Floor Coating Options

[F500guy]

I am in the process of a garage make over and am weighting options if I decide to refinish the floor. I have an "expert" coming by next week for some quotes and in my previous job I dealt with painting contracts and jobs involving Epoxy and chemical resistant floor at the professional level, so not sure I want to spend the cash to get a quality floor above and beyond my current concrete. About 12 years ago a had a single car garage that i used off the shelf epoxy coating from HD, it was new concrete so the prep was pretty easy, only acid wash and I was really surprised how well it has held up, but not sure the level of prep for a 40 year old concrete slab.

What have others experienced from the pro's at what cost or how much work for an old concrete floor for a DIY project and what products.

Thanks for the reply's

lance

[F500guy]

176552
176553
So, I got a lot of views but no input on this question, so if anyone is wondering about a floor coating. In my area, Portland, Oregon the cost for a pro job was a bout 8 dollars a square foot, I checked with 3 companies and all with in a couple hundred dollars. That was 3K for my 2 car garage. Got the side concrete done with the floor. They ground top layer, put down colored layer, then a layer of chips that cover most of the first layer. That set for 1 hour and then the squeegeed and rolled out a clear a coat. I am doing a whole garage re-org to get organized and make room for another car in my life. Still have some some cabinets, sheet rock repair painting to do, but it is coming together nicely. I suspect there will be about 5K into the re-org project with 3k being the floor. I did research about doing it myself, but the grinding the top layer was something I did not have on my list of fun things to do and it is much better than the acid etch process of most do-it-yourself systems and the quality coating products was near a thousand dollars just for the coatings and it would have been a multi day project for me. They started at 6:30 AM arrival and were leaving at 2:00 PM. I think it is a worthy investment for having the surface to work on, way better than my shop that I DIY'ed.

[cob427sc]

Floor looks great! I did my garage (32' x 50') with the off the shelf HD product made by Rust Oleum. Did the acid wash twice to remove old stains and it came out well. Only item I would have changed was the chips. Makes it look great but with my 70 year old eyesight it's easy to lose small nuts, screws, etc when they fall to the floor.

[CaptB]

A year ago I did a 3 car garage and it was around $3,200.

[narly1]

Looks great! While you're at it another garage improvement that I think is really worthwhile is to skin over your work bench or counter tops with stainless steel.

So easy to keep clean and dust free. Spray it with your favourite cleaner, scrub it with a Scotchbrite pad and then wipe the grime off with a rag and it will look beautiful every time.

Earl

[CaptB]

I will tell you that your garage will stay warmer (to a point) in the winter because you don't have all of that cold concrete.

You cannot weld over a polyeurea floor though.

Easy to clean spills.