MisterMike
Well-known member
A few weeks ago my son and daughter-in-law purchased a home in the Chicago suburbs. One of my son's priorities was upgrading the garage. Since the house had been filled with furniture and boxes when they looked at it, he didn't have much of an idea of the floor's condition. With my travel schedule, my first glimpse of the garage floor was the day I scheduled for the installation:
Yikes! As you can probably tell, the floor had been sealed at some point. In some places, the sealant was still intact, though somewhat discolored, and in other places it was worn off completely (or perhaps had only been installed haphazardly). This was going to be a bit more of a project that I had planned . . . not the "sweep it off and slap it down" approach I'd hoped for. On the positive side, there were only some very minor hairline cracks, and not too many areas where oil was an issue.
I made a quick trip to Lowes, and I returned with a gel stripper and a couple gallons of Valpar FastPrep cleaner/degreaser/etcher. Without going into excruciating detail, my prep consisted of two rounds of stripping and two rounds of rounds of the FastPrep, interspersed with some spot treatments of Metal Blast and four go-arounds with a power sprayer. By the time I was finished, that floor was pretty darned pristine and also nicely etched. This is midway through the cleaning process, after the sealer had been removed:
The application of the Rust Bullet was pretty straightforward. I sprinkled a bit of silica sand on the second coat, then followed it up with a couple more coats, yielding this result:
It looks pretty darned good, though admittedly it's not a professional job. I'd note that the Rust Bullet sticks like crazy and it gets absolutely granite hard. Overall, I'd rate the product very highly. Not as pretty as a nicely done epoxy floor, but probably more serviceable and--for the price--a darned durable product.
In a way, I'm glad that it turned out that there was a sealant on the floor. It was a heck of a lot of work on a hot, humid day. But, had it not been there, I'd have probably tried to go the easy route and just would have painted the product on after cleaning it and treating/removing the oil spots. As it was, I was able to start the coating process with a well-prepped floor--completely clean and free of oil, and mildly etched. I think it turned out pretty well.
Yikes! As you can probably tell, the floor had been sealed at some point. In some places, the sealant was still intact, though somewhat discolored, and in other places it was worn off completely (or perhaps had only been installed haphazardly). This was going to be a bit more of a project that I had planned . . . not the "sweep it off and slap it down" approach I'd hoped for. On the positive side, there were only some very minor hairline cracks, and not too many areas where oil was an issue.
I made a quick trip to Lowes, and I returned with a gel stripper and a couple gallons of Valpar FastPrep cleaner/degreaser/etcher. Without going into excruciating detail, my prep consisted of two rounds of stripping and two rounds of rounds of the FastPrep, interspersed with some spot treatments of Metal Blast and four go-arounds with a power sprayer. By the time I was finished, that floor was pretty darned pristine and also nicely etched. This is midway through the cleaning process, after the sealer had been removed:
The application of the Rust Bullet was pretty straightforward. I sprinkled a bit of silica sand on the second coat, then followed it up with a couple more coats, yielding this result:
It looks pretty darned good, though admittedly it's not a professional job. I'd note that the Rust Bullet sticks like crazy and it gets absolutely granite hard. Overall, I'd rate the product very highly. Not as pretty as a nicely done epoxy floor, but probably more serviceable and--for the price--a darned durable product.
In a way, I'm glad that it turned out that there was a sealant on the floor. It was a heck of a lot of work on a hot, humid day. But, had it not been there, I'd have probably tried to go the easy route and just would have painted the product on after cleaning it and treating/removing the oil spots. As it was, I was able to start the coating process with a well-prepped floor--completely clean and free of oil, and mildly etched. I think it turned out pretty well.
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