Hello again,
I posted awhile back for a good bit, then my wife had our son in October. My life was over for five months until he slept through the night. We just bought a house on the other side of Houston, in Pearland. Ive always regretted not doing something to the floor before i spilled oil and atf everywhere.
I read everything I could, and came away thinking the new polyurea/polyaspartic's are the best out there, but Im not paying $2,500 to have someone else do it. They have polyurea kits at big box stores for about $400. I bought that, then swapped for standard quikrete epoxy kits. Heck, Ive almost convinced myself to just take these back, and just prime it, and paint it with the cheap one part epoxy paint. That way, I can at least patch it easily.
Anyways, here I am. This is the garage as it sits now. We havent moved in yet.
Before:
The previous owner had all the precut sheets of plywood(3/4" birch, actually) for storms hung up in the garage randomly around, so I took those down that were touching the ground. You can see some stacked up on the shelves in the corner.
(http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac57/mtgmike302/IMAG0878.jpg)
(http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac57/mtgmike302/IMAG0879.jpg)
I pressure washed it, got real close on areas that were obvious oil spills, really tried to open up the concrete and rough it up. Scrubbed the acid(bond lok that comes in the epoxy kit) around, let it sit for about twenty minutes, rinsed, and pressure washed again. Looks pretty good, but I could still see a couple areas like below.
(http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac57/mtgmike302/IMAG0880.jpg)
I went back today because I wasnt happy with the above areas and scrubbed with muriatic acid mixed in water 1:10. It foamed pretty good, then stopped fairly quickly. I scrubbed it around section by section, then rinsed really well. Im going to let it dry a few days before deciding to use the epoxy, or buy the bond lok I used out of the kit, and return the kits for some plain epoxy primer, and paint.
Input/ideas?
I'd opt for the epoxy, my laundry room/garage has epoxy primer and paint that I repainted a year ago and I can already see tearing and ripping in the paint. I think if you are going to do it just do it right.
I always thought it would be cool to have a black and white checkered tile floor in my garage. Since I don't have one, I'll keep dreaming. Some day, though, 12"x12" black and white checkered tile.
To be honest, I've seen several accounts of people using stick on VCT tiles with decent success. Supposedly, with a good coat of wax, and limited tire twist, they are rumored to work pretty well. If you have a garage that you don't have to turn in or out of, that might be an option.
I have carpet in the garage where the tbird sleeps.
I'm going to use the grey & black checkered 12"X12" industrial tile in my shop. Of course that's after I get the floor level, it kinda has a rather high middle.
Although in the main garage (where the wife will be parking), it'll be a combination of industrial carpet and tile.
I used a kit that Sherwin Willams sells in my last garage and was pretty happy with it. It was similar to the UCoatIt stuff. I seem recall it costing about $75/gal....
After the floor gets pumped up and a drain cut in...I'm going professional epoxy.
A neighbor of mine is a millionaire and has his garage floors done in epoxy. I don't think it's that much though...will have to find out. Anyway, his floors are amazing and I want that look. Once you see that kind of craftsmanship, you don't want anything else...
the epoxy primer overspray from my car, has yet to come off after 2 years... I'm going to use more of the same when I do the floors... it was only about $75 a gal
I could have had a better quality epoxy done by a pro for about a grand. The new polyurea/polyaspartic material would have been $2700, but it is lifetime guaranteed. They do some amazing stuff with it. I figure with extra acid, and the standard big box store epoxy kit, this will be a $250 deal, all in.
I used to work for centimark flooring back in the day doing epoxy floors, If you go that route prep is important. You could rent a floor buffer with heavy sandpaper to clean it up. The only thing I know that hurts epoxy is heat,it's some tough stuff.
This is a horrible DIY investment.
3 epoxy kits at $74 each, looking at 2, or 3 clear kits at $100 each. Im so sick of this.
This was the end of the first day of the epoxy going down. I hoped the wet look was the epoxy drying. No dice. Looked just like that yesterday when I went back to do the third kit. The second and third kits laid down better than the first because I laid them as thick as i could.
(http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac57/mtgmike302/IMAG0898.jpg)
(http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac57/mtgmike302/IMAG0897.jpg)
FYI, if after this, you still want to do this, the Rustoleum brand kit at Home Depot is about $110 for a 2.5 garage kit, which is cheaper than the quikrete brand at Lowes. Just for the s out there, as I still say this sux.
Did you roll the whole thing?
I bought the Home Depot kit when I had a 20'X24' garage built at my old house. It suked and I ended up using 2 of the kits to get it just barely thick enough. For what I spent on sub-standard stuff, I should've bought the U-Coat it coating.
Yep, I rolled all of it, and if I had another kit, using four for a 2.5 car garage, I think I could have achieved a much better result. Today I sanded it, rinsed, and cleared with h&c shield Crete clear from Sherwin Williams. I think that's going to help a ton.
I'll snap a pic tomorrow.
Usually we would use a notched squeegee to spread it then roll it once and done. But you will use more material. The less rolling the less air that gets trapped in it. It didn't look bad in the pick.
There are a few areas that are thinner than others but its done.
(http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac57/mtgmike302/IMAG0943.jpg)
(http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac57/mtgmike302/IMAG0942.jpg)
(http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac57/mtgmike302/IMAG0944.jpg)
Lookin good :)
It looks really good, great job! Are you gonna semi-finish the garage with drywall? It would make the space much nicer, giving you the opportunity to run necessary wiring ,insulate making the space more comfortable to work in year around and lastly make the space brighter, rather than having the tar paper suck up the light sources.
looks nice...
For those of us with poor reading comprehension, what was the final product you decided on? How much did you end up needing, and if you don't mind, how much did it cost?
I used quikrete epoxy kits from Lowes, three at $74 each. Four would have covered much better. The quikrete clear was 100$ per kit, so I bought two gallons of h&c shield Crete acrylic clear from Sherwin Williams. They were $69 per gallon, but I use a painter's account number, and paid $49 each. I used one pouch of anti skid per gallon. I haven't wetted it to test it but it doesn't seem coarse enough. Fyi, the h&c is made to be an epoxy top coat on top of an h&c two part water based epoxy that I compared msds to the quikrete.
I was just so ready to be done, and was scared of throwing good money after bad after the epoxy was down.
If I do it again, I would 100% rent a grinder, then just clear the bare concrete.