Good morning all, happy Labor Day! Before selling our home next summer I’m trying to “dress it up” a bit. One of the things I was thinking of doing is painting the garage floor. I’d also like to do this to see how it turns out – I may do it at the new home we’re building. A few months ago I went through a beautiful Showcase home w/this painted garage floor:
http://www.rustoleum.com/Project.asp?frm_project_id=30&ddp=30&SBL=1
Does anyone have any experience with this? Thoughts? Anything better out there in terms of durability, looks, ease of application, etc.?
Thanks,
Rob
Replies
Yeah,
The dirty b*st*rd that had this house before me did what you propose. Because it wasn't going to be for him anyway, the quality sucks and the apperance look like crap.
Now I gotta spend time and money to have this removed in order to be correctly done.
I wish his dog ill will everytime I look at it.
I don't have experience with the Rustoleum product. This spring I used the Behr single component epoxy from Home Depot. It was a 4 year old house that sat vacant for a while, so the garage got little use. There were no sealers on the concrete and no oil stains, so I skipped the acid etching and the degreasing.
I scrubbed and rinsed the bare concrete thoroughly. I did not wait long enough for the concrete to dry before applying the primer. I waited only a few days, which caused the primer to stay sticky for a couple of days. Then the top coat crazed when put over the sticky primer. On the other half of the floor it was fully dry before priming, and I waited an extra day for the primer itself to dry till it wasn't sticky, and the floor came out great.
(I wasn't being stupid topcoating over sticky primer. When it failed to dry like the can said, I called the help line and the guy snapped at me and said "it's primer, it's supposed to be sticky". Now I know he was wrong.)
I would use the product again.
I've used the Hot Trax paint on a concrete floor in a shop. I didn't drive cars on it, but it gets wet and sand scuffed into it a lot and it hasn't peeled in the several years it's been there. I used some on an exposed wood deck at another house and it stood up much better than the Rustoleum i tried before that. You don't get the glossy look, however.
I used a two-part epoxy paint on a garage floor (I know that's not what you are talking about; I am just telling you another way and why you may not want to do it this way)--seems to have held up (no complaints from the owner). It's not a fun job. You only have so long (open time) before the stuff has set up too much to spread; I mixed about a gallon at a time I think. The second thing is that is spreads and wets the surface about as good as honey--really had to scrub it into the surface to get it to stay put. Lastly, the smell is strong and will make you dizzy if you're not careful. I had a fan going and doors open and took many breaks away from it, but it was still nasty. (I was not wearing a respirator or mask or anything. If I were to do it again (and if I did, I'd charge about four times what I charged this time) I would definitely wear a respirator.)
An alternative could be to stain it and then seal with a Euco or Williams concrete product. Me? I'm just happy to see a clean garage floor. Dear wife would have already made the buying decision, anyway. So why waste the time and money when you won't get it back?
I've used Griot's Garage (http://www.griotsgarage.com) 2-part epoxy system and plan to use it again. Looks great, you can clean it with acetone or whatever. Need to put a very small amount of grit in it (slippery when wet otherwise).
Not for the faint of heart - acid etching required!
I love the finish though. Bulletproof and NO lifting or peeling.
T. Jeffery Clarke