Wow. A three car garage with work space. I hate you.
<grin> When we bought the "Momolith", as I named the behemoth place in Indy, there was going to be a good 2-3 weeks of work done before we could move in. Amazingly, the garage floor was almost pristine, considering the original owners had lived in the house for 2-3 years before bailing. I did a lot of research an ended up doing an epoxy finish using the Rustoleum products. I spent a lot of time doing the prep, which, like anything else, is the key to getting good results. This included an acid etch of the whole floor as well as borrowing a Blastrac scarifier from a dairy farm buddy to very lightly rough up the floor. The Rustoleum product is a two part epoxy that you mix prior to application with a working time of about 2 hours, IIRC. I also added some of the "sand" material to it as well, since cars would be in here with water and snow, making the finished floor like a skating rink otherwise. All in all it worked out well and the end result was satisfactory. I had one area where it lifted due to tire heat despite having cured for over a week. I took pictures of this and sent a note to the Rustoleum people, who called me and discussed the possibilities for a fix. They sent me some materials for free, which I used to fix the lifted area. Second time must have been the key, as it was fine after that. The new material blended well and was imperceptible as a fix after it cured. I had a former fellow employee who's husband had a business that did poured epoxy floors, such as those that are used in commercial labs (his biggest customer was Eli Lilly.) I tried to track him down to see if he could do my garage but I was never able to find him. That would have been the way to go, but I'm sure it would have been expensive. I think the DIY stuff is fine, but you have to make sure the surface is surgically clean for it to stick. If there is any question about your ability to achieve this, leave it to a professional. Dan On Nov 17, 2013, at 9:06 AM, Jaime Kopchinski wrote: > I did a bunch of research on garage floor coatings earlier this year. I > initially was going to go for a DIY epoxy job, but after more and more > research I determined it wouldn't hold up to what I'd subject it to. I > considered tile and polish too. I rejected polish due to the huge amount > of effort it was and its not really a good surface for working on cars. > There is a good video on youtube somewhere showing how many steps are > involved. Its huge. I rejected tile base on advice of friends who have > it. > > I ended up going overboard with a professionally installed quartz epoxy > floor. I negotiated down to about $5.50/sq ft. > > Here are some photos of before, during, after: > http://images.jaimekop.com/2013_08_08_Garage_Floor/ > > So far I've spilled some pretty horrible stuff on it and done all sorts of > jobs in the garage and its always cleaned up easily. And it doesn't get > slippery when wet. No regrets. > > If you're going to want a long-term permanent solution, I highly recommend > it. I didin't to be faced with re-doing this job 5-10 years from now, > which was one of the main factors in my decision. > > Jaime > > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
