Advice Needed: Garage Floor Epoxy!

Anyone have any recommendations? We're purchasing a home and one of the first things I want to do is coat the garage floor. I've read alot about the cheap kits from big box stores but would like to hear from you guys about other brands that are more durable. I'd only want to do it once! The garage is 575 square feet. Let me know what you used and how it's holding up!

 

I'm looking to do the same this summer. I have a few cracks that need to be repaired and some uneven spots to level out, but from everything else I heard it's all about the prep work to make sure the product bonds to the surface. Diamond grinding/resurfacing, muriatic acid and a good degreaser or a combination of any of those are all things that will help make sure the surface is free of contaminates. I have no personal experience but that's just what I've learned from my research into the subject. I'll follow along for results as well.

 

Lowes sells Epoxy-Coat which unless I find something online that seems better will be what I go with. Enough product to do 600 sq feet will cost me about $528. I've found a couple more online but may start giving them some calls to see what makes theirs better.

 

ive done it in two different garages one of the floors was on there for approx 15 years when i moved and still looked good. the floor i put it on was over 30 years old at the time. That was the rustoleum 2 part epoxy

The KEY is SURFACE PREP. follow the instructions and do exactly what they recommend to prepare the surface and take EVERYTHING off the floor and do it all at once.

 

That's the goal. The cost is pretty close between the couple I've called 650-800 for a full kit. The one I may go with is from U-Coat. It comes with a etch and then a primer, base coat, flakes and high gloss sealer. The others don't have the primer and it's thin and seeps into the concrete. I like the thoughts of that.

 

This ^^^^

You need to etch the shit out of the floor if you want it to stick. And if it had a sealer applied to it at some point, you're in big trouble.

 

Looks like a daily rental for a walk behind concrete grinder is about $70. That's way cheaper than doing it twice!

 

I got 2 of the kits from Lowe's to do mine and was super happy about the result. Held up well over several years and has had no issues. Surface prep is for sure the key to making it stick.

 

Update:
I ended up getting the Rust-Oleum Epoxy Shield kit from Lowe's. Our HVAC bit the dust and $7200 later I was looking for a bargain. I picked up the Rust-Oleum kit on sale and hoped for the best. Today I rented a buffer and Dymabrush head for said buffer and went to town on it. I unfortunately buffed alot of floors in the military as a private so I took to it like a duck to water. 4 hours later and I was down to where I could see aggregate and am pretty confident I got all the sealer off the floor. First thing I did was scrub the hell out of the floor with simple Green, rinsed then when I dried I started buffing. After I got everything done I swept and rinsed the floor of to see it there were any places I missed and then basically took the buffer over it all again. I got home from the rental store at 1 and had it back to them at 445. Not bad at all. After more rinsing I used the citric acid included in the kit and scrubbed everything yet again and then rinsed and rinsed... And rinsed some more. That's all for today. I have to work OT tomorrow and Wednesday but plan on painting first thing Thursday morning. I bought some DAP crack filler and will be doing that tomorrow night when I get home from work. Rust-Oleum makes a filler kit but not a single store around me has it in stock and I figured this stutt will work fine. I want it to look nice but at the end of the day it's still my garage.

 

Sub'd for results

 

Cracks filled and it looks like my slab is mostly dried out. I can see some spots along the edge that look like I didn't get 100% of the sealer off. I had a flap wheel laying around for my grinder and it didn't do crap. Being that it's the edge I'm gonna say F it and just roll on as planned. I filled the cracks in today and it's settling a little so I'm gonna have the wife skim them again in the morning. I'm sure it will just crack again this winter but I figured I had to try or it would drive me crazy. I've tried all kinds of things in the past to fill in cracks and have never had good luck. If that slab wants to move it's going to! Now we are just waiting on paint!

 

Epoxy went down today! At first it was tricky but we got into a rythm and flew through the rest of it. Start to finish it was about an hour and a half. Not bad at all. That shit is STICKY. We had it all over our hands it was super annoying, wear gloves. My wife was super OCD with the chips and I was constantly waiting on her to catch up to keep the sections small enough for her to reach all the areas. It looks excellent though.

As soon as we got done you could see where it overlapped and was drying differently in certain areas, not gonna lie I wasn't that happy. But that was me being impatient. 2 hours later and it was pretty much entirely the same color with no obvious roller marks. First impressions... It looks GREAT. Durability? I'm not sure how it would hold up without the acrylic sealer I'm going to apply. Its water based so it's not as thick and dense as a true high end epoxy would be. I feel like I could take a screwdriver and if I put some effort into it I could scratch it. The acrylic I ordered is designed for factories and is supposedly insanely hard when it cures. I wanted it to protect the floor, provide UV protection and give me a very high gloss shine. It comes in tomorrow and I am going to apply it Saturday morning. Stay tuned.

 

Just got done with the "Rock Hard" Poly top coat. I was very impressed with the capabilities of this and it's amazing what it is resistant to. This took a home store kit and took it to the next level. It was cheap and highly regarded. Sold. It went on easily and I had just enough to do the whole floor. It has a very nice gloss to it and I feel like it was a good decision to go ahead and apply it.

 

Your garage floor looks awesome

 

looks awesome

 

looks good. I was going to chime in and say if you end up having to use the home depot material at least grind the floor. you have done more than 80 percent of homeowners will do to their floor.

surface prep is key- it serves a few purposes. cleaning the concrete, removing the laitance (weak cream top layer) and providing a profile for mechanical adhesion.

if you ever want to do it again you can go to the local sherwin wiliams store and either buy or order some general polymers flooring resin. wont be too expensive and provide a thicker floor that you can broadcast sand or vinyl chips into.

let me know if you have any questions

 

I think grinding the floor was the key. Without that Im pretty sure it would of been a waste of time and money. I'm pleased with the results and I think it will hold up to my usage fine. I can see more grind marks and floor imperfections than I'd like but for what I have in it the results are incredible.