Well I finally have the time during Spring Break to finally do the floor in the garage at my parents' house. It's commercial grade epoxy and urethane clear. Cost is roughly $750 for a 650 sq. ft. garage, so it's not too bad.

Today the epoxy and flake went on.

 

Can you go into more detail about what kind of prep you did for the surface?

 

That's expensive.

Looks great!

 

House is a year old, so the concrete wasn't too nasty. All we did was pressure wash and degrease it with stuff that they sell at Home Depot, that's all.

 

I did that to my garage too but I kind of regret it a little...especially during the winter. With the amount of rain Seattle gets, when I pull in the garage, the rain will just pool and puddle on the garage floor. The epoxy coating acts as a barrier and the water will just stay there until it either evaporates or you sweep it out. I have to constantly sweep water puddles out during winter

Other than that, it's great. It's an easy DIY project on a weekend.

 

where did you get those spikes?

 

It sucks having all the furniture sit outside for a few days, but yeah, the water can be a little bit of an issue.

The shoes I got at the place where they sell all the concrete supplies.

 

Nice.

 

thanks... i was going to pick them up to wear while i mow the lawn...

 

Looks great, I am looking to do the exact same thing in my 2 car garage, I will definitely make sure to pick up some of those shoes. Great job, any tricks or hints? Also any finished product pictures?

 

I used Armor Poxy when we built our house. I didn't know it at the time but when the concrete was poured there was no vapor barrier installed over the gravel, so now the "lifetime" epoxy is lifting in various places. Last summer I scraped those area, sanded them and reinstalled the epoxy, and it lifted again. Very frustrating!

 

My parents had this at their old house. While it makes cleaning up oil and other chemical spills a breeze I would hardly recommend it if you don't work on your car in the garage. It's super slippery even with the flake, I fell on my dumb ass on more then one occasion lol.

Now having said that, I am looking to get it done in my garage since I do all the work on the cars. It would be nice to not have to worry about oil stains. A friend of my mom's has a business and epoxy floors is all he does. He preps the floor with a diamond sanding machine. Needless to say, he ain't cheap.

It looks super nice but if you don't take your time to do the prep you will pay for it down the line.

 

I'll get some updated pictures soon.

When the concrete was poured, it's nowhere near perfect with slight cracks in places and small holes. The concrete was mixed to wet initially so it was always dusty, and the epoxy also acts as a sealer.

Optimally, sanding/grinding is the way to go, but also very pricey. All I did was clean it really good with a pressure washer, then degreased and acid etched it. Should be good enough for the epoxy not to lift.

It's true that it can be slippery, but we don't walk in the garage much when it's raining. But like Gen7Milan said, it's very nice to work on. It feels a lot "softer" than concrete. I spend a lot of time standing when building engines, so that makes it nice too. When using jack stands or anything like that, I'm going to use old pieces of carpet just to try to keep the floor looking good as long as possible.

 

I like your choice in color and flake.. In for an update & pics!

btw.. that's a pretty hefty price you paid for the kit.

 

I ended up doing my floor myself six years ago.

And now I'm trying to figure out what I can do as the tires have pulled up all the epoxy and even in the areas by the exhaust and under the motor have pulled away with NO contact.

And this was done on a virgin floor, prepped properly. Hoping you get some kind of a guarantee on this. Hate to spend that kind of coin and it pulls away a few years later.

 

I'm curious, do you know if there was a vapor barrier installed prior to the slab being poured?

 

I don't know but if I were to guess, I'd say no.

 

I did my garage years ago with the rustoleum kit.

The surface is still fantastic. No tire pull-up.

(Note: concrete garage floor was brand new at the time)