Question:
Our garage, and the area directly outside, has a concrete floor. I
reckon it's now about 16 years old. It always seems dusty, and I'm
constantly sweeping it out. Is it likely the floor material is soft
and wearing out? Is there something I can paint or spray onto it to
bind it or whatever please?
Answer:
I've never had much luck with PVA. It tends to form a skin, rather
than soaking in, and this skin has negligible wear resistance.
I'd prefer to use the paint. Cheap red-oxide floortile paint from a
DIY shed is OK for a quick job, a real epoxy floor paint is much
better but costly. Chlorinated rubber floor paints are about the best
compromise of cost and quality, but you'll need something like
Industrial Exchange and Mart to find them.
I've seen one garage where a beautiful job was done with two-part
isocyanate car paint, applied by brush instead of spray. It was a
large quantity of surplus paint, bought cheaply at auction. The only
problem was that it was bright yellow, as it used to belong to BT's
van fleet, until they switched to grey livery. Very cheery, but a
little eye-scorching to work in there.
If you can find it, and you can find it cheaply enough, waterglass is
a pretty good stabiliser for dusty concrete.
