Saab9-3

I would stay away from sealing/painting. We did that on our garage a few years back and it just got really slippery when wet. Also, warm tires started pulling up the paint. We removed it, but it took FOREVER- the garage was about 2,000 sq ft. A waste of money IMO

pjkwong

I did the oil based paint twice and it still rips up from not a lot of use.
A lot of people told me
Epoxy (like Rustoleum stuff) and I think i'll do that next time.

eS2Ko

If you are talking about the rustoleum product that you can purchase from Home Depot which is approximately $60/can, then I would not recommend this product based on what i have experienced with it. It looked good for a couple of months, and is easy to clean when you have spills, but it peels easily. If i drop a heavy tool it will peel off, i left one of my cars parked in the garage for a couple of weeks, and it stuck to my tire and peeled off when i backed it up, if you need to jack your car, it will peel off.
Also, I have a 3 car garage, and used 3 cans, i made the mistake of not mixing all 3 cans in one batch, and painted the garage 1 can at a time per section, which was ok, but there was noticeable transition points between the different batches of cans that i used, some sections were lighter than others.

eS2Ko

I may be interested in this setup, How long have you had it and have you encountered any problems with it? Can you PM me with some pictures, i would like to see what it looks like fully installed.

Just to see what i may be gettig myself into, how big is your garage, how much did it cost, and how long did it take install it?

Thanks

What The

I just did the Rustoleum grey Epoxy on my 2 car garage floor. I used two kits to be safe and had about half of one can left over.

I've heard stories of it being slippery when wet, so I went to Lowe's and got a can of anti-slip additive (which is ground up pumice). I only used half the can of the additive and it's plenty of traction.

So far so good. I think preparation is the key.

The garage floor def looks much better now.

corey415

Yeah please post pictures of the VCT flooring. I am interested also.

MrClean

This is what I did too with the anti-slip additive, knowing that I planned to wash the cars in the garage.

After two years of wear and tear, much of the high traffic areas no longer have the colored flakes and there are spots where the resting tires have worn through the epoxy floor, but it is not real noticable. Floor jacks and other equipment do not really seem to affect the finish (I have a two ton floor jack I drag around the garage). When oil is spilled or other products, they are easy to clean up since they don't soak into the floor.

Given the cost and time, I'm glad I did it and happy with the results.

I thought about the tiles, but the epoxy seemed easier (and less expensive). I'm not much of a DIYer and was not sure how the tiles would fit overall, given the construction tolerances of the garage. Also, there was the unknown of how difficult replacing one here and there would be. I do like the look of the checkered flag and other designs you can do with them.

Here are some photos that show the garage floor (ignore the other items shown)...



As you can see in this photo, the surface does get dirty (mainly due to the anti-slip material grabbing dirt) but the power washer and/or scrub brush takes care of it.


Couple more to give a feel of the entire garage/look...

sca037

There are so many choices in garage flooring that it would be good to spend some time in the FLOORING section of the Garage Journal forum.
I have a mat type floor covering in one bay called G-Floor, and have Kiwi tiles in the other. The mat is just OK, but the Kiwi tiles are fantastic. I can't post pictures here, but I'm SCA037 on the Garage Journal forum as well if you would like to search my posts and see some pix.....as well as a myriad of opinions on the various products out there.

Brian

jah

while building the new house the garage floor got quite a few spills. some of the stuff was hard to remove. i gave up of the idea of a pristine floor.

once past this emotional issue

i power washed the floor and let it completely dry over a few days. i applied a ghetto concrete sealant: 2 parts paint thinner and 1 part linseed oil. did this a few times. it went into the cement quite nice. spills are easier to clean up and dont stain the floor as bad.

Chris S

I just had an epoxy floor, w/ flakes, professionally installed for the 3 car garage in my new (to me) home. The installer did an epoxy floor in my old house several years ago, so I knew it would hold up.

The new one is 5 coats, including a clear coat...it's warrantied for 20 years, but the installer said it should last 50. That said, if I had a new, pristine slab to work w/, I'd go w/ concrete staining plus a clearcoat finish. It was almost $2000 after my buddy discount, but the results are worth it....looks really nice. The epoxy floors and cabinets are one of the things that attracted the buyer to my old house, so I think it's safe to say a good job will add value to your home for the right buyer.

Epoxy is great...it's tough as nails, chemical spills wipe right up, and you eliminate much of the dust that comes from concrete.

I don't like the idea of tiles, b/c fluids seep through the cracks, making cleaning more difficult.