Painting a Garage Floor with Epoxy Paint

In days gone by, garages were classed as outbuildings, with boring gray painted concrete floors, where parked cars were stored for the night. Fast forward to today, where the discerning homeowner lavishes the same attention on their house garage as they do on decorating of the rest of their home.

Garages now play a vital role in the more organized lifestyle that many homeowners aspire to, which means that they also want cleaner and better looking garages. One of the main ways to achieve this is to upgrade the floor finishing. Giving the cement floor some sort of coating is one of the more economical and aesthetically pleasing ways to enhance plain concrete bases.

As well as making it look good, a garage floor coating will help protect the surface from heavy traffic. For the car owner who likes to do their own vehicle maintenance in the garage, the coating will prevent damage from motor oil, antifreeze, diesel and petrol while also making it easier to clean up after any accidental spillages.

There are a variety of different garage floor coatings available ranging from normal flooring paints to high grade epoxy. Although floor paint is the most economical of the two, it is likely to need repainting on a regular basis. The hot tires of a vehicle have been known to lift paint away from the floor due to it's poor bonding abilities to concrete.

Epoxy paints on the other hand, while not being a paint in the true sense of the word, are just as easy to apply with much improved bonding abilities to concrete. They are available in numerous different colors and can even have chips of stone added to them to give more surface traction and a classier look.

Applying epoxy paint to a garage floor is as easy as normal floor paint but you will need to do some initial preparation work. Firstly, find out if the concrete base has been treated with garage floor sealant. An easy test is to pour some water onto the floor and leave it for about five minutes. If the water soaks into the concrete, that is a good indication that no floor sealer has been applied. On the other hand, if the water is still there after a few minutes, the concrete has had sealer applied.

You will need to purchase and apply a special concrete etching solution which breaks down the sealer and prepares the floor for the epoxy coating. Once that has been done, all that remains is to thoroughly clean the base of any debris and dust and also ensure that it is perfectly dry.

Epoxy garage floor coating such as Rustoleum normally comes in two parts which are the primer and the paint itself. The primer should be applied in an even coat, preferable with a roller, ensuring that the entire surface gets the same amount of coating. Once that is dry, just apply the top coat in the same fashion and you are done.

Although this sounds simple enough to do, you should still follow the instructions that came with the coating to the letter. On the other hand, if you do not feel confident enough to do the job yourself, hire in a professional to do the job for you. That way, you can be sure that your new garage floor is well sealed and the coating will serve you well in the future.