Garage floor resurfacing
 

I say resurfacing because my was floor is horrible. When my house was built in 1980 my father in law built it. It was built well but on a shoe string budget, many of the items like the concrete garage floor (he should have subbed out) they did it them selfs, I take my hat off to the guy because he had a real roll your sleeves up additude and that's how they got things done. Well back to the floor. They decided to pour the Garage floor on the hottest day of the year and besides them almost killing them selfs and getting heat stroke, the floor had a real bad finish. It set up in places and looked like Raw exposed rock. Yes it was real bad. It needed a real good grind.

This Machine is no Joke! 208 volts @ 60amps this thing "does work"

They ground the floor in a few hrs. The edges were done with hand grinders and diamond disks.

Then when the floor is ground they fill all the Small voids with a filler (that's the dark stuff) you see in the photo above. Then they re grind the whole floor again and this is what it looks like

Then the floor is painted with a Epoxy paint and then plastic chips are spread out into the wet paint.

The floor will dry over night. In the morning we will scrape off the excess plastic chips and then a clear coat will be applied. I'll post more pics tomorrow

Nice, I did my garage floor last year - thread here http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=801840

To anyone wanting to do it themselves, its not terribly hard, just time consuming. The key is the prep. Diamond grind, and use a epoxy primer. Use 100% solids epoxy and urethane clear (not the rustoleum kit garbage). Expect to spend $1400 in materials for a 3 car garage to do it proper.

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Great floors guys. I used to install these floors when I had my own company (pre-recession). The only thing I would suggest is to use a polyurethane not a 100% solids epoxy as your top coat. The epoxies are not UV stable and tend to brown or yellow over time. The urethanes are UV stable. I'm glad you chose to diamond grind and use acid etch. Bad for the environment and not a good prep as the acid can keep eating away at the concrete even if its neutralized.

I have been wanting to do this for 10 years. My floors are in great shape so no real repairs to do. They have never had oil or chemicals so should be fairly easy. I know not to do the home depot stuff, but just have not wanted to spend $1500-4K on it depending gone who I have spoken with.

We went with the Rustiolum Kit I got it at Kelly More. The instructions said the material would go a lot further then it did. I needed 2x material as what the instructions said. My friend that does resurfacing says it depends on the hardness or how open the pours are on your concrete. Nun happen to be pretty soft and it soaked up lots of material. We put down 2 gallons of clear and it needs another 1-2 gallons. This is the first coat of clear we are about to clear it again.

Check out www.garagejournal.com forums. I used legacy industrial for the epoxy, great stuff. 100% solids

Just finished the 2nd coat. I have to say I'm not super impressed with the Kit I used. I wanted the 2nd coat to fill or make more of a smooth flat surface. The clear seems just thick enough to do the job but I wanted more of a varnished finish.

Grant, order a Polyurethane clear from Legacy Industrial. Scotty will get you all set up. Have you gone on garagejournal yet?

Grant that floor looks great. Im a member at garagejournal.com and read all the threads on epoxy and wanted to do one but it didnt fit in the budget. My garage is 900 sq ft and would of cost over a grand.

So i went the cheap route and bought some .79c a sq ft laminate flooring. With the vapor barrier and edging i spent around 400$.

Seems to be holding up fine, only been 6 months though.

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Border; can I cover my floor with a poly afte having a epoxy base

Grant, yes! I used Legacy Industrial. The sales rep there Scotty is VERY helpful and can walk you though all the do's/don't's and will make sure their poly is compatible.

Boarder; I went to Legacy Industrial and I could not find a contact number. Then it was asking to register or "sighn in" sorry but if you can't have your contact info front and center for people to talk with you I usually just pass.

Here ya go Grant...

Hey thanks. Don't know how I didn't see that?

As boarder said you can put poly over. Because it's past 24 hours since you put the epoxy down the two products will not chemically bind. You will need to sand the epoxy to create a light textures surface for them to mechanically bond. Ask the manufacturer how they want it done. Typically a orbital floor sander and some 100 grit for a pass or two does it.

I called Legacy and they said YES you can apply their product directly over the top of my existing surface. however the surface needs to be "de Glossed" I would need to sand down the floor and roll out a gallon or 2 of their stuff and then wait another 3 days for it to dry.

The worst part of this job was having to have all my stuff sit outside for 3 days for the floor to dry. Well it's more like a week.

1 day to prep. 1 day to paint and apply chips and allow to dry. Then 3 more days to wait for the clear to dry.
Most people have the garage packed full of stuff Lucky for me my garage holds only the Gem Car and the boat. But still having all ur stuff outside is tough. Best thing would be to clear out your garage. Have a pro come in and and refinish your floor and then go on a 3-4 boat vacation. Plus you avoid the smell of the chemicals

People always ask me who moves the stuff in and out of their garage. It is a chore but wasn't mine. Another really trick floor is a polished floor. No waiting for stuff to dry. Easy to clean. Looks great

Looking really good!
How long did it take from start to end?
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Marius from Agro Garage

Curious to hear more about this especially for concrete floors inside the house.