Concrete Floor Coatings

[Ken55]

Hey all, going to be enlarging my garage and want to do some type of coating on the floor. It will be heated and the slab will have 2" of rigid insulation with a vapor barrier over that, Saw on Speed channel different types of coatings, from U-Coat it to the race deck product and was wondering what anybody has used and how happy they are with it. Thanks for any info.

Ken

 

[Nschroeder]

What exactaly are you wanting to accomplish with the coating, Ie looks, stain prevention, and so on. there are some good products out there but there not all the best for every need. You also need to consider what you will be doing on the floor. if there will be solvents, abrasives such as welding sparks or silicas, or just oils.

 

[DZink24]

Sounds like you would be best off with a heavy duty epoxy coating. I sold industrial maintenance coatings for Sherwin-Williams for several years earlier in the decade. My customers had very good results with impact resistance, stain protection, as well as hot-tire pick up with some of their epoxies. Go to one of their stores, pick up some info on their Armor-seal line, those are the heaviest of the heavy. Airplane hangars, auto body shops, warehouses, ect. But of course, as our #2 fuel has been nailed by the E. P. A, so has the paint industry, everything needs to be "green" these days, thus making it (to be blunt) not as good as the old days, and certainly not as inexpensive!

 

[JB @ C and L Machine]

Do a search on this, I give U-coat it a thumbs down

 

[Ken55]

My plan is to use this stall for parking and doing routine maint on the vehicles. No welding there but want an easy to keep clean area that also looks good too. I know someone who did an epoxy type finish on the garage floor maybe 6 years ago and he said it cost 10,000 grand to have someone do it for him, but it's about 2500 sq ft. Looks real nice though and it's durable. Have to stop and see my sherwin williams guy. My sq ft is about 500+.

 

[DZink24]

For that square footage, I would be surprised if you approached 500 dollars (assuming you do the job), that includes everything, including prep work, applicators, sundries and cleanup. Go to Sherwin and ask the manager or asst. mgr. (they can cut deals) and see if they still make, and can find a kit of Armor-seal floor plex 7100 for you. This is a very nice water-based coating that I had great results with for several customers with auto shops and we even used it in our carpet warehouse, which saw very heavy rolling loads, such as carpet cutting machines, forklifts and pallet jacks. If one of WI bigger towns are not too far from you, like Milwaukee, Madison or Green Bay, see if you can find the location of a commercial coatings store, as they are more likely to carry heavy epoxies than one of the smaller retail stores, as well as have knowledgeable staff to give more technical advice.



And it never hurts to let them know up front that you'll pay cash. Trust me. :-laf

 

[BIGNASTY]

U coat it

U coatit sucks did G floor and used it in my wood shop and wouldnt use it in a dog house as I said IT SUCKS BIG TIME

 

[Nschroeder]

You might try a construction supply source such as carrol distributing or bierschbach they will have a multitude of options for you to choose from. One thig I can tell you about epoxies is do not cheap out. I have been insalling floor coatings for 5 years now and you dont want the hasle of removing the cheap coating and reinstalling a good one. also half of the battle is prep work. It is worth renting a grinder to go over your foor beforehand. no amount of cleaning can do what a grinder or better yet a shotblaster can do.

 

[DZink24]

i'll second the shot blaster idea. you should have a # 80-120 sand paper feel to your surface.