OT: Best DIY epoxy floor

[darryl]

Back in the day, before there was epoxy, there was floor paint. Got some in my basement. While it's probably true that paint back then (1958) was probably better, it should still be possible to find a decent floor paint without resorting to epoxy. Couple weeks from now I'll be hoping to find some.

[The Artful Bodger]

Double check what you put on the concrete floor. We have one building 45x40 metres and it has a very nice gray 'paint', it is oil proof too and engine oil, hydraulic oils etc do not soak in.

However it has one flaw, it is not water proof! Park a vehicle with wet tyres and it will lift the paint after a day or so!

[ChazzC]

If you're having fresh concrete poured, I'd highly recommend looking into densifiers. Instead of a paint or epoxy coating, you can use sodium silicate and get a polished finish. It's extremely hard wearing, dustless, and doesn't take oil stains easily. Our production facility has polished floors and industrial epoxy floors. After 40 years, the polished floors are still great but the epoxy floors look like hell.

Protectorate has specialty densifiers that penetrate the surface to harden & seal without any residue. Disney uses them extensively at their facilities.

[Fasttrack]

If you're having fresh concrete poured, I'd highly recommend looking into densifiers. Instead of a paint or epoxy coating, you can use sodium silicate and get a polished finish. It's extremely hard wearing, dustless, and doesn't take oil stains easily. Our production facility has polished floors and industrial epoxy floors. After 40 years, the polished floors are still great but the epoxy floors look like hell.

[mixdenny]

I used the Rustoleum 2 part epoxy from Home Depot and have very good results. My floor was a year old but not used yet. Even so I was not pleased with the trowel marks that were left so I put a diamond surfacing wheel on my 7" angle grinder with the vacuum shield kit. I sat down and ground the entire 10 x 22 foot floor to remove any imperfections. I ground out and filled the few small cracks in the surface. Then I used the recommended etcher. This process really opened the pores on the concrete and the product did not spread at nearly the rate it was supposed to. I ended up racing to the store to buy one more kit!

The instructions said to pour a certain sized puddle for so many square feet. But it stuck to the floor so tightly I could not spread it far enough with the provided solid roller. If I were to do it again I would just use a roller pan like normal paint rolling. It all ended well and has been very resistant to any damage for several years now. I spilled some epoxy on the older part of the garage floor and even though that floor was not cleaned at all I had a devil of a time removing the spill. The diamond wheel was the only thing that worked. This stuff really sticks.

[The Metal Butcher]

I'm not at all fussy, I'd really just like to have the option of cleaning up from time to time instead of a big, permanent, greasy mess. I don't have to have every speck of dust off the floor to feel like I'm a viable human being, either. If I can throw down some sawdust or kitty litter and get the oil off I'll be plenty happy.. If I drop a screwdriver and chip the paint I won't care, no matter how hard I try.

IF a urethane like mine is interesting to you, I will type out a semi-long reply, I'm not as naturally loquacious as some of our other members.

[Sicumj]

Only floors I have seen hold up to floor jack and truck traffic were epoxies with a lot of solids. The weight of the buckets were very heavy and the epoxy was troweled on. Floors as others have stated were acid etched and in some cases shot peened. Most DIY floor coverings are not good enough for long term wear IME.

[Commander_Chaos]

I'm not at all fussy, I'd really just like to have the option of cleaning up from time to time instead of a big, permanent, greasy mess. I don't have to have every speck of dust off the floor to feel like I'm a viable human being, either. If I can throw down some sawdust or kitty litter and get the oil off I'll be plenty happy.. If I drop a screwdriver and chip the paint I won't care, no matter how hard I try.

[The Metal Butcher]

Something like this?

[Tobias-B]

I looked into the same thing 6 years ago, and came to the conclusion that any coating I put on
would just add to my stress level. The 'barn' is full of cars, junk, machine tools and more junk,
stuff gets dropped rather regularly, and with a gloss finish on the concrete, the oils come off
it pretty well. Yes, it gets stained, but a quick wipe with a mild solvent every so often gets most of it out.

Somehow, a divot in concrete just isn't a big deal, whereas a hole in whatever coating would bug me.

t
coming to terms with compulsion

[BCRider]

Prep is everything. And that includes proper aging and full drying before you use a coating. I used a kit from Costco back 13 years ago. I acid etched the floor and dried it and the darn stuff still wanted to fish-eye like crazy. I had to hang around and keep the roller on the extra long extension going until it started to gel and only then did it lay flat without fish-eye'ing itself.

I did use the fleck stuff lightly and I also lightly sprinkled the sand that came with it. A LIGHT sand use results in about 2 to 4 grains of sand for each square inch. That's enough for a good key to your shoes but doesn't bother sweeping efforts at all. Seriously, use the sand for traction. But use it lightly to get something like that degree of coverage.

[john b]

My buddy helped me put down a product called Epoxy-Coat. About 12 years ago. He liked it so well that he used it I two, three car garages. One of his garageshas heated floor. The Epoxy-Coat has held up well.

[Commander_Chaos]

I used a product from UCoatit.
it has held up very well.
The only place it’s worn is where I stand at the mill and lathe.
20 years so far.

Thanks for answering the question.

Anyone else who's not a professional, has actually done this, and has a product to recommend?

[Doozer]

Check local certified installers....

Feel free to reach out for more info.


Charlie

Certified installer? To paint a floor?
Acid etch it to clean it and paint it.
This is not a moon landing here.
You can't install paint. Seriously.
You don't install a ring on your
wife's finger either. Stop with the
salesman word play.

-D

[sid pileski]

I used a product from UCoatit.
it has held up very well.
The only place it’s worn is where I stand at the mill and lathe.
20 years so far.