[OldTee]

What color would you paint a garage floor? I already have one vote for white, and he might comment here. What paint would you use. Epoxy? Water based? Any cheap paint? Do it yourself or have it done?

[Jim Richards]

I am very interested in the responses you get here, OldTee. I would like to paint mine sometime in the near future.

[VaSteve]

Gray.

[Justin Fischer]

My buddy used the garage floor epoxy kit from Home Depot ($60 I think). Turned out nice, and I got to keep his 50th Anniversary Edition Vette for a week while the floor cured.

-Justin

[Eric S]

As usual, Kurt has recent and valuable experience he can share on doing the job right. In summary, proper surface preparation is essential, as is paint selection. From my experience you need an epoxy paint - and it is only a proper epoxy paint if you have to mix in the catalyst.

[Dan M]

The previous home owners painted the garage floor with basic floor paint and it sucks. The paint comes up when the tires are wet. It may be slightly better than no paint at all but not worth the money or time. If/when I redo the floor, it will be with epoxy....and following the anticpated recommendations from this thread

-Dan

[cmartin]

I used the Home Depot available Expoxy Shield. Nice stuff, but not up to the task. Since they have a warranty I called to complain and they said I should use the Pro/Commercial version. I think this is newly available. If I come in with HOT tires sometimes a little of the floor will peel. Not a lot, but I dont think it should at all. I installed the stuff on new concrete, the morning I settled on the house so there were no prep issues.

[Vicegrip]

I used Gray. My first thought is that white will show every little dirt spec.

As far as the coating I guess I have had a better experence with the Rustoleum epoxy from Home Depot. Over the years I have a lot of work related experence with coatings and have found that coating failures were, other than incorect product/cem attack, always due to pre app prep. Pre app prep should take MORE time than the coating and the little details count. Did the concrete have a cure coating? Was it real smooth and glossy?

Pull up is for the most part a factor of the coating sticking to the tire better than the base surface. Most epoxies will bond well to concrete if the concrete is clean, sound and has the right finish. Dirt and oil based contamination will reduce bond.

The kits are $60 per gallon. I used 4 kits for a 24 X 30. The kits come with all that is needed other than tools. There is a bag of eching/cleaning compound, a gal can, a pint can, a mixing stick, paint flakes and a instruction video. The flakes are for sprinkling onto the wet paint as it is rolled out and are good for hiding flaws in the concrete as well as future dings. They are not required. The coating gives a semi gloss finish in one coat. it is water based and not influenced by some moisture in the concrete. In fact you can wash the floor ,remove any standing water and coat.
Before you purchase any coating system read instructions and warnings first! Some epoxies need two coats to get a gloss on concrete and some epoxies cannot be recoated after full cure. The HD coating is good to walk on in 7 hours and drive on a a day or two and can be recoated in the future. I have tested mine with hot Hoos and no pull up so far. The only damage noted to date was from my dropping a rear hub 6 feet to the floor and it dug a hole in the concrete. Green can Brake-kleen will damage the surface but all other normal auto cems don't seem to hurt. I only use Green can Brake-Kleen as a paint stripper anyway. The stuff is nasty to everything.

Good luck with the paint job and you are welcome to stop by and check out the floor in the Taj to see what the final product will look like with the Home Depot stuff.

[little b]

I had my clear coat apoxy (hey, it looks grey, but doesnt show the dirt so much. the wife wanted burbur....) WHEN THE CONCRETE FLOOR WAS POURED. Stuck the best. I only say this, because some people want to jump in their garage, and get oil on the floor right away. And maybe there's nobody out there just getting a new garage floor (VAsteve). You always have to prep old stuff, for paint to stick right.

[VaSteve]

Originally Posted by little b

I had my clear coat apoxy (hey, it looks grey, but doesnt show the dirt so much. the wife wanted burbur....) WHEN THE CONCRETE FLOOR WAS POURED. Stuck the best. I only say this, because some people want to jump in their garage, and get oil on the floor right away. And maybe there's nobody out there just getting a new garage floor (VAsteve). You always have to prep old stuff, for paint to stick right.

I am pulling out the builder grade carpet so I have have plenty to put under the cars until I get to this project. It won't be long however, I have a laundry list of stuff to do to the P-car come the cold months.

It appears that some knucklehead already parked ill-maintained equipment in my garage as I have seen a oil spot. Will I have to get that out or will the epoxy just go over top??