Technical Has anyone painted or coated the floor of their shop or garage?

If so what did you use? I am about to paint a 2 car garage and I just wanted to know what paint/coat did you use?

There is one at Home Depot made by Rust-Oleum RockSolid is what I am looking at.

There is also U-Coat it. https://ucoatit.com

I know prep is everything.

Anyone have an opinion?

 

I looked at a few YouTube clips on this the other day...looks really good. I like the on with the chips that you sprinkle over then put the clear coat over that.

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Pose your question over at www.garagejournal.com and you'll get plenty of experienced answers.

 

best move I ever made.used two pack applies by roller painted with brush around edges.choose a colour that makes it easy to locate dropped washers/nuts etc.like you said prep is everything,hoover up the dust before you start

 

Only with traditional Hotrod epoxy......It was great however, welding burns it and it can be slippery when feet are wet and it chips real easy. The others are right check out garage Journal it is a great place for this type of stuff. You log in there just as you do here (same login) and any pics not showing will show once you log in.

 

U-coat it hands down is way better than the home depot stuff. I did my shop floor 10 years ago and still in very good shape with pretty heavy traffic.

 

I used a clear water based polyurethane. The coatings rep recommended it since it would be a working shop and wouldn't show the scratches, etc from working on it as much as a "color" coating.

 

As already mentioned, go to garagejournal.com... there's plenty of info on floor coatings. Personally, I used Epoxy-coat on my shop floor. If it would have been in my budget I would have had a Linex type product sprayed on. Since it wasn't I did it myself...

 

not happy with the rock solid crap, does not give much coverage, had a lot of bubbles in the final product, and yes I followed the instructions.
Notice the fine print, the coverage listed on the box is only for previously covered floors, for new floors it is said to be 100 sq ft, and I got closer to 80.

 

if you want low buck good finish try DRYLOK concrete floor paint

 

The boss thought it would be neat to do this to the floor in the warehouse at work. It's some sort of textured epoxy coating. Seems tough, but like somebody already mentioned, if you drop something on it, it's gone forever. And it's super slick when it's wet.

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Except the ones Photobucket is holding for ransom! Lol

 

used lowes product. patched cracks. still show. power washed it and used cleaner and power washed again let dry 2 days and rolled on the epoxy. very durable still shiny no bubbles. used 2 kits for 2 car garage. would use it again. took one and one half weeks

 

Prep work is important. We ground my floor, the applied the first coat. The next day we sanded the first coat and put the final color coat on. We ground up the flakes to make some of them smaller and mixed them with medium flakes. We applied the clear coat the day after that and it looks great and is holding up good so far. The product was from Sherwin Williams.

 

I did a two part epoxy paint in my shop/garage in 2005 when it was new. My objective was to have a sealed highly reflective surface, so I could easily clean it and see better when I am working on the floor under a car. I was not concerned with having a beautiful shiny even “showy“ color. what I got has worked fine a dozen years later. It has a few chips, tire mark stains, uneven color, etc., but it is still functioning as intended.

If you want something pretty, I would try the rubber tiles, not epoxy, but, I got a functioning floor that works for my needs.

 

How big is your garage? I like the set up.

 

Friend has one of those garage condos; has a fancy epoxy coating, appears to be good for parking Corvettes and such; but not so much for hot rod building. Welding sparks and other shop work really mark it up.

 

I painted mine when I built the thing, back in 1993. I used some kind of garage floor paint, I think from Ace Hardware? It lasted pretty well in the places where there was little traffic, but it's mostly gone where I work on cars. Don't bother me, it gives it a lived in look.

1995:


last week:

 

All I have ever used is a light grey stain on the concrete.

Every 5 years I simply apply a new coat of stain and the floor always looks like new and the hot tires will not make it lift off the floor.

Cost is around $30.00 a gallon so I about $90.00 bucks and my shop is just under 1,000 SF

Jimbo

 

I have used 2 pack epoxy with some success but it depends on the condition of the concrete. If it's powdery then the paint will peel off. I tiled the current workshop using quarry tiles - much better...

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I'm curious about the stain you used. I just built a 1200 sf shop and it has virgin concrete. Can you tell me about the brand or type of material you used? Thanks a lot,
Jamie


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This question always comes up after the fact unfortunately.
What I mean by that is that the best way to go is to color or stain the concrete as it's poured.

A powder color and surface hardener is mixed into the concrete and then some more color powder is floated into the surface when the power trowling is done.

It gives you a permanent color and hard strong surface.
My father did his 32x48 shop that way and it came out a beautiful rich deep brick red color.

You can also get blue or other colors.

Better than any floor coating because you can roll heavy steel wheel shop equipment on it or weld and have a few hot sparks without damage.

 

It was a good cheap alternative than ending up replacing concrete.
The winter road salt began eating up the slab where on parked on. I used Rustolem products, Patch and Epoxy.
Like everybody said previously, prep is key. I used Muriatic Acid to etch the surface. Let it dry for a few days, vacuum every square inch. Also, paint on a dry day or if the concrete isn't
sweating from humidity (Midwest climate). I'm pleased with the results. Even the patch work is still holding up and hasn't blown out. The best thing is that the paint keeps the road salt from eating up the concrete. The paint doesn't last in high traffic areas, you might have to prep and repaint those places.
And Maybe scuff the outlying areas before repaint.

 

I used SW rexthane 9 yrs ago. Beat the living crap out of it at least 8 hrs every darn day. Anywhere between 2 and 12 feet. Its pretty damn tough and doesn't owe me anything. Torch slag, red hot stuff and 4 days of soaking brake fluid are about the only things that actually tear it up. Gas, oils, Trans fluid, radiator fluid, paint solvents haven't bothered it. Walking over metal shavings/chips and grinding the Chips into the floor do some damage as well. It Mops up nice and still has about 50% of its original sheen. It would probably last a home hobby guy a lifetime.

I had my fab table in this spot for a long time. So that's where all the crap went. This is the worst spot and where the table is now is second worst. It's a 1 part moisture cure product and I put 2 coats down.


I just did this white floor with SW 2 part stuff. Looks great but can't attest to its quality. The rep talked me into trying in because he said it was better than the rexthane.

 

I just did my new garage a few weeks ago with the Rust-Oleum RockSolid. I put it on way to heavy and ran out 1/2 way thru, So my wife went to get more and they were out of the Light Gray so she got the dark Gray. So its half light and half dark, But the good news is we both like it. I really like the product but a lot of the reviews I read while researching it said It didn't cover the sq, ft. they claimed it would. And I found that to be true with me. I used twice what they said it would cover but as I said I layed it down to thick, if I had to do over I would still use the same amount but put it on thinner and do two coats. I,m very happy with the results but I have not abused it yet so can;t help with a review. Good Luck with what ever you do

 

Find the ugliest latex paint you can, a color you absolutely hate. Drop a gallon can of it in the middle of the floor. That will be there forever.


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I see somebody's been bad and put in the corner......hey the floor does look great.

Some good things about epoxy coatings is they do look good for years, are fluid impervious, easy clean up and come in many colors. You can overcome slip with added grits. I think mine with no grit was less slippery after a couple of years of traffic. It was applied by professionals over a poor concrete pad that was filled and prepped and did bubble up and crack after 5 years in a couple of places. This could have been probably patched or spot repaired but I didn't bother.​

 

24D x 48W

 

I've flipped several houses over the last few years. I've tried all the coatings that they sell at Home Depot and Lowes and they all suck. The residential crap they sell to the public has been so modified by the EPA that it's worthless.

The only thing that has ever worked for me is ArmorSeal by Sherwin Williams. I used it on my shop floors and it has worked perfectly.

Here's a link:

https://www.sherwin-williams.com/painting-contractors/products/families/armorseal-floor-coatings

 

The brand of stain that I used for years was called Sun Coatings stain which was made here in Florida but I am not sure if they are still in business. I never added sand to it like some people do to make it more skid proof.

I have seen shop floors where they added sand into the stain and the problem is in any high traffic areas the sand wears off and you can see a path.

Any good stain will work but to do use paint because hot tires peel it right off the floor

I will tell you I have seen many of my friends use the epoxy systems with the flakes in it and again it does where out in high traffic areas no matter what they tell you.

I simply find the stain easy to use and when it starts to look old I just apply another coat of stain and it looks brand new again.
You can only use stain over New Concrete!!!

Jimbo