I think in a working shop..painted or epoxied floors suck..or will soon suck, or look suckey.. chipped up shit all over Im not out in my shop to look at the dam floor, im F-ing working out there people.. cutting burning grinding hammering dropping shit , scraping stuff across the floor etc.. why would i want to Kid Glove my dam concrete floor? its not a show rod attraction is a dam work shop Now maybe after im done with using it to build stuff in, or maybe my garage where all the stuff thats finished sits, but for an area where the hard work is done, i dont see the point in wasting that money where it could be spent on..Beer? or whatever.., like parts for the project.. hell my hot rod needs paint, not my dam floor
I just put wall to wall carpet in mine. Cost less than $200 but then again, I don't drive my cars much anymore and the only work they need are oil changes.
Storm King nailed it, it's all about the prep, when I did my old shop floors I pressure washed them and used the Citric Acid based prep, they lasted and looked great 3 years later when I moved out. Depends, paint yes, epoxy, if it's done right and it's a "real" epoxy it'll last and make working in the shop that much nicer. Makes cleaning up a breeze.
I like coating the floors because it's so much easier to clean up. Sweeping bare concrete sucks and you end up putting 4x the work to clean up the shop. When the floors are coated I can easily clena up the mess after a night of working which is a must because I cannot start working until I have a rather clean area.
WOW, FNG...I hope you're not talking about me. I've been around awhile and will match my skills and my history in rodding and drag racing with you any day starting right now. They guy who started this thread wanted opinions of floor coatings not a lecture from some FNG.
Did my floor with a factory grade sealer, followed instructions to the letter, but started flaking within 3 weeks. The fault is in my concrete floor. Dragging a Jack around on it, causes it to grind a mark in it. It gets kind of powdery after a while. A real pain in the bum to sweep, always creates dust. Since I just started spilling stuff, Oil, Fluids, SMALL amounts of beer, Painting on floor, etc. It's not as bad. I think all the crap helps seal the concrete. Been over 10 years now and it's still hanging in there. Plus being messy, lets me show my artistic, (if somewhat messy) side.
^^ full of it. Yeah that dude has absolutely no clue whatsoever. But then again he can't fill out his profile or do an intro so as far as I'm concerned he's just here to talk crap.
In the 50's and 60's the dealers used to paint their floors, even in the shops, about every 2 years with concrete paint. The one I was around was always dark red, and held up pretty well. to all kinds of abuse. That stopped in the 80's, I believe because the paint was not environmently friendly, so polished concrete seems to be the floor of choice now. I wanted bright orange, so I could find stuff I dropped easier, but that never happened.
I agree with you. It isn't a showcase kitchen built to impress the neighbors. Mine is for actual work too. Put down a coating and you will get a chewed up coating... if you work. My first thought when I see a shop all dolled up with fingernail polish and such is "where is the real work done?" Now the fancy boys here will include us on their name calling list...
Some of us with the clean garage and shiny toys, have already worked and built cars/race cars and whatever else sprung our fancy and have been there done that, back in the day. We have gotten older and don't have time for 5 year projects, so we buy things we like and tinker with them. Being 67 and retired, I spend more time enjoying my rides, than working on them. Both ways are cool, it just depends on your stage in life and wants/needs. I don't know who you are and don't really care. I have a clean garage and shiny toys, so deal with it or don't, but you've surely shown you know how to make stupid comments in here. For the OP here's my Racedeck flooring, it works pretty good for those that have it. A lot easier on this old guys back too.
I think some of you guys ought to limit your opinions of other based on their garage floors. My garage is a garage...amazing, huh. Not a shop. A garage. Get it? I only do oil changes and stuff limited to top-side engine work here. Again, this is not where I do the "heavy lifting". Maybe you don't want a nice clean place to part your car, but I do and my wife enjoys a tidy garage, too. And it doesn't exactly detract from the value of the home, either. So, while some of you guys can't figure out the difference between a garage and a shop, that's your problem. I don't know how you can automatically judge someone by how nice they like their things, but I guess you have your own ax to grind with something. I, personally like nice things. I've changed transmissions in the dirt just two hours after been getting four impacted teeth extracted and having a rag in my mouth to soak up the blood so I could keep working..... so don't go getting all huffy about who's "real" and who's "not". I've been into hot rods for 50 years and I have the credentials and experience to back it up. I think the question was..."Garage floor finishs"...if you don't have anything to help the guy, then why are you here? Some of you are pretty quick to judge people you don't know.
Right on Mazooma1. I don't keep a messy shop no mater what I'm doing, painting, welding, whatever, and I or my crew does it all. Every day we clean everything up, put all the tools away, etc. Every morning it looks like a new shop again. Professionals are like that. To the original question, or subject, there is another factor to consider as someone brought up in a 'round about way. he said he sealed his floor and it still messed up. Well, again, incorrect vapor barrier under the floor can seriously effect that, as well as the overall general quality of the concrete floor, and believe me, there are vast differences in concrete floor quality. I've run shops from 1,200 s/f to more recently 133,000 s/f, and back down to 40,000 s/f. All concrete is not created equal! Don't scrimp, don't let someone's brother-in-law do a "cheap" job for you if you are going to do a new floor. For the most part, clean, acid wash, rinse, prime, and paint is the way to get it done well. Prime is important as well, and a nice thick coat will be more durable than a thin one.
Personally, I'm here for Rod's and Custom's. If I had a question about garage floor finish's, I would try Garage Journal, or Google.
Guys-There are coatings made for floors that can take WAY more abuse than you or ur ride can handle. I sell coatings that are used in airplane hangers, coatings that have 20K pound fork lift truck run over it ALL day long.I won't bother too write everything you need to know about floor coatings but if you have questions feel free to PM me or call me. I'm in NACE Coatings inspector training this week so if I don't answer leave me a message. Sam- 832-618-0447
well I do work in my garage and I also clean up after myself but with your attitude I should just let my 3 kids destroy the house and not clean so the house looks lived in and with all those empty beer cans do you also have a lot of buggs which would land on anything you paint and to everyone else thanks for your responses
driving a rubber tired fork truck across an epoxied floor shows me nothing..except it can stand up to tire traffic...I dont care how heavy it is..thats not a function of the coating ,,thats a function of how thick your floor is, and what kind of loading it can take..ie..4" to 8" concrete..4000 psi concrete VS 6000 psi concrete etc.. lets see if it can stand up to dragging a 350 SBC bare block or Hemi and trans across it day in day out..or dropping it on a few sockets and or wrenches and than draging it out from under that 'ol beat up chevy..or that ford 9" with only the rusty backing plates scraping across the floor as you drag it in to do some work on tearing it down..(add in that sound of nails on a chalk board) Im not bashing on anyones floor or their hard earned money and where they want to spend it..having a finished floor where you put your cars and projects when they are done for normal maintenance is completely understandable..and on my list to do in my garage, but to do it where you know you have even chipped or scraped the concrete..that coating doesnt stand a chance of being "pretty" for long.. Ive installed Epoxy floors ..I dont care what the product is, if its abused with heavy impacts, or constant abuse it will look like it my junk engine blocks dont come with rubber baby buggy tires on them
NASCAR and all major Hot Rod shops coat their floors VRF. You can't be pumping out more work then them.
Nascar aint dragging shit across their floors and building them cars in those bays.. I have never seen a rusty big block being shoved across a NASCAR garage..or a bunch of steel tubes for a frame being slid across those floors., or some old nasy assed trans or rear end.all they are doing in them parking spaces is maintenance..not building, or tearing down some old beat up nasty project car not to mention them NASCAR garages have carts for everything they move..I dont..not to mention waaaaay deeper pockets to fix the damage caused Plus im not going to be shitting everytime my dam floor gets cut or something on them and your right..i dont turn out as much as they do..but then again ,,they buy those frames and drive lines finished and more than likely built by someone else like i said..its your money..I just got better things to do with mine than to make a floor look pretty..if its flat and strong..thats all i care about.. and also to say it again..would i do my garage where i store and do normal maintenance on my cars and bikes.?? hell yeah..but not where all the nasty work goes on
If you're able to shove a bog block across the floor you're a stronger man then myself. I would assume the normal builder would have an engine hoist or blocks on dollies from Northern Tool at the very least. If you're shoving big blocks you probably won't be building cars long enough for your floor to peel since your back will be out in no time hahaha!!! I would say I am the average enthusiast. I have a Cadillac engine, Hemi Flathead and a 265 Chevy hanging from the hoist in the garage right now. I have two cars on jack stands and I slide the jack everywhere in there. I also weld in there as well as drop many a thing since I'm doppy like that. For what ever reason I have zero chips in my garage and no signs of peeling. Sure it looks a little dirty but it cleans up nice once the cars can get rolled out. I have been to many a hot rod shops where they're torching shit and building just as we so but in a much cleaner fashion. They all coat the floors. One of the big reasons is when you are building engines and such the coated floors will keep down the amount of dust that will kick up on it's own naturally. It enables you to clean the floors so that when you have a open engine which any builder home or pro will have the level of contaminates is drastically reduced. And I do believe that Nascar doesn't just maintain. There are quite a few talented metal guys that work on those cars every day to whip them into shape. Which means that sometimes things get dropped, dragged and welded upon. My friend Jeremy works just down the road at Tony Stewart's shop and he sometimes comes off of that job just as dirty as anyone. Just sayin.... If you coated you're floor VRF you would love it...after those few initial drops and stains haha!!!
yeah I probably would..Ive just seen some places that had it done, and after being really USED it looks like shit.. there is no hate from me for those who do it..none of my dam Buiz.. I just dont see the practicality of it in MY little world..maybe my garage,,sure.. and when i drag BBC's acrss my floor i always get my Big friend Ron to help me and my back is shot never droped and draged a trans out on your floor? over grit, and tools? happens way too much in my little world..I guess im more of a function guy when it comes to a concrete floor..beauty is for our hobby and abilities..but than thats just me.. I have nothing against the guys that do it, but would sure like to use that money toward a project instead
Ditto.. and oil, and tranny fluid, rat droppings (try to pick those up), dripped Bondo, RTV, etc., etc.....
My garage floor doesn't have anything on it except a few leaves dust but only the wifes DD's get to park in there because it is a 2 car only. On the other hand my shop in the back yard is a 30 by 40 and I put a clear sealer on it before the walls even went up and it looked great for awhile and as mentioned above very easy to sweep and keep clean. I don't like shit scattered all over the place so it is picked up most of the time. But now as it reaches it's 5 year life span the clear is not so clear anymore and is turning kind of yellowish and with my aging eyes it seems to be soaking up light. Now it has what looks like crop circles from not putting big enough drop cloths down while painting small pieces. After I said all that, I would not do it again unless I was going to only park finished rods and change oil once in awhile. A battery room here at work was done with an epoxy product a couple of years ago and there is a big difference in epoxy products out there and some of it has alot of epoxy in it and some of it don't. The really high dollar stuff is pretty expensive to cover 1200 square feet of floor. Some day I hope to have my floor redone in a nice finish but I have my doubts of ever getting there.
I've had professionally applied coatings (Stonhard) on my plant floor for over 10 years now - mostly it looks great but if you drag a loaded pallet with a nail sticking down across it it will scratch! It does look great tho, and it does clean up easily, and it does make my production room much brighter due to the reflectivity - all good things. The downside is it's freaking expensive! And don't try to walk on it in hard soled shoes, you'll fall on your ass! Same with liquid spills, better wipe them up or someone's going down! My point is, you get what you pay for - if you put down an inexpensive coating like you get at the box stores, be prepared to redo it frequently. I wonder about concrete stains, they look great, and since they permeate and soak into the concrete itself, it seems like they would last well too. Plus, nothing to peel up, since it's a stain..... Anyone have any stained concrete floors (I know, I know - everyone does! You know what I mean.....)
We have stained concrete at work I believe....at least that's what I thought it was. After a about a year of rolling around the office with the chair it starts lifting leaving a pretty nasty floor under it. I think it's more of a stain clear epoxy then a actual stain since the building floors were stained to begin with being a 100 year old Cotton mill. But what ever it is it lifts off in sheets and sucks to keep nice looking. If the chairs were stationary it probably would be fine. I bet it was in the way it was put down though.
My transmissions are tiny and can be lifted through the floor (ie early ford trans) hehe! Now if I ever got around to grabbing a real transmission I am sure it'll be a different situation.
A friend uses this stuff....it's clear and you can beat the hell out of it. It's smooth but nor slippery. What's great about a covering like this is that it's so easy to keep clean. Every bit of oil or whatever cleans up with a paper towel. A push-broom works so much better on concrete that's been covered with this stuff. If I wouldn't have found the Floorguard surface, I would have used this. I did an epoxy two part paint once, and it was worthless. http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/RUSTOLEUM-Concrete-Sealer-2EJU2?Pid=search
Beige carpet. YEP! I have 2 rental homes and have to replace the carpet every 5-6 years with. well NOT CHEEP . Inexpensive but very nice.. Beige Carpet. The old carpet goes into my garage Neighbors think Im nuts with a carpeted garage but it works for me. Cadman
I saved carpet piece's myself. I've got a couple of approx. 4' x 8's that I roll up in the corner and bring out, when going under for awhile. Easier on this old guys back too.
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