Show me your epoxy floors and provide description!!

Hey I know there are some legit garages out there! Closing escrow on a house Aug 29th and want to do up the epoxy floors before moving in. 3-car garage, standard depth (approx. 21 feet).

I have been doing tons of Google image searching, epoxy floor product manufacturer websites, etc. but the problem is I am not getting enough of descriptions (flake size, base coat, application of flake light, medium, heavy) to be able to say "Okay, don't like 1/4" flakes, do like x-type of density of flakes", etc. Also a lot of times the resolution of images online is crap so it's hard to tell.

I am definitely not into the tan/brown color, so I am leaning toward a "tuxedo" type of color flake and a medium grey base coat.

I have seen some floors with sparse flake and I don't like that. I think most people do 1/4" flake and a light/medium spread. Looks pretty good, but I am wondering what bigger flakes and slightly more density looks like.

Regarding the attachments:

The up close square: Deifnitely do not like this. I think it's 1) the density and 2) the spread. Are those 1/4" flakes?

Corvette: Like the color scheme. Are those 1/4" flakes? I wonder what it looks like with bigger flakes and/or more density of spread.

Mustangs: Wrong color, but it looks like bigger flakes (?) Can't figure out what's doing it, but I like the pattern I guess.

2 pics with cabinets: Good color combos, but again question about the size of flake (1/4") and how it would look with bigger flakes and/or more density.



Thanks,
Danny

I have been wanting to do this for years. Every time I investigate things on the web I end up frustrated and pass on it. I think in the end I just need to contract with a company and suck up the cost. Seems like all the DIY STUFF just ends up peeling and such.

Would love to see others experiences and how they did it.

http://www.rustoleum.com/en/product-...-floor-coating

I just did a garage. Used Rustoleums EpoxyShield. The process was very easy. The flakes come in random sizes and you put them down yourself... you dont mix them into the paint.

Couple things to be aware of.
- Garage cannot be previously sealed.. or the epoxy will not hold for long and it will become a yearly event. If your unsure if the surface is sealed pour some water on the floor, if it beads up any its sealed. Most newer garage floors are sealed.
- Make sure you clean the floor. The cleaner the floor is, the better the results will be... The acid cleaner that comes with the kit does a very nice job.

Honestly you need two people to do the job efficiently. Everything is time based. One person can paint a 4x4 section, the other person puts the flakes down.....

I posted in this thread a while back that you can look at pictures of my garage floor.

http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showt...ighlight=floor

The only thing I don't think I mentioned was all those cheap products from Home depot & Lowes didn't give you any Flake. Like a little sandwich bag.

I used 75lbs(No joke) of 1/4" Flake, that's what gives the Floor the look. The less Flake you do the less texture will be on the floor. I purchased my flake from Sherwin Williams in a 50lb box, I believe my guy used the epoxy from them also, but I'm not sure.

Since your shooting for blacks and grey, use a grey base coat and go pick the color flakes from a paint store like sherwin williams. They should have different mixes of colors your looking for.

I did mine when we bought our first house back in 07. I used the rustoleum kit as well. Looking back, buying extra flake would've made it look better. My garage floor was pretty beat up and it definitely made a night and day difference. I just sold the house last month and when I cleaned the garage out well, there weren't any gouges or areas where it had peeled off. My only complaint has nothing at all to do with the product, but rather the way I treated my garage. The novelty of the new floor quickly wore off and I pretty much went back to using it like a garage shortly after it was done. To keep it looking like the pics you posted, you pretty much have to treat your garage like you would the inside of your house and constantly be cleaning it. Not to mention, opening the door as little as possible as every time you do, stuff flies in. I had a lot of scratches on mine where I would get lazy and not mess with putting a puck down under our motorcycle kick stands, but again, that has nothing to do with the product. It went on easy enough, my wife and I did the whole thing in just one day and we etched the surface and let it dry twice before we started as well as degreasing it before etching. I also took the time while I had my garage fairly empty to paint the walls which actually made a huge difference in the appearance as well.

Sorry guys, fell off the radar the last couple days, very busy! Keep the pictures and info coming!

Jason, thanks for the other link. What size flakes are those? 1/4"?

Anybody have good resolution photos of jobs done with bigger flakes or different distribution densities?

I am definitely not planning a DIY. A) don’t have time B) don’t want this one-time thing to be a huge learning curve to get mediocre results and C) I don’t want to risk it coming out crappy and being unhappy with something I am going to see EVERY day.

The guy I am using is an old friend from high school who runs a company and I understand from friends does excellent work with a 10 year warranty. Figure I might as well shoot an old friend some money and save a bit maybe too. But, I gotta come up with what I want. He's not local, so I don't have much opportunity to physically look at samples.

- Danny

Jason, nevermind, I see you already stated that you used 1/4" flake (missed that in my quick check-things-at-work-at-my-desk-while-eating-a-sandwich method !!

Still interested in the flake size/distribution.

Danny, not sure how to determine distribution, but all he did was grab a handful at a time and throw it until the whole floor was evenly covered. there's definitely an even coating about 1/16" thick.

The thicker the flake, the more texture it offers. The first 2 pics you posted looked like very little flake was used, and that tan is nasty looking. The top one looks like 1/4 flake. The last 2 pics look like 1/4 flake with a complete covering like mine.

you can see in this picture how the flake looks in different thicknesses. the middle looks like they just dropped a bunch and completely covered the epoxy. It's really up to you on how it will look. Either you want a lot of texture or not, that will determine the flake size and distribution.

Yeah no worries, thought maybe your guy told you the distribution. Can't tell from the pic if you're 100% covered (no basecoat showing) which would be "full spectrum". Maybe you are at like a 'heavy' in the light/med/heavy/full spectrum.

Hoping other guys will chime in on flake size other than 1/4".

I will do some reading at GarageJournal.com as suggested in TBP's thread.

Posted over at GarageJournal.com. No love yet! Hopefully people have some free time on a Friday hehe....

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=213471

Here are a couple pictures of the finished product. I didn't get any pictures of floors done with color chips greater than 1/4 inch, so I didn't take the risk. It made more sense, of course, to go with the norm. I am very, very happy with the result - I knew regardless, it was gonna look awesome.

If anyone is interested, this is medium-grey basecoat, with "Touch of Blue" color chips from Versatile Building Products, 1/4 inch chip size, heavy broadcast, single topcoat.

The broadcast is fairly subjective (i.e. what is light vs. medium vs. heavy?) I had my guy call me when it was time to flake and I jammed home to check it out on the curb before they flaked the whole thing. Worked out great.

- Danny