Garage Floor Coatings
How to Choose the Right Garage Floor Coating
By Edward Winslow
There is garage floor paint and garage floor high performance epoxies. Despite what it says on the label garage floor paint won't last. It chips off the floor quickly and delaminates from the hot tires from your car. However if you choose the right product and application system you will be able to produce a high quality floor that keeps your garage bright, clean and lasts for years.
Surface Preparation
The number one cause of coating failures is improperly profiling a concrete surface. Profiling concrete is the process of roughing up the surface to feel like 80-120 grit sandpaper. This process is called "etching concrete". This is the most important step of paint or coating applications. Etching provides increased surface area for your garage floor coating to stick to substantially reducing the possibility that your coating will chip or delaminate. There are four options for profiling your floor.
1. Etching Concrete With A Gel Acid -Gel acids are the most effective way to profile a concrete surface. They are safe, easy to use and provide a consistent result. Gels are rolled on the floor with a paint roller, leave to 15 minutes and wash off. The result is equivalent to 100 grit sand paper. Removes bond breakers while increasing surface area for coating.
2. Etching Concrete With Liquid Acid - Liquid acids have been used for years to profile concrete. However they are very diluted producing ineffective uneven results. The two flaws with etching concrete using a liquid acid is that they are diluted, weak and get into the tiny airholes in concrete. Application of a floor paint or epoxy will reactivate the acid particles causing rapid deterioration of your coating.
3. Shotblasting-Professional coating applicators will use a tool called a shotblaster to profile the surface. This is a walk behind tool that shoots thousands of tiny ball bearing at the concrete surface. Result is similar to that from etching with a gel acid. Ball bearings are easily cleaned off the surface with a magnetized broom on wheels.
4. Floor GrindingThis is a walk behind machine like a heavy lawnmower with diamond blades that grind the top layer of the concrete garage floor. Concrete dust is cleaned while grinding with a high powered dustless vacuum. This is the preferable way for surface preparation when applying polyaspartic coatings, but not the best choice when applying epoxy or paint.
Choosing Your Garage Floor Coating
Contractors love the garage floor coatings available at home improvement stores because they chip and delaminate. Contractors are constantly hired to remove these failed coatings and reapply high performance 70 - 100 % solids epoxies. However there is a cottage industry that has been created online where you can purchase a high quality epoxy coating, apply yourself or have your contractor apply for you.
When looking for an epoxy coating, the best choice is a 100% solids coating that is rolled on after your floor has been properly profiled and is dry. These high performance coatings are two components that are mixed together using a drill and mixing paddle. They dry quickly so once they are mixed it's important to move fast. Pour into a paint tray and roll on the surface. They come in numerous colors and can be decorated by adding colored vinyl chips into the surface.
A final coat is added using a Urethane that is rolled on the surface. The process takes 3 days but very little time for each step.
Day One Floor prep, etching your concrete. (1-2 Hours)
Day Two Apply Epoxy and Color Chips. (1-2 Hours)
Day Three Apply Top Coat (1 hour)
Pricing
An inexpensive concrete floor paint will cost about 50 cents per square foot. Expect to pay $1.00 - $2.00 per square foot for a high performance industrial coating.
Edward Winslow is a real estate and construction professional providing online marketing services for real estate professionals, contractors and specialty building product manufacturers. For more information click san diego garage floor or visit http://www.metrocrete.com/.
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