Question:
I moved into my new house in April. I have already taken over the garage
and I plan to build a small building in the back yard for storage of yard
equipment. I have all of my tools in my garage but I haven't started
constructing cabinets for the shop yet. Here is my question: Should I
paint the floor of the garage which is a slab of cement? I've seen this
done in a lot of shops but I'm not sure what the benefits are. I'm just a
hobbyist, but I plan on having a cool shop when I get done.
Answer:
-I've painted my shop floor with an epoxy concrete floor paint. Takes a
lot of prep: scraping, filling and smoothing voids, thorough cleaning
and degreasing and acid etching and washing. Finally you get to paint
and the benefits are 1) it looks great 2) helps keep shop cleaner (this
may be my imagination but I think concrete breeds dust).
-In one of the paint stores that I frequent there is a sign on the wall
that says, "No custom colors will be mixed for husbands without a note
from their wives".
-I had used the epoxy paint in my garage after very thorough and
careful prep. It was easy to put on and fairly odourless. The
main problem I had with the paint was that it liked rubber better than
concrete. Backing the car out in the morning would take
the tread pattern off the floor where it sat overnight!
Might not be a problem for rubber wheels on less massive
objects.
In any case I did the basement floor in an alkyd concrete floor
paint from Canadian Tire. The floor and stairs totalled over
100 square meters (1100 square feet). It was available in
a pleasant dark beige colour. It was the best concrete
finish I ever used but the smell was horrendous for about
a week!
