Sorta OT - Floor Covering Questions

[BCRider]

Double tap, sorry.......

[BCRider]

If I knew what I know now going into this house I'd have not considered epoxy for a second. It would have been just sealer and floor paint like I've used in the past. Or I would have sucked it up and paid for a proper company to come in and do it using better stuff than the DIY kits.

I used epoxy floor coating in my garage and it was a total nightmare. But not knowing any better I went for the relatively cheap $400 DIY kit.

I cleaned with a strong degreasing detergent and etched with the muriatic acid according to instructions and let it dry for a full week. Even with all that the epoxy fisheyed really badly and only by rollering it right up to where it started to kick off after a couple of hours was I able to avoid a terminal fisheye finish. At that point I had to throw in the decorative fleck chips and non slip silica sand or it would be too hard to bond. And even then more fisheye appeared but not as badly as at first.

Oh, and did I mention that even after four years if something I'm dragging over the floor has a bur that it draws out a scratch line of the epoxy? It's not that tough. Or at least the DIY stuff isn't that tough.

So all in all my suggestion if you really must have an epoxy coated floor I'd strongly suggest paying to have a proper company come in and use the proper methods and products. And expect the price to be rather "proper" as well.

If I were doing it over again I'd clean well with a degreaser (probably only need this in the garage), allow to dry, double seal with a good sealer, allow to dry well and then put down two coats of a good quality floor paint. Allow THAT to dry truly hard for a week before moving stuff in.

Now paint isn't going to be AS tough as the proper epoxy floors that I've seen. So I'd expect some wear in the heavy traffic areas of these locations. But the beauty of paint is that it can be added to when the wear gets to looking too unsightly and you're suddenly good for another 5 to 8 years of use. Not like my cheap DIY epoxy that can't easily be re-coated and is not wearing in a nice way.

[Jim Williams]

I have an epoxy coating in the garage/shop of my new Florida house. It is very tough and scratch resistant. When it was a few weeks old, tire tread prints were visible from parking a car on it. After a few months, it does not imprint from objects placed on it.

Jim

[BigBoy1]

We just purchase a vacation property and I'd like to put a floor covering/sealer on the concrete floor of the garage and in the basement. I'm tending towards a colored epoxy paint but am open to other suggestions. The concrete has been down for about 7 years. The garage has seen very little use during that time and the basement has been empty all that time. There are no water problems in either place.

Can suggestions/comments be offered on my projects? Thanks.