Garage Floor Paint – Tips For Home Owners

Home Owners Guide to Garage Floor Paint

Garage floor paint systems are hot sellers in USA & Canada. The photos on the side of the box look enticing, especially with easy to use and low investment.

The reality is that epoxy paint is thin and really not a wear surface for abrasive use from cars, lawn movers or anything dragged over the floor. Make no mistake. Garage floor paint looks excellent, for the short term.

One of the biggest problems is the floor preparation methods recommended with these kits. Yes, acid will etch the concrete and increase surface area for adhesion. The first issue is that the enemy of coatings is moisture. An acid etch solution is mixed with water and dumped on the floor, then brushed into the surface.

Concrete being porous, absorbs water and the acid. The next day or even days later, the floor may look dry but likely is damp. Apply any coating, even our high performance epoxies and water and acid is trapped in the tiny pores. Notice the chips in the picture below on the left. These were caused by acid reactivating a few days after application.

In the next photo from the same floor, you can see that the home owner applied the garage floor paint over damaged concrete. It will not last and will trap dirt. It doesn’t take long for it to look to look terrible.

The solution is to live with a rapidly deteriorating coating or add additional expense by having a professional grind it off and apply properly. If this has happened to you, don’t fret, we see this all the time. In fact the big box home improvement stores have created a cottage industry. Repairing garage floor paint projects gone wrong.

Garage Floor Paint Solutions

New Jersey , where we have a warehouse facility, is a popular state for garage floor paint applications. Likely it’s the high cost of real estate with home owners looking to maximize the use and value of their space.

Our professional installers typically grind the old coatings off the surface like in the picture below. The process also removes the waviness inherent in concrete floors. The grinding process makes the floors flat. There are a few benefits to this important step. First there is no water used, so no issue of trapping moisture. Secondly the process removes the surface layer of concrete removing grease and oils that will cause adhesion issues. Floors are like new.

Then using a high performance garage floor epoxy , not a paint, the first coatings is applied. The chemical structure of our coatings are designed for adhesion with high impact resistance. The first coat is thick enough for application of decorative chips that look like granite or for addition of colored quartz.

The next coat is a thick, high build application. For the ultimate finish, a final Polyaspartic coating can be applied. This is a showroom quality floor that will last indefinitely. It is easy to clean. You can use lemon Joy has a degreaser agent) mixed with warm Water for removing grease and oil. For general cleaning a small amount of ammonia and warm water, stiff bristle brush, squeegee and wet vac is all you need.

We carry many grades of epoxy in numerous colors plus a vast network of professional installers. Give us a call and discuss the options. We think you’ll be happy with a high performance system rather than low cost garage floor paint. We have experienced installers through out the US & Canada.

If you plan on doing it yourself, please watch these videos and check out out garage floor project guide. 

a. Lumiere Designer Epoxy

b. Endura Resin Chip System

Contact us to place the order.

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