Sealing new concrete garage floor

Hello all,

My wife and I just recently signed the paperwork to have a new house built, and it is supposed to be done in mid to late June. It has a two bay garage and a 14x55 RV bay that is attached to the main garage. I want to seal the concrete before we move in and am looking for opinions on what products anyone has experience with. Our current rental has a garage with what I assume is an epoxy sealer with the paint flecks in it. I like the durability, but hate the paint flecks, because it's harder for me to tell if it's clean, and it's a nightmare if I drop any small piece of any project. I don't know if I want a solid color either, though, because it might look like a pool. Haha. Pics would be a big help.

 

I used 2 part solvent based epoxy paint, and I left out the flakes. Its grey, so at a glance you may not notice its painted. It looks similar to plane concrete. I painted it 12 years ago and it still looks good. We park on it every day and have not had any issues with hot tire pickup.

At the time I painted it, the concrete was about 15 years old, and had some oil stains. I etched it with muriatic acid before painting (google for safety info).

I did make sure to get the solvent based epoxy rather than the water based epoxy.

 

I would suggest you give the new concrete at least a year before you apply the epoxy.

Give the floor time to lose the extra moisture.

 

That's a great point. Never even thought about that end of things.

 

Concrete will reach full cure strength in about 28 days. It takes a bit longer for the excess moisture to work its way out of the concrete.

It will never be "dry". Concrete is porous, it will wick moisture up from the base under it.

Make sure the ground and driveway are graded to allow water to move away from the house. This is a place where contractors easily get careless to foul up the grade.

 

I typically see 28-60 days curing time recommended before sealing or painting with epoxy. The concrete will probably be several months old by the time you get possession.

 

I painted my garage floor with epoxy paint looked good for about 15 years then it started failing badly the salt was eating it up especially by the expansion joints. I would suggest squeegee everything off and if possible rinse. Especially if you live in the snow belt and throw that damn salt or worse brine!

 

I lay a heavy sheet of black plastic on the garage floor in the Winter, all that shit drips on the plastic and l throw it out in the Spring.

 

Isn't the plastic slippery and dangerous?

 

we use industrial epoxy in our Amazon buildings and the pallet trucks eventually tear up the coating. If it was me i wouldnt bother with coating the floor.

 

If you are interested we rent to alot of decorative concrete finishers. They mainly use this companies products.

https://www.butterfieldcolor.com/decorative-concrete-products/

The cure and seal is great. The shake on color hardener with cure and seal over it is amazing.

The reactive acid stain with sealer over it is also amazing.

I don't know about where you are, but most equipment/tool rental stores know who the good and bad contractors are. A box of doughnuts and 20 minutes of your time will probably end up with the numbers of the guys that do what they say, and know what they are doing.

In addition you will know who leaves the customer with concrete with foot prints and never comes back.