MrBonus

Racedeck really is the best looking solution. Your garage looks fantastic, DrDrilZ.

fluid15

I posted earlier in this thread (page 2 - #29) about my past garages, and now finished coating a garage for the 3rd time. My first two garages were experiments and this time around I sought out a better grade product based on browsing some garage forums and input from my fellow Rennlisters.

I haven't moved into this house yet so I can't comment on ease of cleaning, longevity, etc - but it sure looks good so far (has met my expectations).

Before & After Pics below.

OCBen

Looks super nice. How long did it take you to apply it yourself? What was your total cost to coat this 2 car + tandem garage? Thanks for posting, and thanks for the suggestion.

fluid15

Thanks Ben. It's very easy to do and worth the price IMO.

Product: UCoatIt (www.ucoatit.com)
I purchased from a local Rep, who's name was provided to me directly by U-Coat-It.

Cost: $750 for a 3-car garage.

• This was for 1.5 kits, a single kit is for a 2-car garage.
• This included the standard Epoxy coating + the UGloss kit. Without the UGloss it would probably have been ~ $500. I believe prices are on their website.

The Process I used:
Friday Night: Floor Prep (1-2 hrs)

• Mine was a new floor so no stains to address. I swept & hosed down the floor, and then taped all the edges.
• You can proceed directly to Step 2, but since I did this at night I waited until saturday for step 2.

Saturday morning: "Base Coat" (2 hrs)

• I mixed muriatic acid with water, and spread/brushed with a stiff brustle broom.
• I hosed off the floor a few times to remove the acid.
• Since the floor doesn't need to be dry - actually the directions state it needs to be damp (but no standing puddles) - you can proceed directly to laying down the base coat.
• Mix expoxy components and roll-on!

Saturday evening: Top Coat (1.5 hrs)

• This needs to be ~ 6 hours after the "Base Coat", which ended up being night time for me. Visibility wasn't very good.
• Mix epoxy parts and roll-on.

At the beginning I was being conservative to ensure I had enough for the whole floor. It looked good while I layed it down, but after drying I can see there were some areas I was a little too thin (right where my next P-car will go!)

Sunday Morning: Gloss Coat (1.5 hrs)

• Mix and roll-on.

General Comments:
Very easy to do, this would probably cost $2k to have done "professionally". Time will tell how it holds up, so maybe I'll revive the thread next year to provide feedback.

OCBen

Thanks for the detailed steps. How long do they recommend you wait after applying the gloss coat before you can roll your car in? I'm guessing maybe 24 to 48 hrs for a full cure.

fluid15

I believe it's about 48 hrs. They provide some plastic sheets they call "paw print" protectors, or something like that. Basically, they look like a typical 8.5x11 transparency sheet (does anyone really still use overhead projectors?!) If you must park in your garage right away you just place these in front of your wheels and roll onto them to prevent marking the floor.

The kits come in a nice package that includes the mixing bucket, roller, latex gloves, and large bag for mixing on top of, and then using for a trash bag. The only materials I needed of my own were the masking tape, extended handle for the paint roller, and a mixer for my drill (much better than mixing by hand!). And muriatic acid of course.

OCBen

I'll have to check their website to see if you can just buy the mix ingredients by themselves. Seems like they might be padding their profits by including things readily available to most everyone: mixing bucket, paint roller, latex gloves, large garbage bag.

fluid15

Here's the crap I used from Behr on a different house of ours (with "clear coat" - what a joke). This coating is ~ 1.5 years old. It was disappointing from Day 1. And yes, I was careful with all the prep work per the instructions.

MMD

Our house cleaning "team" refuses to clean my garage floor. For this reason I'm leaving it the way it is: plain concrete.

The darn thing is dirty all the time and I'm not going to treat the floor in such a way that makes the dirt and crud easier to see. Seems concrete "looks best" if chronic dirt is a problem.

So unless you want YET ANOTHER floor to clean in your house, plan your improvements carefully.

jasonfreed

Here's another option - Armordillo Flooring. I used this in my home about 1 yr ago.

It's held up great - I have a lift sitting on it - no cracks yet. I've dropped tons of tools without marring the surface. I've spilled coolant, gas, oil, etc....all over the floor.

It really has been bullet proof.

Here's a link to a post I made on Audiworld sometime back:

http://forums.audiworld.com/s4/msgs/2033036.phtml

InTheAir

I investigated getting my floor professionally epoxied, but at close to $3.00 per square foot it was more than I wanted to spend on a 640 square foot garage. With so many horror stories and personally seeing the results of DIY epoxy systems gone bad, I decided to opt out of epoxy's. The Racedeck tiles are great, but are equally expensive from what I can tell.

So, I decided to go with the BLT Garage Flooring Mat System (http://www.bltllc.com/g-floor_main.htm). These mats come in a number of patterns--we decided on the new diamond pattern, which is similar to the metal diamond plate pattern on many tool chests--and are easy to install. Unfortunately, many of the stock sizes require three mats to be used in a three car garage. Thankfully, there are a few resellers that accept custom length orders. We decided to get (2) 10 x 33 ft mats to fit in our 20 x 32 ft garage. It took about 4 weeks to get the mats, which were delivered on a semi-truck as two 275lb rolls. This arrangement cost a little over $2 per square foot.

After placing the order and waiting on delivery, I rented an airless sprayer from Home Depot and ended up spraying 10 gallons worth of primer and 5 gallons worth of paint on the walls, reorganized the garage, and installed a few shelves and a cabinet.

Once the mats arrived, it didn't take too much time to lay them out, cut them to shape, and bring everything back in the garage.

I also installed flourescent overhead lighting. I used two 4 bulb 4-foot units with cold weather ballasts. The cold weather ballasts ensure that the lights will light even when it gets cold this winter. However, .....

I'm pretty happy with the results. It certainly isn't one of those incredible garages that I've seen in this thread, but it is a good compromise and should resist all fluid spills, dirt, and grime.

Here are a few before and afters (to see the entire gallery http://www.pbase.com/jlsphoto/garage_before_after):

OCBen

Looks nice. Is it easy to sweep off the dust and dirt or do you vacuum for that?

In your first "after" pic it looks like the seam line is closer to the back wall of the garage instead of right down the middle of your 20 X 32 garage floor. Must be the distortion of the camera lens.

InTheAir

Yes, it is easy. I usually just use a handheld blower to blow the crud out. I've had the floor for about 9 months, so it has gone through a Michigan winter with salt, ice, etc. This Spring I did clean it by wetting it down with a hose, sprinkling a container of Armstrong No-Wax Cleaner on it and running the broom over it to suds it up and clean it. I then rinse it out and it cleans right up--removed the salt deposits, etc. Oil, brake fluid, etc. come right off. However, there are a couple of tire stains from my wife's car (not my winter mobile or Porsche). These stains might come off if I used some Simple Green and spent some time, but they haven't bothered me that much.

I think that is just an optical illusion. Both mats are 10' wide--however, the back wall mat is covered by "stuff" which makes it look narrower.

OCBen

For those with the epoxy coated flooring, have any of you used a floor jack on it to lift your car? Were there any compression spots from the jack's wheels? That would be my main concern, getting local indentations when using a floor jack.

Anybody ever notice this? Is it a concern at all? Guess this info can be obtained from the manufacturer in the form of compression resistance stated in psi. Then an estimate can be made on the amount of weight that the jack will be lifting divided by the footprint area of the wheels to determine the amount of compressive load on the epoxy flooring.

Edgy01

I would use a few pieces of plywood underneath strategic parts of floor jacks, etc. to keep from doing anything too permanent to the floor.

Dan