Question:
I've been thinking of painting my garage floor with the two part epoxy paint
system.
I have no good reason to do this other than it would spruce it up a bit and
cover up/in some of the cracks.
The floor is plain/straight cement, 45 years old. I'd haver to clean off
some of the old oil stains but that's about it.
I read on the can that it states up to 7 days drying/curing time before
vehicular traffic can be applied.
I can probably squeeze 5 days but probably not 7. Do you think this would
be a problem? Wondering if after 5 days I could put down some wood sheets
which I could drive over until the 7-8 days are up. Also as I want to do
this probably in a week or two here in NY where it still goes down to
freezing at night and mid 50's during the day, I think the temp might
lengthen the curing time so it might not be an ideal time to do it.
Answer:
I bet the floor is still cold from winter. Air temp probably will
not affect the finish as much as floor temp.
This is a job to do later this summer! Read the directions on the can, most
will have you check the floor temp by laying a thermometer on the floor and
covering it well to get the floor's temp.
Also the epoxy is nothing more than fancy paint, it will not cover any rough
areas or cracks. Any irregularities you see in the floor now you will see
after the epoxy is applied. Any oil or grease stains need to be cleaned
thoroughly as the epoxy will not stick well to those spots.
I put epoxy on my garage floor a couple of years ago, I wish I had done it
years ago!
-I don't know what the previous owner put on my garage floor, but parts
of it look terrible from peeling. The worst areas are those exposed
to the outside just in front of the doors and those where the tires
sit. Does epoxy stand up to extreme cold and salt?
If I use epoxy, how much of the old paint would I need to remove and
how?
-I painted a a garage floor in PA with Rustoleum Eboxy Gray. It did a
great job and 5 years later is looks great. The only thing is that it is
slick when wet. But the floor looks great and tires do not peel it.
When I bought a home in FL - I tried some paint from Lowes called Hot
Trax because I wanted a rougher finish and I was being cheap. I pressure
washed the floor - even etched it with muriatic acid. Guess what? The
floor flakes and peels. It looks like crap.
Now - I wish I used Rustoleum Epoxy in FL.
I would like to have a "do over" but I guess I would have to pressure
wash all of this paint off before I can use the Epoxy.
My advice - don't go cheap like I did in FL. Clean the concrete really
well - and then use Epoxy. It costs 2 - 3 times as much but it works.
