There's been a few posts about garage floor options.
On the most recent one http://forums.corvetteforum.com/nort...y-or-tile.html
a member and I took the conversation off line and it turned into a job for me. One of the services I offer as a contractor is garage floor epoxy coatings. It is not my intent to push epoxy floors as epoxy is only one of the possible garage floors available. My intent is to share my knowledge of the epoxy option.

The recent job I did was a 2100 SF metal building. As with any project the preparation is key. This floor was so smooth, one of the best cement finish jobs I've ever seen. It was actually too smooth so I had to grind it so the epoxy would have some "tooth" to grab on to. I used a grinder that has 6 replaceable stones doing the grinding.


In extreme cases scarifing the surface maybe needed. Scarifing will leave the surface rougher than just grinding, kind of like an orange peel. This is a basement floor I did a few years ago this was scarified mainly because there was 10+ coats of paint on it.


Once the concrete is roughed up to get the best result apply 3 coats. I use an industrial two equal part epoxy paint. (Can't buy this stuff at Home Depot!). First coat.


Don't have any second coat pictures. The second coat was 85% good enough but the third coat put the icing on the cake!




Here's another customer's floor, all grinded and ready for paint.


Finished shots:




These epoxy floors turn out real nice! So after doing the recent one I decided to redo mine. 10 years ago when I built my garage was the beginning of my epoxy floor education. Did a lot of research and decided on the U Coat It system. Within a year of applying the U Coat It I was dissatisfied. I had a lot of tire patch lift and the finish was not what was promised. Actually if they had insisted that I apply 2 coats the finish may have been acceptable. I called them on their guarantee and ultimately they blamed the failures on my concrete. So I've lived with that mistake for 8 or 9 years and everytime I do a floor for a customer it kills me when I look at mine I took a chance and didn't grind my floor as what was sticking of the U Coat It is pretty stuck. I painted a first spot coat covering all the areas where the concrete was exposed. Then painted 2 more coats for the following result!






Hope you enjoyed this and maybe learned something, PM me or email me at: corvette@jporter.net if you have any questions.

FWIW, installed this costs $3 to $6 per SF depending on conditions. If you'd want to DIY this you could do it for about $1 a SF, with a lot of work!

 

Nice posting John! Do you know of any plausible "textured finish" for our level of floor, such as the non skid I experienced on the flight deck/hanger bay of an aircraft carrier during my time in the Navy?

 

 

Scarify the floor and add aluminum oxide

 

Nice job on the floor John, what did you do with all the "stuff" from the garage? How long did you have to stay off of it?
Hope to catch up with you guys in a couple more weeks, been a busy summer, need to get Old Red out for a run

 

Dan, Shed is packed, can walk on it in a day, drive on it in a week.
Hope to see you soon

 

Let me tell you something. That coating is frickin unreal. I've been on my knees (no jokes please) repairing equipment, and it will tear right through denim. The tips of my steel toe boots have the leather ripped clean off. One thing is for certain, you don't slip on that surface, it holds you in place.

Oh, and pretty cool pics John.
Hope to get my garage done sometime. As campy as it is, I'd like the checkerboard pattern.

 

that turned out nice

 

??? $$$

Thinking of painting/epoxy my 1500 sq. ft. garage floor?

 

Actual cost depends on a few things, call me if you want to get accurate quote. John 610-541-6705.

 

Nice job on the floor!

 

Great Quality Work! I'm going to need about 2000sq done in the future.

 

Could that be $12,000????

 

NO, the larger the area the less cost per SF