I'm going to be re building the garage soon. It collapsed about a month ago from the weight of the snow. Everything got destroyed including my beloved T Bucket. I'll post pics of the incident when I can bare to look at them. I'm still a bit torn up from the whole thing. Hopefully the new digs will get me going again. The silver linning on the dark cloud is that I get to build a new shop. So I've been looking at both U Coat It products and Racedeck products. I'm leaning towards the Racedeck because when/if I move I can take it with me, and it's way less $$ than some epoxy systems. I'm just a little nervous about jacking up a car or using jack stands. The U Coat It stuff looks great but I've heard of some epoxy set ups turning brown after a year or so. Also the prep and application take a few days. Any thoughts? Thanks
The coolest thing i have seen is a guy in ny got all the broken pieces from a counter top place /stone cutter for free and pit them in the floor when he poured the concrete it looked fantastic it had some kind of glaze when finished.
put a heating system in floor - painted concrete is great because you can always freshen it up with more paint. the fancy coatings and Race Deck are cool for shops that you do not really work on cars in.
sorry about your loss. Be sure to put a vapor barrier under the concrete. No moisture will rise with the temperature change. Some of those plastic floors don't do floor jacks without showing signs...
I used Home Depot's expoxy coating with sand for tread and colored chips. I prepped the floor real well with supplied cleaner and let it dry the appropriate time. 5 years later 3 complete restorations, trans swaps, engine swaps with the cherry picker digging in, sliding other heavy car parts on it and welding, maybe a handful of chips if you look real hard. And the chips are one a curb that sees daily foot traffic. Cost about $135 i think. My dad had the professional garage coating people come do his garage, don't get me wrong it looks amazing like a show room, but it also cost over $1,000. The race deck is cool looking, i just wondered about fluids getting under it as well as water and starting to mold or something. If i had to do it again, i might just get that industrial very short carpet. It looks professional and clean, although it definetely would hold some stains.
IMHO you are chasing ghosts using any coating on an automotive shop floor. If you spill a quart of paint in a cement floor, it will be there for 100 years. If you coat the entire floor with a coating, guaranteed somewhere it will lift or blister. Not if, when. Problem is that concrete likes to breathe and a coating is trying to seal it all in. You can't fight nature; the rock always wins. I know that this stuff works to varying degrees in industry, but industry spends a lot more money per square foot and I have never seen a home job last satisfactorily. Also IMHO, there is nothing like a wood floor in a shop. If you weld, then get a paving plate from your highway department - a $50 tip might just help you get one. The nicest wood floors are end grain floors. I suspect that OSB cut into 4 foot or 2 foot squares, laid over cement on roofing paper, and held down with 5 nail anchors each (corners and center) (they look like big pop rivets) and then liberally coated with poly would look warm, age well and the strands would reflect the light well, making it look mint. And it would be repairable and replaceable and the cost per square foot could not be much lower. Again, IMHO. I know that there are epoxy coating bigots out there. I am not one of them.
They're building new houses in my OLD neighborhood,an every nite, when i walk tha' dog......I picup 6 or 8 bricks......So Far I've gotten enough to do 'bout half the Floor. It's dirt right now! Don't put gravel/rock......that draws moisture!! Sorry about YOUR GARAGE! Hope U Had Insurance....... Don't use Concrete, it takes 25 yrs to CURE, Then 25 yrs to dis-enter-grate to crumbles..........Can't have that! Keep Kool, and Let'em ROOOL! Smokin"
Sherwin Williams gray epoxy floor paint. Been on 14 years now, looks good. Doesn't burn, no fluids seem to hurt it including brake fluid. Mops up fine and you don't get all that concrete dust when you lay under the car. Plus when you have a BBQ and everyone's in the garage, it looks ok. Five second rule if you've mopped recently.
x3 i dont know why guys make a big deal about finishing cement floors! i keep it old school! its not a show room, its my garage where i work on my ride, so what if i spill oil, or whatever. but to each their own. if you want to coat it, do it if you dont, even better rather spend my money on nos parts.
I put down the epoxy (Home Depot) finish for my girlfriends father on his garage floor, the floor had 50 years of old cars parked on it- spent 3 days cleaning the floor first- used the supplied cleaner, then concrete cleaner, then muratic acid with lots of rinseing. It has held up for 3 years with a 46 Lincoln parked on it, the oil leaks wipe right up but the chips do make it harder to spot any dropped fasteners. If putting on new concrete make sure it has had enough time to cure or it will peel. Jim
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