Two-Fourths Full: A Porsche 993 Blog: Garage Renovation: The Floor

When we moved into our first house last year, I was more excited about owning a garage than the rest of the house :-). The garage was nothing special, but after years in apartments, I was thrilled to have it.

The floor was dusty when we moved in, and I thought no problem; I'll sweep it. When I swept it and it was still dusty, I thought no problem; I'll hose it out. When I hosed it out and it was still dusty, I learned that it would always be a bit dusty unless I specifically addressed the problem. Our car interiors are black, so having light colored dust on our shoes every time we get in the car was not something I wanted to live with.

I did a ton of reading, mostly on http://allgaragefloors.com/ and the Garage Journal forum, and here's what I eventually decided to do.

Supplies

Pour'N'Restore Oil Stain Remover

See my post on concrete on concrete oil stain removers for more info

4x SuperCoat Epoxy Kits from Sam's Club

Estimated that I needed to cover about 530 sq. ft with two coats.
Cheaper to buy the kit from Sam's than just the epoxy from SuperCoat directly

1x SuperCoat Water Borne Industrial Glaze Coat Kit

Covers about 500 sq ft.
Urethane top coat is more durable than the acrylic top coat in the kit from Sam's

1x SuperCoat Water Borne Industrial Glaze Coat Mini Kit

Covers about 75 sq ft.

1x Rustoleum Epoxy Patch Kit

A very thick epoxy for filling holes and cracks
Advantage versus concrete-based repair products is that the epoxy floor coating can be applied over it almost immediately whereas concrete must dry for about 30 days.

1x Package of TSP for general cleaning/degreasing of garage floor
Masking Tape

Tools

Pressure washer

Borrowed from generous neighbor

Floor maintainer

Rented from Home Depot

Diamabrush

Rented from Home Depot, attaches to floor maintainer

Angle Grinder

Purchased from Harbor Freight

Masonry grinding disc for angle grinder

Purchased from Harbor Freight
I used it wet to reduce dust, although the packaging said for dry use.

Brushes/Rollers for applying the epoxy

2x rollers with 5ft handles
2x 3" brushes for doing the vertical area beneath the baseboards

Broom/Floor-squeegee combination

Purchased at Harbor Freight

Large Fan

I kept the garage door closed to keep out dirt and debris. Fortunately, I have a regular door that opens outside. I used the large fan to blow fresh air into the garage.

Steps

Remove oil stains.
Patch the cracks, holes, etc.
Grind the floor with the Diamabrush
Patch newly exposed holes. On my floor, the grinding exposed some bubbles that had been thinly covered.
Grind new patches and missed areas with angle grinder.
Clean floor with pressure washer, scrub with TSP or substitute, rinse thoroughly and let dry.
Apply first coat of epoxy.
Apply second coat of epoxy (if necessary).
Apply polyurethane top coat.

Lessons Learned

I chose to use a solid color without flakes, but if I were to do it again, I would spend the extra money to do a full-refusal flake layer. If going with a solid color, I would recommend something closer to the color of dust/dirt. Every slightly dirty footstep or tire track is quite visible on red!
I split the 4 SuperCoat kits and used 2 1/3 kits on the first coat, and 1 2/3 kits on the second coat. The quantity was correct, but on the second coat I first mixed and used the full kit. Then I mixed the remaining 2/3 kit and used this. However, I should have mixed the 1 2/3 kit all together to get a uniform color. As it turned out, there is a small but noticeable color difference. Rookie mistake!
I added anti-skid to the polyurethane coat, but it did not spread very evenly. Especially at the overlap of a wet edge, there is a visible increase in the amount of anti-skid. I am not sure how to avoid it, though.
The SuperCoat went on easily, but it was also thinner than I expected. Almost every imperfection in the concrete is still visible. Flakes would have hid it and a I know a 100% solids epoxy would have covered more, but I had hoped for a little better coverage.

Conclusion

I love the new garage floor. I spent way too much time on this project (ask my wife!), but I enjoyed the work and learned a lot. The garage is much nicer with the floor coating that it was before. While it's not perfect, things rarely are on your first attempt!