Steve 96C4S

For those of you familiar with my long running saga of getting my garage floor expoxy'd by my painter, it's finally done now. I had thought about racedeck, tiles, professional epoxy (over $2300) and some other options (like doing nothing at all and saving $650 - the eventual cost of doing this floor), but decided in the end that epoxy would be the way to go for me.

My neighbor walks by as mine is being done and says his lifted up after only 2 years. Arghhh. I hope mine doesn't. The painter (he's the owner of the company) acid etched it and then epoxy'd it 5 days later with the Rustoleum product. He then tossed in the blue and black flecks at the end. There were 2 small spots where the cement is coming through a bit and he said he'd come back next week to go over that part as he saved some of the paint with paint thinner keeping it useable. It's always something...

I guess I expected a really super thick expoxy floor where they pour the stuff in alot more uniformly and thickly, but I'm sure that's what the $2300-$3000+ guys do instead. I went cheap, and I got cheap. I'm ok with the finish now that it's done and I got over my initial horror of it not being that thick. Neighbors walked by all day today (there was an Octoberfest pretty much in our backyard at the Mansion in this planned community and 1000's of people come from all over the area each year) and looked in and exclaimed - "That's the cleanest garage I've ever seen". That made it a bit better for me.

Thanks to everyone for their previous suggestions on how to do this.
Beforehand:


I'm glad I didn't have to do this myself. The chemicals were really noxious

My wife finally asked me how much it was today. She thought it only cost $200 to do the job. I told her it was more like $650-$700 ($500 for labor plus the epoxy was about $160 or so). She mildy freaked. I calmed her down and told her that people walking by today thought it looked really nice. She mellowed about it shortly after.





I told him I'd pay him to paint my wood colored, cheapo Ikea cabinets that the previous owners left with the house. He looked at the spray cans of white paint and primer I bought and laughed and said they'd turn out like crap. He said he'd take them home with him, take off all the hardware and paint them right, for ... $150 per cabinet! I told him they probably didn't cost that much. He and the other painter guy said they'd look better in the wood color that they were rather than painting them so I returned the paint and for now, they stay as they are (despite your comments before that white cabinets would look much better - I kind of agree but don't have anywhere to spray them without overspray everywhere and just don't want to deal with the labor of doing it)

Waited 5 days to park on it but I was able to at least wash the cars through it

Alas, I could finally park the car today on it. I'm happy.

You can see the surface flecks a little better here

A fat as* - not usually a good thing, but when it comes to a 911, it's not looked down upon

I even lowered most of the pictures as you guys said they were too high before. I can't lower the ones at the front of the garage though as the wallplate and switchboxes are there

I know they still look high, so I'll consider lowering them a bit more. In person, they seem the right height. If this is the biggest problem I have today, it's been a great day

Porsches are pretty tiny

I've dreamed about a nice epoxy floor. I'm really ecstatic right night. It's not perfect, but what in life is when you're trying to save a dime?


Yes, that's an old style reel mower near my car. Our plot of land is ... smaller than our house! Not many people can say that

After I put all the stuff back in the garage and the car cleaning supplies in their places on the shelves, we walked 50 yards behind our house to the Octoberfest Festival and she found an 11 lb Italian greyhound to take her mind off this "unnecessary expense" of painting the garage. This is as big as these dogs get, they even use a little box.



Pics from a previous year...





I'm glad I slipped this work in this week now that we are in full blown "cut back on all expenses due to the market scare situation". I doubt next month she would have "gone for it".

If you've actually scrolled down this far through all this drivel, have a great week everyone and thanks for looking. New suspension should be installed Oct 25th. All the parts are already paid for and they sit in my basement as I type. The market downturn won't affect that getting done!

Steve R

Barney1

Wow Steve it looks great. About the plumbers crack....HAHAHA just kidding...

Arena993

You have no idea how bad I want to do that to my garage floor. VERY NICE

Mike

murfysflaw

Looks very nice and I'd love to do it as well. My problem would be I don't think I could take everything out of my garage... it's an absolute mess.

993 Guy

Looks great and for $650 all in your got one hell of a garage mod!

Congrats on the new floor and the soon to be installed new suspension.

Keep us posted on the wear and tear...hope it holds up.

Chuck W.

Very nice. How's your back feel?

csertich

Looks really good. I like it.
chuck

jsh

Is that your study or a garage???? You paid $650 to paint the floor and you didn't have to move anything??? Oh my! or is it Oh well?

jugger911

Exactly what I was thinking...I wish my garage was that clean. I didn't even notice any cob-webbs!

Steve 96C4S

Thanks for the comments, good and bad I didn't do the work myself so my back is fine. I did move these 3 cabinets by myself though and used blankets and arm strength to get them in and out of the garage.

I'm not sure I understand your post and I've read it 5 times but just to clarify, it's a garage, not a study. I put all my car cleaning items on the bookshelves as well as my stereo, pruning shears and gardening stuff. We have a study inside the house, the place we put our books. I did move everything myself out of the garage before it was painted. So, I don't get your post, but I don't get alot of stuff.

matt777

Looks good. Did you you use the Rustoleum 2 part epoxy of the Professional version? I just did mine in the 2 part which was cheap enough at $200. It's hard to get the flakes evenly dispersed. Anybody who criticizes it can't use my lift that I hope to purchase in the spring Anyway it sure beats plain concrete and you're right - our cars make our garages look pretty big.

Steve 96C4S

I just asked my painter and he doesn't remember. He said he used the exact same one on his garage 5 years ago and it's still fine, that it's "not going anywhere".

I wish I had the time to have done this myself (and save the $500 total labor charge), and the knowledge, energy and risktakingness, but I didn't. My painter also commented that it's hard to get the flakes distributed evenly but since he's done about 8 now he's gotten much better at it.

I find the garage much brighter now with the lights on at night, a great byproduct of the epoxy shine. I have to admit that I did find an excuse to slip out there a few times last night to admire it on the pretext that I was putting something in the garage. Damn if my 993 doesn't look better out there now too! The bare cement floor didn't reflect the beauty of the car.

Cheers,
Steve R

viperbob

Looks great Steve...

Cactus

Floor looks great but something needs lowered.......

AOW162435

12 days and counting.....


Andreas