What garage floor coating would you recommend

PBGBodyFan

G-Body Guru
Mar 3, 2009
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Wisconsin
I ended up having a company to do our attached garage when I had our pool deck quoted. Not cheap but happy with it, only been about a year but so far so good. I’ve used floor jacks on it and it’s durable, on a garage that sees more abuse I’m not sure I’d get a coating done, looks great and can take some abuse but would be riskier. My attached garage is the one more heavy duty work is done and whenever I build a bigger one in it’s place I’m not sure which route I’ll take, coating or just polish/seal, if anything.

The company I had used a polyaspartic or polyurea, I forget which. Key is all in the prep it seems.
 
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mikester

Comic Book Super Hero
Mar 10, 2010
2,904
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Small town NY
A lot of buildings at my old job site were refinished with epoxy paint. The painters had a machine that would grind the old cement first. I think it was called a concrete scarifier. The paint was made by PPG. Came in a 5 gallon pail and a box of activator. All the floors were done in gray. Nice stuff.
When they did the fire house bays they put down the epoxy in sections. While it was wet they threw down a grit that looked just like Black Beauty blasting media. When all the bays were done they put a second coat of gray on top of it. You wouldnt want to slip and fall on it though. It was like walking on 36 grit sandpaper.
 

Rocket442

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Sep 6, 2022
5
5
3
I live in the Northeast. My old house, I acid washed, cleaned and cleaned again. Bought the Shermin Williams floor paint and is was great, no issues...In my "new house" the garage had concrete poured in the early 1900's. When it's humid, the concrete sweats. Best thing is look to see how the floor is after a lot of rain (like now) and when its humid. If it doesn't sweat, you wont have any problems.
 
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john87442

Master Mechanic
Supporting Member
Mar 9, 2021
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Geneva ohio
Thanks for everyone’s input. I know polyaspartic and polyurea coatings are much stronger than epoxy from the research. Epoxy coatings will have a shorter life when there’s moisture and won’t last like the others mentioned not saying they won’t look good for awhile, just more prone to failure than the others. And like several have mentioned I will have to pay attention to the prep. Thanks again for the food for thought.
 
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86LK

Royal Smart Person
Jul 23, 2018
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Thanks for everyone’s input. I know polyaspartic and polyurea coatings are much stronger than epoxy from the research. Epoxy coatings will have a shorter life when there’s moisture and won’t last like the others mentioned not saying they won’t look good for awhile, just more prone to failure than the others. And like several have mentioned I will have to pay attention to the prep. Thanks again for the food for thought.
as mikester recommended, check garagejournal.com for coatings. I remember one major complaint was the constant stench of some coatings causing nausea that would not dissipate and they were trying to figure out why
 

rogue_ryder

Master Mechanic
Oct 27, 2017
267
549
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Colorado
The Acid wash is key to getting proper adhesion. Whatever you lay on the floor will start to peel up and chip off easily if the surface is poorly prepped. My own garage and a shop I worked in were improperly done and the floors end up looking terrible after just a few years if you don't properly prep.

Like most anything you get what you pay for. The Rustoleum product would probably look okay for a short while or in a typical homeowner garage that sees very little use (like park a golf cart and a Subaru in there). I would recommend going with a more Industrial type application like https://ucoatit.com/industrial/ I have never applied it but I've worked in places that had the floors coated with similar products and it takes the abuse in an industrial setting. I worked in an FBO in Florida and our hangar was coated and it held up fine even though it was not climate controlled, humidity was HIGH and temps would swing from 30-90*F.

I personally have not yet used the plastic floors, but from an ease of installation they are extremely appealing. https://racedeck.com/ & https://www.swisstrax.com/ are the most common name brand but there's offbrands as well. What's holding me back is that I have a dirt driveway and am concerned with dirt accumulation underneath and I always seem to get about 3/4 of the coolant or ATF all over the floor if I'm going coolant system or transmission work.
 
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oldsofb

Royal Smart Person
Supporting Member
Dec 7, 2007
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I used UCoatIt on my floors 15 years ago. White Base and a Clear Coat. I didn't follow the instructions based on the weather, so it started to kick in the bucket at the very end and went down funny on the last 5 feet or so. After 10 years I started getting tire lift on the one side that gets daily use. I would use again in a heart beat. If I have to recoat every 10 years to keep it "perfect", that's not bad.

Hutch
 
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