Garage Floor, Epoxy Coating

[eliminator]

Finally got all the cracks in the garage floor repaired and the floor coated with Rustoleum Oil Base Industrial Epoxy. Very pleased with it. Seem's to be very tough and durable.

[JeepSnake]

Rick - I almost posted a question last week asking what coatings everybody had on their garage floors!

What sort of shape was your floor in before? I guess my real question is did you have any oil/trans fluid/power steering fluid spots in the concrete to deal with, and how did you prep them if you did?

Now that I've finally painted all the walls in our basement, I'd like to go back & coat the floor. The two prep issues I face are old fluid spills and one spot where some of the aggregate is exposed on top of the slab. The logistical issue is that it will have to be done one area at the time - it's ~1400 sf, and we don't have anywhere that I can store all the contents at once while I do the whole thing.

How did you like working with the Rustoleum? Is it fairly easy to work around detail areas? My other obstacle is that I've got to work into the corners around my well pump gear, water heater, air handler, etc.

[eliminator]

Yes, I had area's of the floor that had oil and grease spots.

I used an industrial degreaser, scrubbed it with a brush then rinsed it twice, on the problem areas I sprayed them with degreaser and let it soak in. After that I used a Muriatic Acid and water solution to etch the floor and rinsed it twice.

The Rustoleum product works real good, cover is 500 sq ft per kit ($92.00 per kit) has all the stuff you need. You can get it at Lowe's or on line. My Lowe's didn't carry it but they ordered it for me. The coverage is great, one coat and a kit will easily cover 500 sq ft. I applied it in 72-78 degree weather.
Put my 2500 truck on it after 10 days and no problem.

I did half the floor at a time, after 36 hours you can do anything but drive on it, you can walk on it easily after 24 hours. Used a paint brush to trim around areas then rolled it with a 3/8" nap roller.

[ralphscott]

I did mine about 18 months ago, same stuff, and it looks like a million bucks. I actually mop the floor every three months or so and all the dirt/stains come right up. I even used the blue and gray sprinkles and they have not come-up.

Ralph

[Master]

I used the same product myself but I should have done more prep work on the oil stains because some small areas are blistering. It is a good product when you follow ALL the directions.

[ralphscott]

Home Depot has the Rustoleum Latex stocked Don't get that. Special order the industrial strength stuff that is not latex based. The industrial strength stuff is impervious to oil and grease and gasoline.

Ralph

[JeepSnake]

I'm definitely going to make plans to coat my floor! I may wait till next spring, though, when I can move my "stuff" outside more easily.

Right now, I've got another project: radiator work on the silver 289. It's got a little pinhole leak somewhere - that up until now was so minor I couldn't even trace it down. You know the kind: you smell a little coolant occasionally, and when you wash the car, the green runs out where it's been evaporating as quick as it leaked out. But, never a puddle, never a trail of coolant that you can see and trace back to the source.

Well, after nursing it through the summer with stop leak, it finally started a real leak this afternoon following the local Christmas parade. Not a catastrophic failure, thankfully, but a decent enough leak that I know the radiator's got to come out. Right now I can't tell if it's in one of the tubes, or at the joint between the passenger side tank & the core. Either way, time to pull it and get it fixed now that the weather's COOOOOLD!

Thanks again for all the good info!