Improving the look of an old garage floor

[tonycarguy]

My garage floor is so ugly, it's driving my crazy. There are paint stains and chemical stains (some 10+ years old). I can remove the oil stains but the paint stains appear permanent. There is also some pitting in the concrete.

What are the options to improve the look? Can you paint over a garage floor in poor condition with colored epoxy?

What about floating tile floors? Any disadvantages?

How about applying a thin layer of concrete over the old floor? Would this crack?

 

[hate2work]

Yes, a thin layer of unsupported concrete would crack badly.

I think the epoxy coating is the way to go, but the result is all based on the prep work, much like painting. I'll bet there are some good videos out there about it.

 

[CivicFan]

floating tiles if you can find some that look good. i highly doubt that your floor is in a condition to support a durable epoxy paint.

 

[PandaBear]

If I remember right you need to use an acid (Sulfuric?) to clean off the floor before applying any paint or coating, otherwise it would peal.

 

[jstutz]

I have had great luck with the epoxy. It mixes up and you roll it on like paint. You do have to prep the concrete with acid which is no big deal. When we bought our house, the lady that lived there had poodles that peed all over the concrete. for a year i tried to get the smell out and could not. The epoxy sealed it up and is extremely durable. Mine has been down for 8 yrs now and there are only a few minor spots where it has come up. I would definitely recommend it.

 

[bepperb]

Tape down a plastic bag for a few days, then pull it up and see if moisture is coming up through your floor. That will tell you if an epoxy coating would work or not. If you have no moisture coming through, you could muriatic acid etch your floor and epoxy it.

Every other option seems so expensive to me. I don't understand how laminate flooring can cost 1~2 bucks a square foot, but garage flooring is double that? I understand economies of scale, and the need for more durability but that should be offset by the much lower standards for appearance. Ridiculous.

 

[tonycarguy]

Originally Posted By: jstutz
I have had great luck with the epoxy. It mixes up and you roll it on like paint. You do have to prep the concrete with acid which is no big deal. When we bought our house, the lady that lived there had poodles that peed all over the concrete. for a year i tried to get the smell out and could not. The epoxy sealed it up and is extremely durable. Mine has been down for 8 yrs now and there are only a few minor spots where it has come up. I would definitely recommend it.


Did the floor have other stains like paint, automotive fluids, oils, etc? Those are a bigger problem than organic fluids from animals

 

[tonycarguy]

So has anyone here done the tile floors? They seem pretty nice looking; you can make all sorts of attractive patterns with them.

My concern is whether they withstand the pressure of a floor jack, and whether the outside edge wears down over time as you repeatedly drive the car over it.

 

[friendly_jacek]

I'm also planing garage floor. This is my idea so far: http://www.swisstrax.com/diamondtrax-garage-flooring.php

 

[sasilverbullet]

I had Premier Garage put their flooring and cabinets in - it's been about 3 years and I LOVE their products.

 

[Smoky14]

Tractor supply has a 3/4in thick rubber mat, recycled tires I think which is in large sheets 4X8 and 4X6 which will support a car and has drain troughs on the bottom. Just another idea and cheaper than epoxy.

 

[tonycarguy]

I did more research. The epoxy sealant is cheaper than tile flooring but seems to be more labor intensive and not DIY for 1 person because you have to do it very quickly. Also it requires 1 week curing which means my cars would be parked outside for a week, which I do not want to do.

The tile flooring seems attractive and I found some places that sell it for $2/sq foot. The main concern is whether you can use a floor jack on them. Floor jacks need to roll forward when you lift the car, and I don't know if these tiles let the jack move because they have raised coin patterns on them

 

[AdRock]

Check out http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/ an entire site devoted to the garage. There's a good flooring section with some people that really know their stuff.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

I waited for almost two years after I built my shop building before I put epoxy on the floor, and it was one of the best things I ever did. I went with a tan base color that has the multi colored sprinkles.

It is a rigorous process to get it correctly prepared, but the results are worth it. The entire shop is brighter, the floor is always clean, and spills simply wipe up with a paper towel. I can lay down directly onto the floor when I work on something, and when I get up I'm not covered in dirt or dust. I've subjected it to paint, a hodgepodge of shop chemicals, and tire chains on winter tractor tires and it's held up beautifully for about 10 years now.

The only disadvantage is that it's slick in the winter. I added sand to the epoxy around the pedestrian door, but if there is snow on your boots when you get past the door you need to stomp it off on the mats in front of the workbench before going further lest you want to look like you're break dancing as you walk across the floor. Water isn’t an issue, but snow on your boots will make it very slick.

 

[bigmike]

I epoxy coated my garage floor when I bought my house a few years ago. The previous owners left that floor a major mess, with stains and it had several cracks.

I first used a concentrated degreaser. I put it in a pump sprayer, drug in my garden hose, and used a stiff scrub brush that was attached to a long pole. Once that was sufficiently clean and dry (24 hours), I moved on to the next step.

I used concrete caulking in all the cracks and smoothed it out. There was alot of paint splatters on the floor, so I made sure I scraped that smooth as well.

I used muriatic acid and a pump sprayer, sprayed the entire floor. I just followed the directions of the manufacturer, then hosed out the garage again and let dry.

Finally, I used an epoxy bonding agent. It comes in 1 gallon cans from HD. It is extremely sticky, but goes down like paint. Paint the entire surface with it, then wait until it sets up.

Finally paint the surface with your epoxy. Put down a coat going in one direction, then the 2nd coat going the other direction.

I did 4 coats total on mine. It has held up well.

 

[Cutehumor]

the house I bought last november, the concrete garage looks worn with stains. anyone got pics of their garage floor? hard to visualize what ya'll are talking about