Has anyone done this? I really want to spruce up my garage and I think this will be a nice finishing touch, but I've heard so many mixed reviews due to peeling and warping. I figured I'd ask a Houston-based community for input since we have to deal with harsh summers. Do you have any brand suggestions or recommendations to increase the coating's durability? How difficult and long was the process and how has it kept up with with the heat and tire wear over time?
I did... did not come out as I hoped. The biggest key is making sure your garage floor is 100% clean -- I think mine had spots that weren't up to standards and the epoxy did not want to stick/stain those parts. It's not that hard to do, just requires your time and patience in scrubbing the entire floor to ensure its 100% clean and ready for the epoxy.
I just bought a house and move in in two weeks and was wanting to do this, but I am wary. If there is any oil or grease on the garage floor it is not going to stick. Even if you scrub and powerwash, oil absorbs into the concrete and I think will prevent the coating from sticking permanently. My dad powerwashed and scrubbed his floor just to gett it clean, but stains were still present although the surface was clean to the touch. So basically you need a garage floor that is stainless and in mint condition from what I have read/heard.
Yes, pressure washed and believe used Rust-o-leum package I found at Home Depot. It requires you to put some type of acid (?) -- I'm probably using the wrong word here -- on the floor to help it stick/stain before applying the epoxy. I had a lot of gunk/crap on my floor and suspect I didn't do a thorough enough job in certain spots to clean it, which led to the epoxy not staining as I hoped.
The self-applied epoxy I've seen doesn't last very long. The professionally applied stuff (where they come in with a diamond grinder to roughen up the surface of your garage) looks much better and lasts longer. But obviously more expensive. Costco sells some flooring called Motofloor that looks pretty nice. It's an interlocking polymer tile that is easy to install yourself. http://www.costco.com/MotoFloor®-Modular-Garage-Flooring-Tiles.product.100009181.html I did half my garage with a similar product and prefer it to epoxy, because I've moved several times. I just box up the tiles and take it with me to the new place.
The stuff you paint on doesn't last very long. It'll wear through where you park. There is professionally applied stuff that is like an inch thick layer that lasts longer. They also have "garage tiles" that look good, but are more expensive. We had a neighbor that did a flooring that they literally rolled out like inch thick epoxy stuff. I don't know the name/brand/company but it looked great (but very expensive).
Damn. I was seriously entertaining the thought of applying this to my garage floor thinking it would be cool. It sounds like a bunch of bs after reading this thread...unless you already have that crystal clean garage floor to apply it to. I thought one of the points of doing this was to cover up existing blemishes on your old garage floor? Guess not.
There's a company called Racedeck and another called Swisstrax, iirc, that also does similar modular flooring. Check these guys out too: http://www.premiergarage.com/austinnorthwest/garage-floors.html I've worked with them before, not cheap, but they do great stuff and it looks prettier to me. They don't do Houston but they could put you in touch with someone.
Looks like they actually have a Houston office on Tanner Rd. Sent in a consultation request. Thanks for the recommendation.
I think that if you really want to do it, buy the best stuff you can buy at the store and just know that you'll have to regularly re-do it every year or two.
I just did this to my garage in a brand new house. Decided that if I was going to spend a lot of money on material, then I wanted to do it once and not have to redo it down the road. I opted to grind my floor using a diamabrush (Rent the tool from HD) and went with the armorclad 3 system coat. Applied the primer, 100% solids epoxy, and then the final military top coat. My floor looks great! It has a very thick layer to it. I probably spent about 1k to do the floor myself. It was very time consuming since the grinding process took forever!
