Garage floor, firstly the concrete finisher applied a colouring to the surface whilst it was still wet, and sprinkled carborundum grit all over, ans treated where I planned to install benches even more, then after everything was set, I treated the surface with a liquid product named Dimite, or Diamite, and it was a case-hardener, and hardened the surface to a small depth, and now there is no dust coming out of the cement, and spills wipe up easily.

The first test was removing an Auto transmission from a car, using the jack and jackstands, and the torque converter fell off, spilling auto Trans Fluid EVERYWHERE.   After cleaning up, there was no evidence of the spill the next day.

Bruce.

[Virgil Perkins]

Wow, great info, will be checking out some additional options thanks to all the responce. Thank you everyone for input. VP

[lou-q]

For my wife's aviary I built last year, I used the Rustoleum from Lowes which was a base with chips and then a clear coat 2 part epoxy clear finish coat the next day. They include a citric acid prep in the base kit. You have to rinse it well and  let the concrete dry thoroughly, (I used a fan overnight). We are very happy with the finish product. It was pretty easy to do. If you use the Rustoleum kits, make sure you buy extra chips as they are kind of stingy in the kit.
I'm in the process of building a new garage and I plan to use the Rustoleum kits.
Good luck,
Lou Q

[fishnjim]

I think you need to decide what you're going to do with the floor and in the garage, first.   
eg; I weld and grind a lot, so I don't want "no stinking" coating on my concrete where i do that.   To; look good, so you can show off your collection and drink beer?

This preowned house's attached garage was used as a workout area, and they painted it with thin epoxy - the big box gallon kind.   It don't stick and the hot tires wear it right off.   Looks good for a bout a month.   Now I'm stuck with an inadequate parking garage floor.  It would require media blasting now to coat over.    So what you do will be critical to how it looks and for how long.   My "shop" garage is uncoated poly-fibre cement hard finished.   These little nubs stick up in some places, where they didn't finish it right.   It didn't prevent cracking either, as they thought, so subsurface preparation is also necessary to the right concrete floor and the right concrete mix for the load.   eg: We used mostly 4500 psi concrete (aka 6 sack mix) for industrial, but your run of the mill housing contractor will order 3500# mix cause it's cheaper, but isn't at all strong.   Probably won't adequately reinforce, nor level, nor pour correct thickness, unless you specify in the contract.
Frankly the best we had was hard finished uncoated and the proper slope so no water/ice/snow/salt would stay in the garage.   It was easy to clean.   Oil spoils etc, we used oil dry or powdered cement/stone dust to pull out any that soaked in.   Old man painted over it and it was never any good.   So your question depends on you need.
As a polymer chemist/engineer both were developed for this so if properly applied should be fine.   It'll come down to economics and needs.   I like the idea of aluminum oxide abrasive in the top coat as that's what's on the engineered wood flooring of today.   Adds non-slip and a UV resistant coating.   Those little colored PVC chips are not going to do much or last.   

[Caddy Wizard]

I used Rustoleum Polycuramine 2-part "epoxy" in my home garage 3 years ago.  It has held up well to spills, tools, jack stands, hot tires, floor jacks, etc.  Still looks good and spills clean up easily.  I just built a detached workshop and put down the same thing again.

[Virgil Perkins]

Appreciate all the fine input, am still following up the info and will do something whenever this current situation allows. I think it was POR 15 Epoxy that I applied in 2002, looked good up until 4 or 5 years ago. Now ready for new floor. Thanks again to all. VP]

[cadillacmike68]

How would it stand up to a steel-wheeled jack running over it with the front of a car sitting on the jack?

Bruce.

I have some sort of epoxy based driveway covering and I have jacked my cars up several times. It hasn't cracked. But look at this pic and you can see a worn spot on the right. Gasoline from a too full 68 DVC with the front raised leaked and ate away the coating.

Also, I find it impossible to use my drive up ramps now, because they just slide across the surface.

The garage floor itself is not coated. There is plenty of oil and trans fluid coating it already. 

[joecadillac63]

I used the Sherwin Williams kit on a new, never parked in (but well cured) garage floor in 2008.  I bought enough for two stalls (two kits) and it was barely enough to cover.  I also bought extra color chips, but if I were to do it again I don't think I would add color chips because they caused the floor to be harder to sweep.  And I also put a clear coat urethane (I think) coating over that to better protect the chips/epoxy.  I wouldn't do that again either.... the clear coat was not tolerant of automotive fluids (brake fluid, of course) - not even gasoline.  So the small puddle I cleaned up immediately when I was working on my '63 fuel tank left a permanent discolored stain on the floor.  I think I had almost $1000 in this floor as a diy project.

The most important thing was that no car was ever parked on the floor before I coated it.  Wise ones told me that if there was ever a tire parked on a bare concrete floor nothing will ever stick to it unless it was seriously cleaned or media blasted.  I had my Cadillac parked after the floor was done, and my daily driver in the other stall and there was never any peeling or coating failure.

If I were to do it over, I would not add color chips, not clear coat it, and buy more epoxy so it would fill in better.  It just needed more material to look like a professional job.  But this was 3 houses ago.  After that whole experience I decided a pretty floor just isn't worth it since I do a lot of work on it.  If you have a working garage and separate trophy garage - go for it.  But none of these floors, in my opinion, still look great if you do heavy work on them.  The finish will hold up, but it won't look new (again - just my opinion, and being exposed to industrial coatings for the past 25 years...).