Steve 96C4S

It's finally time to epoxy my garage my garage floor


so I called the painter that was supposedly going to do it but he hasn't returned my 5 calls. He's out. Then I called a couple of other painters and they said they'd never done it before but would try. Try? Uh, no thanks. I called another painter we used on our old house and he said he'd do it. I asked him if he'd done epoxying before and he said he had. Then he said that he recommended painting the floor and not expoxying it as it's cheaper. I reitterated that I needed it expoxied, not painted. He said ok. I told him I needed it acid etched as people had said it should be done. He said that he didn't do that but that he would clean it and lay it down and it should be fine.

He asked me if it's oil or latex paint? Oil would take 2 days, latex 1 day. I told him I wasn't sure but that latex sounded easier to work with. I don't know anything about this and it didn't seem like he was that knowledgable either, but maybe he is. His english is very minimal, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable using him. He said it would take 2 coats, with drying time between, 2 gallons per coat. The garage is about 20 X 22.

Any recommendations? Just find another painter? I've heard that some of you guys spent like $1200 or more for this, but this guy is only charging $200-250 for the labor and the epoxy should be around $120-150 he thought.

I know it may be an easy DIY to some but I'm not going near it myself. No time and no inclination, so that option is out. How do you find someone that really, really knows garage floors? It's hardly worth someone's time to come out here all day if they only make $200, or maybe it is...

Thx in advance,
Steve R

(pics of the garage floor - the walls and ceiling will be painted this weekend, shell white)






Would you be comfortable having this bike on the bike rack next to your car? (see below)

It's my wife's and I finally removed it from the garage yesterday after clearing out and cleaning out the garage. I hit it with my head sometimes and can just imagine the disaster of it tearing out of the wall one day and falling on my 993! She doesn't want it in the basement as she can't lift it back out upstairs - no walk out. She wants me to put it back in the garage. Would you? I told her I'd take it out of the basement for her anytime she wants! She wondered how she'd get it out when I wasn't home. Arghhh.



Glad this is all gone!

Land Jet

If I were you I'd check out Griot's Garage. They sell a two part garage floor paint called "Industrial non-lifting floor paint" {$59 a gallon} and have done lots of research, however, you have to follow their sequence of instructions which includes etching with muriatic acid. Muriatic acid is a mild acid used by cement and bricklayers, and is used while wearing rubber boots and gloves. If you want the floor to last, your Mexican may not be the one to use if he does not want to do a complete job. Good luck.

Black993

Friend and I did his when he moved in about a year ago. I'll get the details on what he used but it came out great. It etched with a citrus acid and was pretty easy to do. Took 24 hours before it was able to be driven on. Looks just like it did the day we put it down.

I used the more expensive stuff from home depot and its lifting pretty badly right now. If I drive in with hot tires it will stick to them and looks terrible.

Steve 96C4S

Black 993: Ouch, that does sound bad that it lifted up so easily, and after all that work required.

Land Jet: I forgot about Griot's garage. Thanks for refreshing my memory from an earlier post I had forgotten about. My painter said that the epoxy is about $33 a gallon, but if Griot's is twice that, I'm guessing it's alot better. He didn't seem real confident with his info though it could be a bit of a language barrier. Not much English.

Now, how to find a good painter to do this job in Gaithersburg, MD! Any suggestions?

Steve

JasonF

I was quoted $1,200 for my garage (similar size) from my tried-and-true painter. He's definitely on the expensive side, but I have 100% confidence in him doing a top-notch job. He's currently epoxying my screened-in porch floor and insisted on a multiple step process. First, he power washed the floor with water and bleach; acid etching was next; then he put down two coats of primer. Finally, the epoxy goes on.

A garage floor is something that will look terrible in short order if the job is not done correctly. Don't use someone with little/no experience - definitely pay up or don't do it at all. Six months down the road you won't remember the price difference, but you will be infuriated if the epoxy (or paint for that matter) starts to come up.

Chuck W.

Check out http://www.garagejournal.com/. I did my carage in VCT and found the info on this forum a big help. They have a lot of links on epoxy.

Steve 96C4S

This is great info. Sounds like I better not rush into this but look for the right guy to do it with the right process. All I need is to spend $400-450 and the epoxy lift off in a year. That would hurt. Are you saying though that I'd have to spend $1200 to get it done right? My wife would never go for this. My territory has been cut in 1/2 last week at work so my income will be going down substantially. Nice, huh? Top salesman for 20 years in a row and this is the way they treat me. They felt that they needed to give the new people more/better territory so they just took it from me. Arghhhh.

Maybe I'll just stick with the ugly cement floor if it's $1200 to do it right. I just thought that SOMEONE could do it for around $500 or less with that Griots stuff. This is depressing. I was really looking forward to a new floor. Never had a nice epoxy floor. The painter said to just paint it in 2 coats for ALOT less money than epoxy would cost. He said it won't come up. Yes? No? My old garage floor at my old house was painted grey but over the years it all came up when I hosed it and drove over it. Maybe it wasn't done right to begin with...


Thanks Chuck. GREAT website and the flooring section is fascinating. I could read it all day, but I must get to work now!

Steve R

Franklin229

All I can say is prep is the most important part-etching followed by a good wash. Make sure there are no oil stains, blobs of tar, etc...I helped a real estate buddy of mine prep and coat a floor for an auto dealership garage in one of his buildings. We hired a professional bead blaster to etch the floor, then washed it. The best coating we found was made by Sherwin Williams-they make industrial grade products-not just home depot stuff-(no affil). Griots might be good-but I would imagine coatings designed for serious use would be superior.

http://www2.sherwin-williams.com/im/rail/fastcladfd.asp

dcdude

My current favorite idea is the grey rubber sheets with the rasied "coin" dots. Probably costs more per sq. ft., but you know it will never lift or scratch.

Steve 96C4S

Industrial grade sounds good. Do they sell them at the standard Sherwin Williams standalone stores? Now, to find someone to do the job. My painted doesn't do acid etching, didn't even know what it was.



Do you have a pic of these or a link to a pic?

Thanks,
Steve

993c2cab

Mine cost around 2500 for a 4 car. Prep is important as stated above. Your guy sounds suspect keep searching.. I love my epoxy

dcdude

BLT flooring seems to be the most popular among the "mats":

http://www.jnkproducts.com/floor_order_form.htm#Coin

Gasser

You might consider staining concrete with a good sealer. We did mine 3 years ago and its holding up great.

We powerwashed the concrete. Cut it into 24 inch tiles. Washed it again with a power washer. Stained it with the water based stain and let it dry. We then sealed it with the concrete sealer. Next we took some black grout and grouted the lines to make it look like finished tile. Lastly we put another coat of sealer on it. Turned out great and much cheaper than the epoxy.

Just an option.

Jeff

cabrio993

I guess that one of the benefits in living in Georgia is...cheap labor. I had our regular painting company epoxy our 3 car garage about 4 years ago. It still looks brand new with no peeling, etc.

Labor $300, Chemical acid for pressure washing $28, Epoxy paint $120, beautiful shinny garage floor...priceless!

Steve 96C4S

Thx for this info Jeff but I'm trying to achieve a prettier floor, just pure grey with some flecks of sand for traction. Also, the painter I talked to today said that epoxy floors are very slippery even with sand added in...








Just checked their prices, thanks. Kind of expensive though... it seems to be more expensive than epoxy would cost, and cost is a big issue.

Don't laugh, but this is starting to seems more complicated than it's worth. If only my painter that originally painted my house would come back and do this. He quoted me $450 and sounded very knowledgable, saying it would NOT lift up and I'd be elated with the job he did.

Maybe bare cement isn't that bad afterall? I talked with a painter today and he said that maybe I should just clean it really well and then paint it, rolling it out. Then just redo it every 5 years or so. He said it's alot cheaper and epoxy eventually starts looking bad anyway and is very slippery.

Ughhhh... back to square one.