Do I need an Epoxy floor in my garage?

[MBG]

My garage is my shop. About 2-months ago I purchased a cast iron top TS. I have had some scratches mysteriously appear that are random. I think I may have found the source. I was looking at a piece of ply that I was ready to rip and it had a real small spec of hard material that looked like concrete......any one else experience this?


Mike

[gmack5]

I suspect that what you've done is lay your plywood sheet flat on the floor. That is an emphatic NO NO, unless you LIKE warped plywood. Concrete floors, while they may seem to be dry are really pourus and wick moisture like crazy!

You should NEVER lay your wood flat on the floor, never. If you must lay your wood on the floor, put it on "Stickers" (wood slats) to inhibit the transfer of moisture into your precious wood.

A better way is to stand the wood on edge, on stickers, against a wall where it stands almost straight up.

[MBG]

A better way is to stand the wood on edge, on stickers, against a wall where it stands almost straight up.

This is how I store my sheet goods, but, when I'm in the middle of cutting the sheets to size I do stand them on edge on the floor. I think this is where I may be getting the hard material on the wood.

[Russianwolf]

clean your shop. You'll have to do it before you can epoxy it anyway. Then look and see what the condition of the floor is. If it's solid, then the cleaning is probably all it needs, if it's bittle or flaky, then you should get it under control before the house falls down.

Any possibility that the chips were tracked in from outside? Even if you epoxy this could still happen.

[MBG]

My floor has a few cracks from setteling but it's very sound and I always sweep and vacuum the floor after a project - after all my wife does park her car in my shop.

[WayneJ]

Blame it on the wifes car tracking in salt off the street.
Wayne

[linear]

I epoxy painted my garage floor about 18 months ago using the product marketed by Rustoleum (available at Home Depot, Walmart and elsewhere). It's a water-based epoxy paint bundled in a kit with powdered citric acid to etch the concrete, and small vinyl flecks to put a random pattern in your floor. My shop is not in my garage.

The quality of the result will be a reflection of your diligence in prep. And if I could do it again, I would have spent the extra money on a solvet-based epoxy paint.

I estimate I spent about 10 hours in prep, most of which was removing paint overspray and general construction residue from my otherwise new garage floor. I didn't have oil spots to lift, but that's a critical thing. The citric acid in the kit isn't extremely aggressive, which is good and bad--it takes a long time to work, but when you wash it out the door it's not terribly harmful.

After about a year I began to notice little flecks lifting from the heat of my tires. I expect a commercial grade solvent-based epoxy paint to suffer from this less, and since the big part of the project is the prep in either case, I would steer you toward the more expensive products. I guess the "don't cheap out on paint" saying applies equally well to floors.

I was glad that I applied the colored flecks. I originally didn't like them but they really make the light lifting spots less noticeable.

The good:
cleanup is way easier
slick appearance

The bad:
very slippery when wet
very slight flecking from hot tires

In a shop application, I'd suggest looking into a non-slip additive. I've heard of people getting carborundum grit for that, which gives you a little sparkle in the bargain too. But since you started out looking for a way to get rid of grit, that may make this product a lot less attractive to you.

[Raymonator]

This brings up a question I've had since I built my garage 5 years ago. I have a concrete floor, and I have put a sealant on it to protect it from oil spills or what have you. My question has always been, to keep dust down, should I paint the floor with a conrete paint or not. My garage is not heated in winter, and someone once told me that if I painted the floor, it would have to be done every year or two as it would peel often. I know if painted, it would be a bit easier to keep clean. What say you ?

[Tim Clark]

I retired from the Air Guard last year. They (and the USAF in general) just love the look of a painted concrete floor. Hangars, shops, you name it. The old saying is , "if it don't move, paint it." They do look good and they do clean up easy.

One thing to consider here. If you get them wet they can be VERY (as in dangerously) slippery. A vehicle ( or shoes) with water or snow on the tires can slide easily when applying the brakes (been there, done it way too many times). I can't tell you the number of close calls I've had (and my shopmates) towing equipment into the shop only to discover that we got no brakes! And we were moving very slowly (hey it's the govt.). And then there's all the slips and near falls from having snow on our boots when we hit that paint. Wrenched my back a couple times doing that.

And as with any painted surface you will need to perform periodic maintence on them. The frequency will be determined by the usage.

Just my $0.02 worth.

[Raymonator]

That's more like a $1.00 worth Tim and great advice to boot. Seems to me I've seen here at our local paint store some kind of conrete floor paint with a grit or sand in it to make it less slippery. I don't put the car in my garage so very little wet snow would get in there other than perhaps my snow blower. The garage would basically be used as a wood/work shop and tool cover. My biggest fear is having to paint the floor "every" year but I can live with having to empty the garage every few years and repainting. The next thing I guess would be to choose a color. There's the old faithful grey that I'm sort of thinking of at this point. Thanks for the input.

[cwsmith]

Whether you paint, epoxy, or whatever, you will still be faced with "grit" that will come into your work area, either on the tires, your shoes, or just blown in with the wind. While vacuuming and sweeping is certainly helpful, the best practice that I can think of is to simply be careful how your wood is stored, and moved through your cutting process. Taking a moment or two to brush off the wood and the worksurface of your tools will go a long way to minimize unwanted scratches.

Regarding the floor itself, epoxy is probably the longest lasting surface treatment, but as mentioned before, you need to do something to ensure "traction" should the floor get wet. Even if you decide not to do either, you should use some kind of concrete sealer at minimum, to preserve the integrity of the concrete.

An alternative to paint or epoxy, would be some of the vinyl matt materials that are made for garage and basement floors. I know some of these products are available in either rolls or interlocking matts. While these can be expensive, it does provide good traction, moisture protection, and excellent support for your feet and legs. In additioin, the grid-like material or tread pattern will provide low areas for the grit and any drippings to go.

Another alternative, and something that I'm using in the basement shop that I am setting up in our recently purchased home, is a product called Dri-Core. It is basically a 2 x 2 ft. T&G, treated plywood block with a heavy Polyethylene backing. These make a great floor, aren't too expensive (about $5 a block), and are easy to install. The polyethlene backing has "stand-off" bumps that allow air to circulate between it and the concrete. While I'm not sure I would do a complete garage floor with it (not knowing how the tires might chew up the edges), I would use in areas where I might keep my tools, with the car in the garage. Or, I might consider placing it everwhere except for the tire track area.

In my current basement, I do get seepage and I've used a block or two here and there (almost like pallets) to keep my stuff off the concrete floor. In any case, here is their web address: http://www.dricore.com/en/eindex.htm I know it's available at HD, and Lowes carries a similar product.

Hope this helps,

CWS

[dlminehart]

I put the single-coat Behr epoxy paint from HD down last summer. It's holding up OK so far, but I don't put a car in the garage so I can't say what hot tires would have done to it. The issues with peeling off seem related to either inadequate prep (cleaning, etching, priming) or hot tires. I've heard that even folks using the two-component epoxy have had these problems, and they've recommended the $500 commercial shop variety of epoxy. Well, that wasn't in my budget. I'll just let the tires cool down before parking in the garage, once **** freezes over and I no longer need the storage and shop space in there!