Shop Floor

[Mr Bogus]

I am going to redo the floor in my garage and am not sure what I am going to use yet.. As I am in the Midwest, the floor has to deal with salt and water (is sloped to drain out already)

Doug has a really nice floor in his shop but he has to take care of it (kick stands etc) and I am not sure I can do that part...

Rhythm has the checkerboard rubber tile thing going on and that looks really good but not sure of pricing yet.

I am leaning towards some type of epoxy but the stuff is going to have to be bullet proof..(I know prep is 95% of the battle) The square rubber tiles are a definite possible too (400sq ft floor)

What do you have and how do you like it? (pics would be nice if you can)

 

[Rhythm]

Dude, speaking from experience if you drag shid across your garage floor have an epoxy flooring company come out and spray your floor with a real two part expoxy resin floor.
I just covered my Home Depot two part expoxy floor made for garage floors with the checker rubber flooring. You get what you pay for. The Harbor frieght rubber mats tiles I have are fine but I would have like to installed the plastic race deck tiles but I aint trying to go broke pimpn out my garage, you know what I'm sayn'. Its difinetly a step up compared to the residental type two part expoxy.

If only plan to park your cars or store stuff in the garage, the Home Depot expoxy flooring will work just fine.

Just my .02

 

[ibified]

I've seen all KINDS of stuff in garages. Everything from the Rustoleum 2 part epoxy to the checkerboards to professionally installed 2 part spray on epoxy to someone spraying RhinoLiner on their floor.

if it were me, and i needed something that was going to be durable, I'd spend the money to have it professionally done. If you want the epoxy floor to last, that's how it's gonna have to be.

As someone said earlier, you get what you pay for.

 

[Scipione420]

Rhino Linings. I work at a shop that sprays rhino and its awsome on the floors. We just did the bed on the tow truck works great!

 

[thepushercg]

rhythm is right on the mark, i done my garage with the lowes epoxy, between hot tires on cars and rolling around the mechanics chair it has took up some of the epoxy, im going to redo it with the higher quality stuff. cost about four times what i paid.

 

[captain]

My floor has Epoxy resin on it, for the most part the only thing that has stained it a little darker was brake fluid. As far as the scratching, you put almost 500 lbs onto a little footprint of the kick stand and its going to scratch.... I dont think there is anything out there that could not be scratched. We put a new coat on the floor about every 4 or 5 years just to keep it shiny......

 

[Mr Bogus]

Hey Doug...
your floor was spotless and is why mine needs done now..

I bought the house and the floor looked like it had been done by a DIY'er and about 98% of the coating is gone.. I am going to have to steam/acid wash before anything can happen..

I meant to ask you about who/how you did yours but things were pretty busy around the place...

 

[captain]

Its just like painting a car, all prep! You have to acid wash the floor and rinse, acid wash then rinse, then rinse again..... Its even more work when there is a bad base coat down that is flaky.....

We cleaned, cleaned, scrubbed and washed and cleaned the floor with muratic acid and a orange acid base.... let it dry I mean dry dry....

Then you mix your epoxy and resin and roll it on with a paint roller...... just like painting the ceiling but upside down... You want to get the epoxy into the pores in the concrete so it can bond to the floor, dont cheat yourself either, put it on thick.......

Let it dry and viola your done...

 

[rockadaous]

check out http://www.racedeck.com

 

[Mr Bogus]

Thanks Doug, pretty much figured it was like any other paint job... the painting is the easy part...

I have done some cement coatings but using a product called "rim seal" that was a 2 part that mixed in the spray head... impossible to remove after applied but the prep work took forever..

I am hoping the little bit of epoxy that remains comes off easy enough, I do not feel like having to use a "scarfer" on this floor.. If I can get the acid to etch the complete surface, I think I am home free.

Rockedaous: I looked at the RaceDeck but the price is prohibitive for this area.. If it was my workshop I "might" do that but as it is mainly storage/parking for the bike and my cars, it has to stay at or below $1 per sq ft... I hate budgets....

 

[CAT3]

I HD Epoxied mine as well, only one stall of the 3 car garage. Prep wasn't that bad used the supplied wash mix in the kit, scrubbed with a stiff bristle broom, rinsed and let dry all day-overnight-next day. I used an 18" roller, makes quick work of the coverage. Let it cure for about two weeks before parking hot tires on it. I left mine to cure about 3 weeks, spilled brake fluid in one spot, had water sitting in a corner, and gear lube resting on it, all these fluids for days on end before clean-up and nothing to show they were there once I wiped them up and mopped the floor. I used a tan/beige color, makes finding that tiny circlip easy when the pop off and lose sight of them. I would suggest rolling it on in a thin coat, followed by two medium coats, as per instructions.

Charlie