Can anyone recommend the best Epoxy garage floor coating?

Seeing fotomoto's pics makes me think just having polished concrete with a sealant is a way more sustainable/lasting way to go....

 

...if you go to the travelling homeshows at your nearest civic center, there are commerical companies that come out and do this floor treatments. Whatever they use looks thicker/better than the DIY stuff, but undoubtedly more expensive.

 

I used a commercial product I bought at a commercial contractors supply outlet. I don't know if there even are any homeuser targeted concrete hardening sealers.

This is what I used.
http://www.euclidchemical.com/fileshare/applications/CSDiHd.pdf

 

JMD
Just cleaned the WMG Beauty and thought I'd share a couple pictures of the garage floor.
I started the garage project in the fall and ran out of warm weather, so will finish in the spring.
But, I have a nice side-by-side picture so you can see the before and after view!

Like you, I asked a lot of questions before I picked a product, and chose with epoxy-coat brand.
Several reasons; outstanding product that will wear like iron and an excellent instructional video.
You can speak directly to the company and they are way over-the top-in terms of customer service.
I suggest going to the web site, reading the pages, especially the customer testimonials.

Back to my project...
I ordered through Lowes, as their prices were better than directly from epoxy-coat.
I liked the idea of a pre-colored base, which is smoke blue, and it came with color chips.
I stopped into Lowes to pick up my kit, and also bought additional color chips, as I wanted five colors.

I know this sounds incredibly retentive...
I mixed the color chips, in several batches, in a colander in my kitchen.
This thoroughly mixed all five colors, and filtered out the tiny pieces, which was quite a bit.
This served to only have medium to large color chips when I spread them on the floor.
About an hour of messing around in the kitchen, but well worth the effort.
Just do it over the sink!

I don't have any sage insight, except to watch the video several times before you start the project.
Also, the key is in the preparation of the floor, so get it clean and rough, and the application will be a cake walk.

I hope this helps. Advise if there is anything I can add to clarify.
By the way, I also painted the walls, both the sheet rock and concrete, and started the ceiling.
When I get back into this project in the spring, I will post more pictures.

Happy Holidays!

 

that's beautiful.

 

Garage is a GARAGE! It is not a showroom, unless that is what you are after, then any brand of epoxy will do. You will be redoing the coating every couple of years. If that what you want to do (more floor maintenance), then go for it.

All the garages that I owned over the years, good old concrete is the most durable. I always use my garages for what they are designed for: repair, rebuilt, wax, store overnight with various vehicles. NEVER had to resurface a concrete floor yet. All my concrete floors get a really hard workout pretty much on a daily basis. I know numerous people have tried every epoxy coating and tries to do heavy duty repair on the surface: they all failed.

Another way to look at an expoxied floor: how many repair / maintenance shops have an epoxy floor?

Answer: none. Shops don't need the expense ofthe initial coating as well as the constant maintenance of recoating every couple of years. They can't afford to stop repair / maintenance because the floor needs to be recoated. Save the epoxy coating where it needs to be used: in the showroom.

You will never go wrong with the original poured floor with all its' grease and oil spots. That, to me impresses me, that garage gets used a lot for what it was meant to be used.

Bottom line: if you use the garage a lot, don't waste $$$ on epoxy coatings.

DBCassidy

 

I had my basement floor done with epoxy when we lowered the floor in this 1939-era house. I can't remember the brand anymore other that it was a Home Depot "home service", but they had three choices: a DIY one-layer, a more expensive and PITAish DIY two-layer, and a "we'll come and install" top flight three-layer. We chose the three-layer and OMG the fumes and the mixing made me realize why it's not a DIY choice for that top-end job. The full install took two days. Now, six+ years later, the basement floor looks and works great. Caveat - it's a basement floor, not a garage floor, so the intensity of wear is different. Also, the pristine condition of the 60-day(?) cured but still very new floor slab sure helped with adhesion. IMHO, if you'll go this route then I recommend you choose the top-end multilayer version and have it done by guys who do this every day.

 

Seen that happen more than I wanted to ever see. Tire heat does put the coating to its' limit. A lot of hard, time consuming work gets wasted by tires ripping up the coating and pissing off the garage owner (and rightfully so!).

DBCassidy

 

wow, now you're tempting me! well done.

 

Beautiful. Well done.

 

Indeed! Still looks like new.

Quick update...
Floor is performing exceptionally well this winter. Lots of rain, some snow and a lot of dirt once the water dries. I just sweep out the loose stuff, then mop up the dirt. Take a few minutes and it looks like the day I put it down.

I cannot wait for sustained warm days so I can wrap this up. Probably not until April. Will share pics.