Garage Floor Coating?

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G-Fish

G-Fish

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I'm building a new 30' x 30' shop.
Concrete foundation gets poured next month.
What's the most durable coating?
I will be welding and I drop tools.
What will not melt and is chip resistant?

Thanks!
 
Most of the adhesion issues people have are due to 2 reasons: 1) Poor prep work, and 2) thin water based systems.

I've personally used Armor's products on our previous house and I beat the holy Hell out of my floors. Their industrial coating is super thick. It never peeled, chipped, or pulled-up in the Texas heat. If their formula hasn't changed I'd recommend their system. It's not cheap, but you get what you pay for and their customer service was excellent. They answered all of my dumb questions. Haha

Industrial Epoxy Flooring | Military Grade Quality Floor Paint
 
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On my new 3 car garage build, had a local company come in, here on the East coast.
Prep, paint and epoxy, flake, colors/size of my choice, $2800.
Supposed to wait a week to use, but waited 2 weeks, due to humidity, had to leave doors opened a few inches to keep door seal off epoxy.
Easiest to do before you move stuff in, if you can.
Also, the finished product can be a bit slippery when wet, they offered an anti slip coating, but you can't broom clean that easily, it grips the bristles.
This company has a lifetime guarantee. When I asked the owner of the franchise, how's the lifetime guarantee working for him, he said, great, I haven't gotten a single call back in 12 years.
Hope you could find a similar franchise near you.
I'm very happy with mine, I jack up cars with no issues. Oils, chemicals and battery acid wipes up easily. Use Simple green spray and wipe clean.
My neighbors did the DIY with terrible results.
Good Luck.
Epoxy Floors Eastern North Carolina | GarageExperts®
 
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Just be sure the new concrete is "fully" cured before any coating is applied. Green not fully cured concrete will cause some of the coatings to lift.
 
If you are going to be doing a lot of welding in the shop you may want to reconsider painting or coating it. I did my garage when I first moved in with an epoxy floor paint expressly for that purpose that I purchased from Home Depot. It’s eleven years old now and holding up pretty well. My floor had been painted previously and it was wearing thin in spots, so I felt I had no choice. However, welding has left quite a few burn marks in my paint. They can be touched up, but it will never quite match. If you have an area you can confine your welding activities to you could leave that unpainted, and do the rest. My lift is in the motorhome side on a lower level than the main garage, and that’s where most of the welding burns are. It’s possible someone makes a burn-proof coating, but I don’t know of any. Also, some fluids, paint stripper, and other things can damage or discolor your coating. Lastly, as noted in previous posts, prepping is everything! I cleaned my floors multiple times over several days with the supplied detergent and highly diluted muriatic acid. Pay close attention to corners and where the walls meet the floor. Be aware that areas exposed to lots of sun light can fade or discolor. Good luck.
 
Buck a square lick and stick vinyl tiles? Easy to replace...keep it black and white. Dont get the lame raised pattern hook and loop garage tiles as your creeper will hate you! My old place had an epoxy floor in front of the washer/dryer nook. Easy to clean but it was slippery as ice when I spilled some detergent (or oil) on it. I dont think it would like jackstands being dragged over it. Research twice, lay it once.
 
Ceramic coatings last way longer that epoxy, but they are way more expensive. And nothing lasts forever.
 
Whatever you do be careful if you do any burning and letting hot slag hit concrete floor. Even the welding, I try and keep some light gauge steel plate and let the sparks and slag hit that first
 
Totally agree with Steve W. Steel plate is the only way. Even non coated concrete will have burn marks.

Pay the price and get the ceramic coating.
Keep a piece of metal for your welding areas.

If you are doing it yourself, check out sherwin williams commercial floor products. They are very helpful and are all over America.
 
They had just epoxy painted the entire loading well floor and did it look nice
They gave me the job to replace some 18 inch inlet and outlet feed water lines on big coolers located in that loading well and did I ever F that floor up
Thank God the lighting was poor in that one area
 
Also make sure there is a moisture barrier under the concrete.

the installer I talked to said he puts down a moisture tent on the concrete to measure how much moisture is coming out of slab. If too much, he recommended not coating it.
 
Nice shiny slick polished floors look great, until you slip and fall on one........................
 
We average only 10 inches of rain a year here.
Is a moisture barrier really necessary?
 
We don’t have moisture problems in Lake Havasu because the only moisture is in the lake. I do use a quality welding blanket now, when I have to do heavy welding over the floor. It works pretty well, but it is a consumable.
 
67Dart273 said:
Nice shiny slick polished floors look great, until you slip and fall on one........................
Click to expand...
That is why I would use the anti-slip clear if I ever did it. It still looks shiny, but there is enough grit in it to be useful.
 
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