Talk to me about DIY garage epoxy

Does anyone have recommendations for DIY garage epoxy kits? And any general tips or tricks for doing it?

Should I wait until after the garage is drywalled and painted or can I go ahead and do it once the interior walls are in?

Don't use the water based stuff. 

My ex- used DIY kits from a home center on her garage floor about 10 years ago.  As far as I know, it still looks OK, despite her garage having inherent issues with water under the slab (it failed the plastic square test). 

1. Don't skimp on prep. Most of the work will be prep.  It WILL suck and take far longer than you want it to. It took her over a week to do both sides of the garage floor. She used muriatic acid to etch the concrete. Some have had better luck with a grinder.

2. She needed 3x as much as the box says the product will cover.  She did epoxy the two rows of concrete block foundation, but it still required a lot of coverage.  She bought two boxes and ended up buying 3 or 4 more to finish.  Her garage is about 28' x 24'.

3. Don't skimp on the prep.  Most of the time, epoxy fails because the installer tried to speed up the prep process. 

Epoxy: Is thick which can hide imperfections in the floor and help with abrasion. But it also yellows over time with UV, and isn't the most resistant stuff when it comes to common automotive shop fluids. Hot, sticky tires can lift it off of the concrete beneath. Typically 2 parts, so you have to work quickly before it sets.

Polyurea: Is thin, but doesn't yellow, is much more chemical resistant, less likely to suffer hot tire pickup and can be had in a single part compound with nearly unlimited "pot life" so you can take your time and work with more care.

I used "NOHR-S" polyurea (epoxy primer, polyurea color coat, polyurea clear top coat) for mine and have been pleased with it.

I also used norS polyurea over water based stain from Legacy Industrial. Did the entire house with it, silver in the garage and brown-ishnin the house. Very pleased with it 2.5 years later. It'll scratch and ding if you abuse it, and I have a couple spots where it's lifting, but that's due to foundation quality, not the coating. Just re-apply if a scratch bothers you

STM317 said:

Epoxy: Is thick which can hide imperfections in the floor and help with abrasion. But it also yellows over time with UV, and isn't the most resistant stuff when it comes to common automotive shop fluids. Hot, sticky tires can lift it off of the concrete beneath. Typically 2 parts, so you have to work quickly before it sets.

Polyurea: Is thin, but doesn't yellow, is much more chemical resistant, less likely to suffer hot tire pickup and can be had in a single part compound with nearly unlimited "pot life" so you can take your time and work with more care.

I used "NOHR-S" polyurea (epoxy primer, polyurea color coat, polyurea clear top coat) for mine and have been pleased with it.

I hadn't seen polyurea. That looks like it might be the ticket. Did you acid etch or grind the floor? No reason I couldn't go ahead and do the floor prior to drywall install?

Follow up question, I am building two other rooms in the garage. One will be an office and the other a gym. Is there a cheaper option that makes sense for those two rooms? Or just use for all?

There's lots of discussion about this on Garage Journal forum. I've read a lot of it and still haven't reached any firm conclusions.

In reply to 93EXCivic :

For the office - click-connect, floating laminate flooring.  Typically over a thin foam underlayment to reduce noise. Cheap. Looks good. Shouldn't cause too much heartache if damaged (say due to a flood or something).

Gym - interlocking foam 2'x2' tiles. Either super-cheap from a home center/online or you can find fancy colors if you want to create an interesting space to work out in. Super-easy to replace if damaged (buy extras).  Effective.

I've now done 3 different working shops with basic DIY rustoleum kits.  All 3 held up fine (#3 is only a year old but I have high hopes)  

As others noted prep is key, clean, clean and clean some more.  Even though my latest was a fresh (but well cured) pour which had never had anything on it and I still spent 3 days on the prep before coating.

As pretty as they look if you actually work in your shop leave the add in flakes behind.  Anything you drop on the floor will be forever lost in the flake jungle.

I used Enviropoxy on half the garage and Rustoleum on the other half a few years later.
The Enviropoxy side, while beat up and having small chunks missing from impact and welding damage it is holding up after a decade.  It's been saturated with engine oil, brake fluid, coolant, paint, paint remover, and pretty much any chemical a homeowner can buy.  it's stained a bit but not falling apart.

The Rustoleum side is mostly worn away, but it was about 1/6th the price.

Ok dumb question but what is purpose of even treating the garage floor other then looks? I have never worked in a garage that is any thing other then bare concrete. That polyurea stuff would cost like $1800 plus the etching stuff which to be honest would be a lot of nice parts for the Civic. Is it really worth it?

In reply to 93EXCivic :

Think of every time you've had to sweep an area more than once to get all the dust. I make 1 pass and it's good.

Same for oil and fluid spills. Wipe it up and done, versus dealing with a stain, breaking out the solvents and degreaser to get the stain up, etc.

Aso having a consistent floor color and the slight reflective surface lightens up the whole garage, and makes dropped hardware much easier to find

It's certainly not a necessity, but it's a pretty nice luxury. I won't be going back to uncoated floors if I move, that's the first thing on my list

Mine is pretty old now, but my experience with doing it to a seasoned floor that already had a few small cracks and oil stains was the stuff doesn't stick forever. 

Now, I know y'all will say it wasn't prepped correctly. And there may be some truth to that. I am finding that it tends to lift where it is thinnest.

Even with it looking crappy, the bulk of the floor is still covered and it does work to make keeping it clean easier. My garage is for doing work, not looking like a museum, so it only bothers me a little. 

If I were to do it again? I'd probably pay for a professional to do it or just buy a rubber-y product that rolls out.

I decided to go with clear SPGX by Amorpoxy.  So far holding up well but its only been a year.  Has some stains from a leaking rusty radiator but most cleaned up.  I think the only place it came up was some pvc cement that spilled and I didnt notice til it was dry. 

As mentioned quite a bit of prep also on a new slab but I am happy I did it.  

93EXCivic said:

STM317 said:

Epoxy: Is thick which can hide imperfections in the floor and help with abrasion. But it also yellows over time with UV, and isn't the most resistant stuff when it comes to common automotive shop fluids. Hot, sticky tires can lift it off of the concrete beneath. Typically 2 parts, so you have to work quickly before it sets.

Polyurea: Is thin, but doesn't yellow, is much more chemical resistant, less likely to suffer hot tire pickup and can be had in a single part compound with nearly unlimited "pot life" so you can take your time and work with more care.

I used "NOHR-S" polyurea (epoxy primer, polyurea color coat, polyurea clear top coat) for mine and have been pleased with it.

I hadn't seen polyurea. That looks like it might be the ticket. Did you acid etch or grind the floor? No reason I couldn't go ahead and do the floor prior to drywall install?

Follow up question, I am building two other rooms in the garage. One will be an office and the other a gym. Is there a cheaper option that makes sense for those two rooms? Or just use for all?

I rented a grinder from Home Depot. It's supposed to be the best way to promote adhesion, and I didn't have access to water in the shop to rinse the acid/etching off of the surface. Grinding is super messy work, so be prepared to clean up a lot, and protect your eyes and lungs from the dust.

I'd probably just do the whole floor before putting walls up. It's going to save you time vs trying to carefully prep the slab and then coat it around existing walls. And time is money. It will also give you flexibility for the future if you ever want to move walls, etc.

The coating looks nice, protects the floor from any number of things, and can reflect light to brighten up the space. It's definitely more of a "want" than a "need", but it makes it nice. And obviously, it's much more likely to actually happen before you fill the building up with stuff.

Greg Voth said:

I decided to go with clear SPGX by Amorpoxy.  So far holding up well but its only been a year.  Has some stains from a leaking rusty radiator but most cleaned up.  I think the only place it came up was some pvc cement that spilled and I didnt notice til it was dry. 

 

As mentioned quite a bit of prep also on a new slab but I am happy I did it.  

I also went with the SPGX and have been quite happy with it in a garage where it gets abused. I had to grind off some cheap floor paint the sellers had put down before we bought, which sucked a lot but has been worth it. Went down far enough to expose the aggregate, then used a powdered dye in an alcohol solution to stain it so it wouldn't add moisture before putting down the SPGX. It seems to want to scratch more than chip, which is nice. Another year and I'll probably clean, prep, and lay down a fresh coat. It's been 5 years at this point.

This sucked. A lot:

It was worth it:

In reply to STM317 :

Well the walls are already partly up so a bit late for that tbh. I will probably go with the click together style floor for the office and matting for gyms as Ian F suggested.

Thanks for the advice. I am trying to decide between spending the extra on the stuff you used versus the Rustoleum Professional stuff (not water based) which is a lot cheaper.

In reply to 93EXCivic :

If I were to do it again, I might just use a clear sealer like Ballistix. It will have several of the same benefits of the coatings, with much lower cost and faster/easier application.

25 years ago epoxy was just too expensive for my budget on the new garage, so I used a sealer and stain.  My goal was something that would not develop grease and oil stains over time.  For the first 10 years it looked great but I did scrub it clean after every project.  Hot tires picked the stain but the sealer was intact so still no stains.  After that I started abusing it, cleaning with brake cleaner if I cleaned it at all.  Dragged transmissions and engines across the floor and the cleanings were less often and thorough.  Today the floor looks beat up, minimal color left under tire paths but the darn thing still won't absorb anything.  A neighbor did his new floor with epoxy, followed the instructions and every time a wrench drops it gets a chip.  Glad I did the sealer/stain.  

In reply to bluej (Forum Supporter) :

Looks good!   I knew if I didnt do it up front it would never get done. 

A thought:

As a builder I do floors and baseboards last.  Too many times a floor surface gets damaged during construction.  Sheet rock can be messy.  So you would have to put down robust protection on the floor if you do it first.

I've currently been called in to finish the inside of a huge shop with 14' walls.  The owner has already had the floor epoxied.  We are doing all kinds of special protection to drive the electric lift around to put the wall covering up, and install the lighting.  Labor = $$

At my age I like garage floors as close to white as possible.  Increases lighting a bunch, especially under a car.

In my younger days did one garage with wizy black and white checker design... I swear the dropped 10mm nut always fell on a black square.

Concrete floor should cure for about 6 weeks before applying finish.  I've seen many a homeowner move into the shop, spill oil during those 6 weeks.  Then we have more work in prep.

YMMV

Note: I do kitchen floors before the cabinets.  Costs a bit more.  Just a pet peve.

Purple Frog (Forum Supporter) said:

A thought:

I've currently been called in to finish the inside of a huge shop with 14' walls.  The owner has already had the floor epoxied.  We are doing all kinds of special protection to drive the electric lift around to put the wall covering up, and install the lighting.  Labor = $$

That is a good point so I guess I should wait. It is just taking forever for the professionals to get anything done and I am trying to knock stuff I can cause I want this damn thing done.