Moose

OK. I have searched and have not come up with what I was looking for. We are building a new house with a standard 2 car garage (20x20). I am looking at the flooring options but am a little overwhelmed. The epoxy is too inexpensive to throw out and the racedeck (or equiv) is over priced but looks good. There is also the rubber floor overlay to consider. I am in Texas so I have no problems with snow... Can you please tell me your experiences and what sort of costs you encountered? I will not be doing any fancy styles and am currently leaning towards Behr's garage floor epoxy that comes in over 30 colors and is cheap!! Thanks in advance for your help.


Steve
97 993 Turbo (daily driver)

DC from Cape Cod

I painted mine in burgundy and added black garage floor mats (17' x 9' and $149) to keep it clean (looking).

Works for me.

jdoc7

Moose,

I put down Rust-Oleum Epoxyshield in my 3-car garage in Nov. 2003 I am in the Midwest so we have salt, snow, etc. By December, I already had lifting of the paint, mainly under our Honda Pilot (SUV). The paint under my Audi A6 4.2 Quattro and 993 did not lift. I was pretty peeved considering I spent a whole day just prepping the floor. The previous owner of the home kept the garage floor pretty clean and there really weren't any major oil spots. Being the **** person I am, I degreased all visible spots with Behr degreaser, scrubbed each spot multiple times and watered down multiple times. I then scrubbed the floor multiple times with muriatic acid to etch, then used the citric acid that came with the kit to top it off. I sprayed the floor a few times to make sure all the chemicals were off then let it drive for 48 hours. Prior to putting down the paint, I went over the entire floor with a special cloth to get up any remaining dut/dirt. Then I applied the paint as directed, it was about 68 degrees outside. I left the paint to dry for 1 month before I ever let a car or foot traffic on it. Despite all that, it still peeled. I don't know if there is a better product out there. Each kit cost $54 and I bought three. I would not recommend Epoxy-Shield. Just my opinion.

tls

Steve,

First post with Rennlist and look forward to many more. I just purchased Racedeck for my 20x20 garage and spent around $1200. Installed it myself and it looks great. Easy to clean. In addition, if you move, you can take it with you.
I'm prepping to get my first 993 and wanted to make sure it had a nice home. The epoxy is nice, but I was advised that cracking would most likely occur due to earthquakes in So. Cal.
My 2 cents. Good luck in your hunt.

Todd
(future 993 owner)

Pete Lech

Considering the difficulty of redoing the floor after you have moved into the garage, I would pay to have the epoxy professionally applied. Preparation, especially on fresh concrete, is very important.

One guy who has a plastic racedeck-type floor said that it was subject to marring and cutting from jack stands and other sharp objects. Can you use a floor jack on it?

Randy M

Have a look at musclegloss.com. I don't know if it's good or not but you might get some info out of the site. I used both the Behr crap and the Rustoleum epoxyshield. Both products lifted badly. DO NOT USE EITHER ONE. They are crap. And the muriatic acid etching does not work as well as diamond grinding the concrete prior to applying any product. The route I'm going to go is to purchase a product like the muscle gloss as it is an epoxy/urethane multi stage process. We purchased a house 2 months ago and my garage floor surface is virgin. I'm still going to diamond grind it though. I recieved an estimate from a guy who does dealership floors for $2400 for roughly 900 SF. F*ck that I said to myself. What he did do though is tell me about the whole process and gave me brochures on every product he uses. He uses a product called polymax. I haven't looked it up on google yet.

Bokonon

Just did my garage floor following advice on http://www.slk32.com/pages/garage/Garage/garage.html

Went to Home Depot and got some industrial grade floor tiles. Its holding up fairly well 6 months later. Much better than garage floor paint my dad used after 6 months. The only issue I have had is with parking hot tires on it. I let the car cool down a bit outside before pulling in for the day. The hot tires cause the tiles to slide a bit.

The jackstands cutting into the tile is another concern but I just use wood between floor & jack with no problems. In the future however I plan on getting some of those flat footed jacks they sell at Griots. Or maybe just havea buddy weld on some metal plates to the bottom of the jackstand feet.

good luck!
-terry

SkipSauls

A caution on Racedecck - Don't get it if you ever plan to use your garage for anything other than for show! I work on my racecar and other cars in my garage and the Racedeck looks like absolute crap after less than a year. It seems to be a magnet for dirt, dust, oil, and everythign else, and there is no easy way to clean it. Sweeping does no good as it often just smears the crud around and makes an even bigger mess. I hate it, and would never use it again unless I was building a garage for show only.

My racecar's headers also melted several of the tiles, with the tiles literally rising up when they get hot, then the plastic melting and drooping down in an interesting grid pattern. The results look a bit like a plastic volcano, and the tile is useless because you wouldn't want the car rolling up and over them. Perhaps a street car's headers wouldn't get as hot, but I wouldn't count on it.

Whatever you do, make sure that you consider how you're going to use the garage before choosing a material. Don't believe the "tough, durable, blah blah blah" claims unless they can back them up.

(This cheerful message brought to you courtesy of a disgruntled owner of a bunch of dirty and ugly Racedeck tiles.)

jdoc7

Bokonon,

Wow, nice garage and equipment. Wish I had a lift!

james993

Hello Everyone,

First post on the site, although I have been reading it for a couple weeks. I don't currently have a 993, but definitely want one. Just can't afford it yet!

I have seen an excellent product used in an aircraft hanger. Since it was installed three of the regular pilots have used it in their own homes. It looks absolutely amazing, and seems to have held up well to jet traffic over the last year or so. I believe that this is the product: www.airtechcoatings.com although I am not sure it is the best on the market. Just thought people might want to check out the aircraft specific coatings before deciding.

One of the drawbacks is that they require almost constant cleaning. Any water/oil will need to be cleaned up as it will show. It is also pretty expensive as far as I know.

I am thinking of using this in my new house. Get the dealer to show you a hanger with this coating - it is very impressive.

John D II

The Griots Garage epoxy paint works great and does not lift.
A light grind and acid etch are required for a good, strong bond.
Be certain that all the acid wash is rinsed away before applying the paint.

Luis A.

I'm thrilled with my selection of Dexotex. It's 3M Colorquartz aggregate embedded in epoxy laid out in layers resulting in about 1/16" to 1/8" thickness. Google both terms for oodles of information and to find lcoal installers. Floor was shot-blasted to ensure adhesion adn checked for humidity coming up through the slab.

One installer quoted $5.25 per SF and another, gave me a PCA-friendly price of $4.00/SF for about 600 SF. The following photos show a few samples laid on our floor. There are about 12 - 15 stock colors but in theory the aggregate can be mixed in countless proportions to achieve many colrs and hues. Another photo shows a close up of the finished product matrix.

The best installers can lay it vertically and even offer a (very expensive) seamless cove base.

Yes, it's filthy. Nothing like winter and flash photography to bring out all the dirt. I hose it off, squeegee it and it's literally squeeky clean again.

dr kenneth e garchow

i have used armstrong VCT in my last 4 houses and put it in 3 friends houses.

i use the black and white marble tiles since they dont show the dirt.

do plenty of work in there, engine drops, tranny changes and suspension work. jack works fine. put stainless steel botom on my jackstands to distribute the weight and they leave no marks

have carpet pads under the tires to keep from staining tiles. never had any problems w/floor pulling up.

dropped a tranny on the floor and it chipped the tile once, replaced it using heat gun and scraper.

wax 2x /year.

cost about 52 cents per square foot plus glue and cove molding. not including labor. easy DIY in 1/2 day.

Monique

From a nwbie to another.

Welcome.

My garage floor is dirty but the 993 is clean.

bet

I installed Ucoat it with the Ugloss-AF last October. I have been very pleased with the results. Easy clean up and no lifting or peeling as of yet. It looks great and the application is not that difficult (prep being the more difficult part).