Cleaning floor for paint

[Sumboodie]

Pressure washing and scrubbing a floor adequate for a reasonable paint job on a garage floor? Floor is about 7 years old and in nice shape other than a few oil spots and cracks. I realize I can grind the floor, but that's a bunch of time and money.

Floor is about 1260 sq ft, 30x42

 

[theoldwizard1]

Greased Lightening 100% on the oil spots. Scrub it in. Let dry overnight. Rinse thoroughly with lots of water. If the oil spot are still bad, repeat. Let dry at !east 24 hours before paint.

 

[Sumboodie]

Not doing epoxy or anything fancy, it's a shop and the floor is going to get beat up. Paint can easily be redone if needed. Going to cost me about $300 of materials.

 

[nadogail]

80% of any painting job is preparation. .

 

[Sumboodie]

80% of any painting job is preparation. .

Agreed. I think a good wash and scrub will be adequate. Trying to not turn a day or two couple hundred dollar project into a huge thing.

 

[Bruce Amacker]

Rent a floor scrubber at the local hardware store. It's $16/4 hours, the best money I've ever spent, I do it 2-3 times per year to keep my floor clean. Every couple of years it gets painted after scrubbed. The hardware calls the machine a floor polisher and it uses 17" 3M Scotchbrite pads.

 

[Bryan Burns]

I believe your approach is adequate. I highly recommend a surface cleaner for the pressure washer, if you don't have one already.

 

[Sumboodie]

I believe your approach is adequate. I highly recommend a surface cleaner for the pressure washer, if you don't have one already.

I do. and a decent hot water pressure washer.

 

[tester19]

Is the floor already painted? If not I vote to just run it bare concrete if it's a working shop. Someone painted the floor in my shop before I bought the house. Wish he had NEVER touched it! As soon as you paint it it starts to get beat up and looks like ****. I prefer just the stained concrete unless this is a trophy garage or man cave setup.

Once it's painted your committed to that from here on out.
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[dcg9381]

You may want to etch (acid) the concrete, depending on what you're finishing it with. Consider polyurea instead of paint... It's a great product and a fraction of the cost of epoxy.

 

[pinebarkauto]

I painted my floor with a system from Rustoleum for garage floors. I think it was called Epoxy coat. It was a 2 part system and I believe the floor had to be cleaned with muriatic acid before application. It has held up well for nearly 20 years. One bit of advice. If the concrete is fiberglass reinforced, burn the surface to remove any exposed , fiberglass "hairs". I didn't, and after the paint dried the "hairs" stood up like spikes. Makes for a great non skid surface for walking, but tough on your hands and knees if you crawl on the floor much.

 

[slackdaddy1]

Not doing epoxy or anything fancy, it's a shop and the floor is going to get beat up. Paint can easily be redone if needed. Going to cost me about $300 of materials.

$1000 in epoxy or $50 in latex,,, it needs the same prep to properly adhere.
I would either blow it out and paint over it all,, or rent a floor surfacer from Home Depot for the day and do it properly.
One or the other.

 

[Sumboodie]

Is the floor already painted? If not I vote to just run it bare concrete if it's a working shop. Someone painted the floor in my shop before I bought the house. Wish he had NEVER touched it! As soon as you paint it it starts to get beat up and looks like ****. I prefer just the stained concrete unless this is a trophy garage or man cave setup.

Once it's painted your committed to that from here on out.
.
.
.

Painted is much easier to clean. Or epoxy, but welding ruins that.

 

[nadogail]

Mrs Nadogail had my workshop floor epoxy coated, after she saw what welding spatter did to it, she now stays out of my shop.