Anyone Resurfaced Their Garage Floor?

Mine is in dire need of resurfacing... Looks like 30 years of salty cars have taken their toll.

Obviously, the broken pieces up front need to be repaired. I'm just wondering if anyone has used a self leveling product, how it went down, and how it's holding up?





The back of the garage is still nice and smooth. I'm not sure if I can get away with just doing the front, or if I should just do the entire floor.

 

From what I've seen, the professional garage floor epoxy companies grind the floor down. They will not trust the top layer because of oils and crap not giving a good bond.

I'm sure if you powerwashed it down with a degreaser, let it fully dry, you'll be fine with a self leveler and whatever finish (epoxy or paint).

We've used these folks many times. I'm sure there is a similar company in NJ.

http://bostongarage.com/garage-floo...0816&utm_campaign=bostongarage.com+-+flooring

 

My brother tried the DIY method, and had reasonable success. It was a fairly new floor in good shape though. Not sure which brand, but an epoxy chemistry.
He chose a light grey color (to reflect more light), and regretted it later, as it is impossible to keep it 'light grey'.
This past December, re covered the whole thing (3 bays) in the interlocking tiles that let stuff drain through. We'll see.

 

Thanks for the input guys. I need to do something for sure.

 

I haven't done the leveling stuff, but the guys that did my shop floor used a floor buffer with some big diamond cutting discs bolted to the bottom of it to grind my floor smooth before epoxy coating it.





BC

 

Nice shop. The floor looks great. I'm looking for a more DIY slot ion though.

 

WOW They didn't use an exhaust fan during the grind?

 

I'm thinking the floor looks great, but it took a month to clean the walls, displays, and ceiling.

There are a number of excellent products.
As others and yourself noted, prep is the biggest factor.

I'd be more likely to go to a distributor who deals more with concrete and/or painting contractors than buy some of the DIY kits from the big box stores.

Pricier, but the products are better.
OTC products sold to Joe Homeowner is all about 'safety' in case the baby drinks it.
Pro products will typically have more of the polymers and sealants, etc. in the mix even if it is 'more hazardous'.

One thing is some of the glossy products get unholy slippery if wet with oil, water, antifreeze, etc..

A bud's factory wound up redoing the redo after about a dozen people fell at different spots.
He works with hydraulic machinery and said once the fluid got on the floor coating, even just standing still was dicey.

Even tho it is tough to keep 'clean', lighter colors are like free shoplighting.

 

Can I ask how much this cost you?

 

X2... Many years ago, I used to work at a deep draw eyelet shop. They had presses that would essentially produce an oil fog. On humid days,you had to practically wear ice skates to get around.

They do make an additive for grip but it does trap dirt making the floor harder to keep clean.

 

You can barely see the door up in that picture and I had some box fans pulling some of the dust out, and they had a shop vac trying to capture some of it as they were grinding, but....

^^^This^^^

He is right about one thing, You can see it in the pictures, just how much brighter the shop became with that reflective floor surface. It has the colored paint chips in it to help give a small amount of texture, for grip and to cut some of the glare off of it. But it is still quite slick when something oily gets on it, but it wipes up so easily.

I got a deal from some guys that work for a big commercial outfit that does this kind of work. My shop was way to small for the company to mess with, so they take on small projects in the evenings/weekends to make some extra $. They use the same products (leftovers from bigger jobs) and the company equipment, so the price was about the same as I could have paid to buy the stuff and do it myself. I think it wound up around $1.50/ Sq. Ft. for 3 coats. Primer, color coat with chips, and urethane clear coat for UV and scratch protection.

I would do it again in a heartbeat for sure.

BC

 

Except for the cost the diamond grinding is a great option. We did it in our work shop and everybody likes it and it's easy to keep clean.
Back to the DIY question, I tried several of the leveling/topping compounds on my garage floor with no great results. I live in Ohio so the winter freeze would pop it loose after a year or two at the most.
Two years ago I was tiling my back porch floor and had a bunch of thinset left over. (this is the compound for installing tile over a cement floor) Just for the heck of it I troughed it down over a busted up area of my garage floor and what do you know. . .It still looks great. Just like the day I put it down. I used the additive that gives it extra adhesion so that might help too. Give it a try. A 50 lbs. bag is like $10.