Bad garage floor pour… suggestions?

[thunderskunk]

Thanks for all the ideas guys. I’ve been using a single disk diamond grinder last night and today; significantly better surface thus far. Not all that hard to do either. I’m using water instead of a vacuum, and I can’t imagine doing it any other way. I will probably rent the finer grit plate as final finish. Might paint it, might not.

I did notice that either the leftover “dust” or the surface being cut by the diamonds is razor sharp after running my hands over it. Ouch…

 

[budget76]

I'd be interested to see some more before/after pics if possible

 

[crazylunker]

It was just a suggestion. But note I said "European." They do tile differently and do it industrially. This is the highly regarded Ruf factory service area:



The floor in the construction area is the same. BTW, Ruf is a brand. They manufacture Ruf cars , but Porsche supplies some body parts. The VIN is registered as a Ruf. FYI fun fact. The ones you see in the service area could be either as they service and modify The Porsche proper.

an old customer of mine has a slant nose turbo ruf with 11000 mi on it. he has had it under a cover in his driveway for 13 years and keeps his mustang gt in the garage......UGH

 

[jonesg]

Thanks for all the ideas guys. I’ve been using a single disk diamond grinder last night and today; significantly better surface thus far. Not all that hard to do either. I’m using water instead of a vacuum, and I can’t imagine doing it any other way. I will probably rent the finer grit plate as final finish. Might paint it, might not.

I did notice that either the leftover “dust” or the surface being cut by the diamonds is razor sharp after running my hands over it. O

all in all things didn't turn out so bad.

 

[dougf]

all in all things didn't turn out so bad.

Maybe... Maybe not? I would love to see pics posted of the results. I have not seen grinding to fix a bad finish of that magnitude end well. I wish the OP all the best and i'm really curious as to the progress/outcome.

 

[thunderskunk]

 

[thunderskunk]

So it's... better. Not great, but not giant divots in the floor that you couldn't run a pallet jack over. We did heavy grinding while it was still soft; at some point I'll do a lighter grind to smooth things out a bit, fill the low spots, and probably polyurea coat the thing. I don't have the cash to throw at polyurea or any other coating for that matter.

I'd give a warning to the DIYers out there, but it's easy to forget what my budget was, and it wasn't compatible with what contractors wanted for the project. Just aught to have done more research ahead of time/not rushed it.

 

[dougf]

So it's... better. Not great, but not giant divots in the floor that you couldn't run a pallet jack over. We did heavy grinding while it was still soft; at some point I'll do a lighter grind to smooth things out a bit, fill the low spots, and probably polyurea coat the thing. I don't have the cash to throw at polyurea or any other coating for that matter.

I'd give a warning to the DIYers out there, but it's easy to forget what my budget was, and it wasn't compatible with what contractors wanted for the project. Just aught to have done more research ahead of time/not rushed it.

You did an absolutely fantastic job! I am going to go ahead and voluntarily eat my words about grinding not being a viable solution.

 

[Hank11]

Good save!

 

[manwithtools]

Great save, these pictures are much better BTW. I would consider having a pro with a BIG machine grind it again to better even things out. Then a polyurea coating as you suggest.

 

[jonesg]

" We did heavy grinding while it was still soft"

I poured mine 3 weeks ago, had marks from the bull float, I scuffed them down with the sole of my shoe the next day. good enough.

 

[Viper98912]

Where's all the armchair guys saying "have them rip it all out and do it over at their cost!! that'll teach them a lesson!"

I was going to recommend grinding, especially if you have a thick floor to begin with. Looks like it's working out for you, happy to finally hear a success story on this site on concrete pour issues

 

[thunderskunk]

Thanks for the positive feedback! There's a few outstanding issues:

• Low spots. It's an issue for drainage, but obviously not a big deal if we're not expecting water to just sit all the time. But the low spots are excessively low, and some still have pockets where I didn't want to grind much further. If you have recommended ways to fill low spots and/or pockets as you see in the "after" images, I'm all ears.
• Fine grinding. The grinder I rented to start with was a 30/40 grit. The finest I can find to rent is 60/80 grit, so that's what I'll do.
• Coating. At this point, I'm planning on using Rustolium rocksolid. It's not ideal, but it's $1000. I found a Ployurea kit for $4k, and the pros will do it for $10k if I want to wait until April next year... Not gonna work. I need it done closer to next week to prep for machine moves.

I'm down to hear anyone's opinions on the Rustoleum, good or bad. At the end of the day, if I ever have the money/time to have a pro coat the floor, I'll also have money to pay them to remove my mistakes with the Rustoleum. I'm on the "it's better than it was" train at the moment, and my stop is a lot further down the line.

 

[K13]

Not gonna work. I need it done closer to next week to prep for machine moves.

When did you pour the floor? If it's when you started this thread it sounds like you are rushing installing a coating as well and are in for more issues.

 

[thunderskunk]

When did you pour the floor? If it's when you started this thread it sounds like you are rushing installing a coating as well and are in for more issues.

Floor was poured on 11 August. Is 30 days of cure not long enough?

 

[K13]

I am neither a flooring or concrete expert but I think that is the minimum most recommend. I would hope Rustolium has a data sheet for their product that will lay out their requirements for application of their product. Find it and read it. If they don't get a hold of them and confirm.

Not wanting to offend and I apologize if it does but it sounds like you are trying to do this project cheap and fast which rarely if ever ends up with a favorable outcome.

 

[WIHD]

so where has this landed?

my fault for thinking we could do it ourselves.

IMO time to call in a pro and get some input on an appropriate fix, at least get some input/bids. 8" slab....cannot be cheap.

EDIT - I didn't see the latter posts on page 2 of the thread. Looks far better now.

 

[thunderskunk]

Not wanting to offend and I apologize if it does but it sounds like you are trying to do this project cheap and fast which rarely if ever ends up with a favorable outcome.

No offense taken. We have a lot of folks in our community in every profession, and thus far the only big snafu has been the floor. I mean, and being out of square, which is kind of floor related. Even then, it’s working out. I’ll post my BOM at some point, but if I wanted this built by a contractor, it would have been a $250k project. I didn’t have $250k, so it was either do it ourselves or not at all. Material cost won’t exceed $100k. We’re about $45k in so far with $25k or so to “cap off.” It’s 33x40, 12’ ceilings downstairs, 8’ upstairs with a flat ceiling throughout.

We put up the floor and roof trusses without a lift; I built a few gantry cranes from 2x4s and with a bit of help, 4 people got the trusses up in a day each. We used a bunch of tricks and materials from our friends and families projects, a good example was the fast-foot plastic for footers and Amvic for footer walls.

It’s not going to be perfect, but it’ll be enough to get by. If I’m not totally discouraged into building again in the future… I will likely not do the majority of what I did this time and pay someone to do everything, haha.

 

[thunderskunk]

 

[thunderskunk]

Not great, but not terrible. I tried to fill the low spots with recap, tried a finish grind over it and it all flaked off, so those spots came out super rough. I did some dumb things when painting such as rolling over chips and areas that should have been left alone. The goal is more to protect the floor for the next two or three years, and perhaps if we have the money again grind it down and have a pro make it “perfect.” Until then, the oil stays on top, and it cleans nicely.

 

[scofo]

Looks great, congratulations.

Did you end up using Rustoleum?

My old employer DIY'd our well used shop floor with, I think some Rustoleum floor product from a big box store. Light/medium gray, nothing fancy, no flake thankfully. It held up reasonably well IMO in an auto repair shop. The area under the lifts showed wear, chips etc.. eventually but the driveway areas were still looking near new many years later.

 

[2Rocky]

Looks great, congratulations.

Did you end up using Rustoleum?

My old employer DIY'd our well used shop floor with, I think some Rustoleum floor product from a big box store. Light/medium gray, nothing fancy, no flake thankfully. It held up reasonably well IMO in an auto repair shop. The area under the lifts showed wear, chips etc.. eventually but the driveway areas were still looking near new many years later.

on a video I watched, the areas that chipped were where folks rotated hot tires in place on a DIY finish.

If anyone wants to feel good about their poorly finished concrete floors, I'd be happy to show them the 76 year old floor in my garage with ripples and waves from a less than ok finishing job. I spent a weekend knocking off the high spots and toe catchers that my grandfather tolerated for 50 years.

 

[scofo]

Maybe it doesn't get that hot down here ;-)

I've heard that as well but I didnt see it first hand on this application. Mostly I think the damaged stuff was impacts from dropped brake pads, front end parts, jack stands and the like.

 

[Zeke]

on a video I watched, the areas that chipped were where folks rotated hot tires in place on a DIY finish.

If anyone wants to feel good about their poorly finished concrete floors, I'd be happy to show them the 76 year old floor in my garage with ripples and waves from a less than ok finishing job. I spent a weekend knocking off the high spots and toe catchers that my grandfather tolerated for 50 years.

You too? My understanding is that the homeowner before me attempted to place concrete in the already built garage alone. Looks like he got as far as a wood float when it set.

 

[thunderskunk]

Did you end up using Rustoleum?

Yes. If you do it, buy from Wal-mart online. Their system doesn't calculate the fees that some states tack on for... hazmat? Substantially cheaper. Less than $1k for 3 kits/6 bags, the antiskid additive, and some tools to cover near 1400 square feet. If I did it again, I would buy just one more bag, not do the flakes, and use a rubber squeegee to spread the material prior to rolling. We did it exactly like the instructions said, but the squeegee would have been a life saver. Worst part was I had one, just didn't think I needed it. I had four people for the job including myself; I wish I had 8.

I did not etch the floor, just ground. It does not fill cracks or holes at all. Every pit, grind mark, crack, everything shows up clear through it. I knew that going into it but hoped it would fill a bit, but it did not.

I'm not saying you'll get a $10k coating out of a $1k do it yourself kit, but I saved $9k I don't have.

 

[scofo]

Good firsthand info, thanks. I dont know how much prep my ex employer did but I'm sure he didnt grind. So you should get even better results unless the formula has changed dramatically in the last 16yrs or so, for the worse.

No shade on your efforts. My only lean beef with flakes is trying to find a smallish dropped part. I like the look of flake, especially in a parking type garage but my eyes need plain monochrome for contrast, in a disassembly/assembly area.

 

[thunderskunk]

My only lean beef with flakes is trying to find a smallish dropped part. I like the look of flake, especially in a parking type garage but my eyes need plain monochrome for contrast, in a disassembly/assembly area.

My only intent with using the flakes was to help hide the grinding blemishes. I think I did that. If the grind had been well done and I had the extra bag of material, I would not have done it for the same reason; dropping parts is going to **** with the chips.

 

[2Rocky]

At some point you have to resign yourself that "No matter what, it's going to be better than what I had"

Comparison is the Thief of Joy

 

[thunderskunk]

Is the Rust-Oleum coating unbreakable?

No.

Would I do it again?

Yes.

$1k<$16k
1 week work< 5 months lead

This took a pretty extreme amount of beating to happen, and I’m not super happy that it happened, but I was gone for a year and a mechanic has been doing his thing. If you financed your garage with a business loan and the appearance of your shop is important to customer service, this is not the product for you. If you’re broke and just want a basic level of protection, it’s great. I’ll grind that off and recoat it when he’s gone.

The grime and dirt mops up easily.

 

[545_days]

Good job on the floor coating feedback after the shop had been in use for one year. This is the kind of post that makes Garage Journal great!

 

[Demon69]

Well done on the save
Honestly, I think once you've 20 tons of machines in and levelled with a years work put through them, you'll wonder what all the fuss was about.

 

[thunderskunk]

Man I don’t really want to post this picture… it’ll be clean someday.

That’s the whole space from the top of the stairs. It’s a mess; we’re doing construction everywhere; upstairs, outside, in this space, in the farmhouse, and this is the staging area. And it’s an active garage in the middle of tire season. And it’s a machine shop. That one in the back is 18,000 lbs. the one closer to the stairs is only 7,000 lbs. It’s been a year, not a crack seen. I have zero control joints cut in the main slab. I did it at the doors, but probably should not have. Those pits took a serious beating to happen. I’m surprised it’s not worse.

 

[bluedog225]

That’s what my shop looks like after I clean it up.