Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Garage Epoxy Floor

18 years ago I coated my garage floor with the Behr 1 part epoxy concrete coating that Home Depot sells. I am amazed at how well it has held up. I sanded and acid etched the floor before applying the primer and coating. The product they sell now is self priming. It dries to a satin finish and is not at all slippery.
If you want to do it yourself this is the direction I would go. I have never had any tire lift, flaking or peeling and the floor has been power scrubbed a few times with no issues.
I painted professionally for several years and I am amazed at how well this product has worked out for a 1 part epoxy.
As others have said above, whatever you decide to use, the surface prep is absolutely critical. If you skip doing a thorough prep the product will likely fail.

All good info here. Ground moisture was a big problem for us in some areas dependent on ground prep for concrete. We always preferred to do our own concrete if we were coating a floor, and most of my experience was with cementitious coatings and acid staining. I schooled myself on epoxies and polyurea. Prep work is the key , for sure! You can hire a contractor , but it is so gratifying to do something like that yourself, just do your homework!

If you get something that has the 3 or 4 different speckled colors don't plan on easily seeing small parts, screw, springs after you drop them. I would want 1 color.

Best to do epoxy paint on a new, thoroughly dry floor. I did it to my garage 6 years ago, and it's wearing well, tho as said, slick when wet. Considering the abuse it gets. I did it mostly for a seal.
Having seen an acid-etched? and polished floor in a hanger outside Columbus MT, I'd go that route if doing it again, especially for looks.

I did not put in the colored specks. Dirt is bad enough for finding small parts, on a very light blue-grey paint job.

Oh yeah, if installing a M70 striker spring, keep the bay door shut..... mine had a range the full length of the 40' garage, and 15-20 more.

Magnets are your friend. Amazing how much magnetic dirt there is out there on that gravel drive. (I found the retainer - and closed the bay door)

Feel free to ask me for more garage gunsmithing tips.

Thanks guys. Keep em coming. On the way to the new house with a tape measure.

There is a decent chance of water seepage if you have a high water table. Be careful.

-Ken

I used a Vexcon product on a garage floor, it was not a 2 part epoxy. I have an old Walker Car-Roll floor jack. You can easily move a car around the shop on the jack. The floor coating didn't like it and peeled in some spots while moving an old car around.

Have had epoxy for 25 years or so. We used a light color--don't! It shows dirty anything. We'll go to a darker color this Fall-- maybe dark gray. It has been great here in the desert. Little moisture to deal with and it certainly handles the 100+ degree days well.

Just another idea

Floor drop ? Floor drains ?

My 30' deep garage drops 3" to the the south for drainage

Makes water hose clean up easier which is coming soon

Maybe your is poured already

My ? Where did all this stuff come from ?

I'm old school, cardboard.

I did my 4 car garage and my friend's 3 car garage 17 years ago. I used commercial grade 2 part primer and epoxy from PPG. I met the local PPG guy while working in a private aircraft hangar and he agreed to sell me the materials. I purchased a shot blast machine and commercial grade shop vac system off Ebay for ~$3,500, the materials were another $3,500 - this was in 2006. It took 2 days of work to shot blast the concrete, grinder in the corners and edges, clean up all the shot with rolling magnet, vacuum, etc. Then a day to lay down the primer, let it dry for 2 days, then a solid day to lay down the final epoxy. I mixed in a sand like silicate from PPG to give the floor some "grab" so it wasn't like a hockey rink when wet. It still didn't work very well as I laid the epoxy too thick and the aggregate settled to the bottom in most places. When we were done with both houses I listed the shot machine, grinder, shop vac on Ebay and sold it for exactly what I paid for it. To a local business no less, amazingly lucky. If I remember correctly I figured I saved about $5k doing it myself (2006 dollars) but it was A LOT of work.

Lessons learned:
1. Hire someone else to do it the next time.
2. REALLY, REALLY hire someone else to do it next time
3. A few times a year when it goes from cold to warm in less than 24 hours (+20 degree increase) condensation covers the entire floor and it is slicker than whale snot in an ice flow. You will bust your ass if not careful.
4. Mine is a solid light grey color, not as attractive as floors that have those color chips mixed in but whenever I drop a screw or spring on the floor I can see it easily vs. never finding it again.
5. The floor has never delaminated except for the skirts where the garage door comes down. I shouldn't have coated these as it is exposed to the elements and the rain/ice has broken some pieces loose which I have ground down and patched in with material.
6. I love having the floor coated, but I will never do it again myself. Did I mention that already?!

I had an epoxy garage floor. Guaranteed for 10 years. Lasted about 1. I had it ceramic sanded with the buffer, acid etched and then professionally applied. Hot car tires when you pull in the garage lifts it up off the concrete. I ended up covering it with Swisstrax. Looks good after 11 years. They put together like legos. Takes about 2 hours to do a 3 car garage. I’ve taken them apart 2 times (every 5 years or so) and power wash them. Look like new.

I just did my shop floor (new building) a month ago and used a commercial company I've dealt with on other projects. I wanted to match the company colors so I purchased the chips online ( 15 pounds for approx 2200 sq ft for medium coverage).Grit was incorporated into the process so there is no slip when wet.I've used the same combination at my other shop without issue.
Prices run 4 to 6 dollars a square where I live when you call around....I did a bit better then the low number and it is a no brainer if it is in the budget.

It's poured. Has about a 3" pitch from the back to the doors. Buddy talked me into putting a Hot/Cold hose bib in there. Seems like it might be a nice thing to have.

Turns out it's about 840 ft² or ~$4200 at $5 a foot.

Gonna call around and get some quotes. Like to do it before we start moving stuff in. Otherwise it will never get done.

Best thing I ever did. Looks nice a so easy to clean. I don't remember the per square foot price, but my two car garage was right at $1200 back in '21. The only time I have noticed it being slick when wet is if I'm wearing very smooth soles like flip flops.

good to know about the acid etch

I'm going to be doing a garage floor and front porch next month. I'll do the prep work ahead of time.

My son did 3 of them this past year (including mine) Looks awesome but was a lot of work. Not sure he wants to do a fourth I ended up helping him and would concur...saved a ton of money over commercial bids however.

Our club house had the floor epoxy coated a couple years ago. So far it is holding up. Building temperature goes from comfortable to northern michigan cold as we only heat the main area, which is part of our indoor range, when there are people using it.

We hired a professional installer.