Recommendations for Garage Floor Coating?

[CaptainCrunch]

I've seen garage floors that were sprayed with the Line-X stuff,

[Fuzz]

Just a summary for this thread for future reference, since I posted it in my never-ending garage thread...

Step 1: Wash floors with soapy water, scrub with a stiff bristle broom, and squeegee out. Rinse, squeegee.

Step 2: Rent Concrete prep tool from Home Depot and buffer machine, ~$110. Took about 3 hours to do 700 sq ft. This may not be necessary depending on the concrete profile. Mine had a sealer and was quite smooth, so I wanted to rough it up. This will not scrape old coatings or paint off. It mostly leaves fine scratches. Use a diamond cup grinder or a belt sander with an rough grit(40 or 60) to go around the walls where the prep tool didn't reach. The cup grinder is very aggressive, so if you have some rough concrete you can clean it up. Sweep up the mess.

Step 3: wet concrete, use an acid etcher. The Rokrez kit came with citric acid which is fairly mild as far as etching goes, but after using it my concrete opened right up and all the coating went away. Wash floor a couple times, make sure it is clean! Do this 2 days before epoxy so it has time to dry completely. You will know your floor is ready for epoxy when you put water on, it doesn't really bead, it kinda soaks in. Mask off anything you don't want epoxy on like the door rails. Place a strip of duct tape or gorilla tape under the door, so you can close the door and not have it stick. this also gives you a clean edge. You don't want epoxy outside, as it will break down in sunlight. I ended up putting fresh masking tape over this on subsequent coats because I got some epoxy on top of the tape. Not a big deal, just bury it.

Step 4: cost: $269 to do a regular size garage. I used 2 kits for mine, took 3 hours. Follow the epoxy kit directions. I also bought a notched squeegee not included, and it helped to get the epoxy in an even layer before rolling with a roller. It kinda scrapes it to a thin layer, you will think there isn't enough on the floor but once you work it a bit you can get an even coating.

Step 5: Topcoat! Cost: ~$220 for regular size garage, took 2 hours. The Rokrez kit does not have one, but I had read it's pretty essential otherwise the chips start pealing up. Not much extra effort at this point. So I got a kit from PSC in Calgary. Topcoat goes on the next day while the base coat is still in the re-coat window. You must do it in the window, otherwise you will have to rough up the set epoxy. I added the anit-slip additive from the Rokrez kit in the top coat, as it would be buried if used in the base.

That's about it, let it set 72 hours. Total time was about 9-10 hours.

Resources:
https://allgaragefloors.com/
This is a great site, and you can email them for advice.

Rokrez
https://www.costco.ca/RokRez-Epoxy-F...100402675.html

PSC-for topcoat, but you can also have this tinted and get all the chips form them for a basecoat as well. Product is 2301. They are helpful as well, and a Calgary company. I'd consider going straight to them for everything.
https://www.polymersciencecorp.com/p...poxy-coatings/

I have a Rokrez kit and enough 2301 to do a topcoat that I may sell for a good price if anyone is interested, I just have to see if my dad wants it first.

Spoiler!

[Ducay]

Thanks Fuzz, looks great.

I have the Rokrez kit (two), as well as the Simiron (company that makes the kits) epoxy primer (to fill in the small pitting since its an old garage), and top coat ready to go. Had initially bought it planning to do it last fall, but ended up having a garage trench drain installed so now I just need to find the time to do it.

The "problem" with me getting to it is that you basically need a week straight to do it. 1-3 days for prep & drying. 1 day prime, 1 day base coat, 1 day top coat.

Garage had previously been painted a couple times (80% flaked off at this point), but not looking forward to renting the floor sander/grinder and doing that part.

[Fuzz]

Ya, I did it over 2 weekends, but really it was 3 hours of grinding, you could do after work. Clean the next day and let dry. So start Wednesday, and done by Sunday, and usable by Wednesday. I can see it being a pain for a finished garage, which is why I resisted filling it with junk! I was able to use my truck with topper as a temporary tool storage zone, which was nice.

[JackJack]

Bumping this thread.

Looking to get my double garage floor (20x20) coated with epoxy. I don't work on my vehicles or have a shop. The only thing I really want it done for is pure aesthetics and that it'll make cleaning it out much easier.

Has anyone had this done recently that can provide suggestions or recommendations?

Thanks

[Fuzz]

If I were doing it again I'd go straight to PSC, get a base, flakes, grit and top coat. Probably be $500 or less. I wouldn't bother with cheap kits. Mine has help up very well. Prep is still probably the most important part.

[JackJack]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

If I were doing it again I'd go straight to PSC, get a base, flakes, grit and top coat. Probably be $500 or less. I wouldn't bother with cheap kits. Mine has help up very well. Prep is still probably the most important part.

I should mention that when it comes to this stuff, I'm useless. So I will be looking to get it done by a local company.

Thanks for the suggestion though. PSC + flakes!

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

If I were doing it again I'd go straight to PSC, get a base, flakes, grit and top coat. Probably be $500 or less. I wouldn't bother with cheap kits. Mine has help up very well. Prep is still probably the most important part.

Having done 3 garages now, I'd agree with this (2 RokRez, 1 ECTR from National) Not because the kits (ie RokRez from Costco) aren't of equal quality (they are) but you get a lot more product for the same price by buying wholsesale. 1 kit from costco will generally do just over 1 coat, but in reality, you need 2 coats plus a topper anyway (also not in the kit) so you're better off just grabbing everything you need all at once in slightly larger volumes.

Last one I did was base coat ECTR grey, main coat ECTR grey, flakes, and finally clear ECTR top coat w/ the anti-skid. Turned out great.

Have 2 more lined up this spring for more family. Happy to answer any Qs

[Fuzz]

Are 2 coats necessary? Mine covered fine with one, and with the top coat taking all the wear, why do you find the need for 2 base coats?

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Are 2 coats necessary? Mine covered fine with one, and with the top coat taking all the wear, why do you find the need for 2 base coats?

Just for coverage and additional filling of minor pitting. I assume if you've got nice smooth grey concrete as a starting point, 1 coat may be good but I've found generally 2 coats is needed to hide the concrete (much like some wall paints, sometimes you can see roller lines or the substrate after 1 coat).

Plus the epoxies I've used spec a thinner first coat and successive coats are thicker. Zero chance the thinner coat level would cover the concrete to an aesthetically acceptable level.

But like you said, if you've got a top coat its generally doing all the protection from day to day wear/tear, so as long as the initial coat has a good bond and looks good to your eye, you should be good.

[Fuzz]

Ya, my floor was only a year old, had zero pits and a couple hairline cracks. I figured the epoxy would fill those cracks, but they are visible(if I look hard enough). So that makes sense then, as it would have taken 2 coats if I wanted to get rid of that crack. I was surprised at how little filling it did, which I guess is why they tell you to pre-patch everything.

[3thirty]

As I am useless at DIY, any suggestions on Garage living vs other companies in terms of quality/price?

[RichieRich]

Maybe not directly related to garages... but hoping the CP braintrust can provide guidance. Our concrete driveway has a few areas that are getting rough and some in worse condition with the concrete basically crumbling and/or gravelly. Typically around the expansion/seams/lines they put down. It's been slowly getting worse over the years... but since the patches are typically smaller than 1ft^2 (in a roughly oval shape) I haven't worried too much. Any recommendations for self-repair and/or just stopping the degradation from weathering? Getting a pro in to fix it isn't in the budget. thx

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Having done 3 garages now, I'd agree with this (2 RokRez, 1 ECTR from National) Not because the kits (ie RokRez from Costco) aren't of equal quality (they are) but you get a lot more product for the same price by buying wholsesale. 1 kit from costco will generally do just over 1 coat, but in reality, you need 2 coats plus a topper anyway (also not in the kit) so you're better off just grabbing everything you need all at once in slightly larger volumes.

Last one I did was base coat ECTR grey, main coat ECTR grey, flakes, and finally clear ECTR top coat w/ the anti-skid. Turned out great.

Have 2 more lined up this spring for more family. Happy to answer any Qs

Hey, so where exactly do you buy this stuff? I'm about to do another garage. Is National the name of the store? I found one in the eastern USA called National Concrete. Didn't google much past that.

[kevman]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Spoiler!

I don't think you have enough outlets.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by kevman

I don't think you have enough outlets.

It's incredible not having to ever get out extension chords. I just look at a wall, and blamo! Power!

[bc-chris]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Hey, so where exactly do you buy this stuff? I'm about to do another garage. Is National the name of the store? I found one in the eastern USA called National Concrete. Didn't google much past that.

is this the one with the bunker under it?

and to hopefully answer your question - i'd assume 'national' is national concrete accessories. they are all over canada. i get stuff from their kelowna location every other year to re-coat/seal my driveway

https://www.nca.ca/locations/nca-branches/calgary

[DFO]

I’d still recommend the Rust Bullet system for a garage floor. Avoids some of the headaches of an epoxy system and still delivers a top notch coating.