Garage floor coatings/sealers

["B&T Roddick" <1roscoe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey, with an Imperial we DEFINITELY have the drip (tranny) pans.  We are leaning toward a good (maybe colored) sealer instead of a "paint", just wondering if any are better than others for repelling petroleum products.

 

Thanks for the replies, folks!

 

Bill

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Kenyon Wills

To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 10:46 AM

Subject: Re: IML: Garage floor coatings/sealers

Limited budget:  Get metal drip pans. (seriously)

 

Otherwise, skip the DIY paints that they sell at hardware stores and seek out a professional that can do epoxy-based coverings, or at least get two people in for bids to educate you about what you are getting into.  Expect that the floor jacks will kill just about anything unless put atop a piece of plywood or something to distribute the weight, as they have 4 metal contact points that can exert tremendous, focused pressure on whatever coating you have.  Think about rolling the jack around on it with the car atop it??  Oh Boy!  Get warranties or claims in writing on that one in case you get zapped and the coating fails.  This won't be the cheap route.

 

If you have a new floor, you might be better off leaving it alone or looking at concrete stains or dyes that penetrate instead of laying on top.  Seal the concrete and maybe you can have easier cleanup.

 

I used the Behr stuff, $20 per gallon from Home Depot and have resigned myself to buying a new gallon of paint every 6 months to a year depending on the workload that I'm doing in the garage, and I'm pretty active in there.  I don't care much, as I tend to do complete cleanouts about that often, and it's a trigger to do a cleaning, but not everyone's thinking matches that.  It'll probably go to 2-4 years between applications if I just park cars and don't work in there (fat chance).  2 gallons to initially coat, one gallon to recover and make things look new again.  The paint will show dirt like a linoleum floor that cement does not seem to do, so you'll be cleaning more often, but this is your GARAGE, your holy shrine or whatever, so it's worth it, right?

 

There is a new 2-part Epoxy product that is getting good reviews.  I saw it at the Home Depot in the paint section, but I'd personally find someone else to try it first.  A previous place that I was at had a defective product applied to the floors.  Words fail to describe how hard it is to remove a failed coating from your cement.  Once you commit, there is no going back to "clean" concrete.

 

-Kenyon