Durable flooring suggestion for my garage?

[RaskyR1]

Hello,

I'm looking for a better, more durable flooring option for my 24' x 40' garage and wanted to hear some suggestions based on my use for the space.

My wife and I coated it with Sherwin Williams Epoxy back in July (33 primer/Armorseal 650 SL/RC) and while we love the look of it, it's just not holding up as well to the traffic as I expected. I've been accumulating a lot of scratches/gouges in the coating from sand/gravel caught in the vehicle tires and from rolling on my creeper chair and running into a small piece of sand/gravel with the casters. I do some detailing as a hobby a couple weekends a month and the scratches are really accumulating around the lift where I use the creeper when working on the cars. The front stalls also have scratches from tires slipping on the wet floor and gravel in the tires....probably didn't help that the city just "resurfaced" the road with the tar/gravel method.

The front stalls (24x20) slope towards the center floor drain for winter melt off and for car washing, so something that is easy to clean/squeegee, but not as slippery as the epoxy would be nice. The back stalls around the lift are level. I'm not sure the Racedeck type tiles would work well for this application due to the amount of water, sand, dirt that would get under them, but I do like the durability and look of them.


I appreciate any and all suggestions. I'll have to grab some pictures of the scratches tonight as the don't show up in any of my pics I currently have loaded up.

 

[Angelfire]

Lots of discussion in this forum on the various flooring options. Myself, my choice is porcelain tile.
Cheers.

 

[Shea]

I think the biggest issue here is that you put down only two-thirds of a decent floor coating system. Using an epoxy primer was a good choice and the Armorseal 650 SL/RC is a decent high solids epoxy for your base coat. Where you went wrong is not following up with a coat or two of a clear high performance polyurethane or polyurea.

Epoxy cures extremely hard and therefore is much more scratch prone. It will degloss quicker as a result as well. Polyurethane and polyurea coatings are much more scratch resistant than epoxy since they are more flexible. They also offer better U.V. protection, chemical protection, and will hold its gloss much longer as well.

If your scratches are not very deep, you can rough up the surface of the epoxy with a sanding screen on a floor buffer and then apply a good clear. I'm not a fan of what Sherwin Williams has to offer for clears though. You can also add in an anti-slip polymer to increase grip when the floor is wet.

Keep in mind that gravel in tires is going to scratch up most hard flooring. It does help if you limit turning the tires when pulling in and out.

 

[RaskyR1]

I forgot to add we did top it with the HS Polyurethane too. I coated the whole slab so the 6" the extended outside the door was done too.

Some damage pics.







M ost the damage seems to come from my creeper

 

[Shea]

Yep... Unfortunately that particular polyurethane has a poor rating for abrasion resistance, thus all the scratches. You can check their Tech Data Sheets for it. Creepers shouldn't be leaving scratches. There are high solids epoxy coatings with much better ratings for abrasion resistance than that. That is why I'm not a fan of Sherwin Williams polyurethane.

The following is a quote from a section of our article that explains how to read technical data sheets:

Abrasion Resistance – This is a very important rating to look at when comparing products and is considered a benchmark in the industry in terms of durability. This rating is established by the Taber CS-17 abrasion loss test.

Essentially, a coating is applied to a 100mm rigid surface as a test plate. This test plate is then mounted to a turntable that rotates at a fixed speed under a CS-17 abrasion wheel weighted at 1000 grams. 500 cycles is the industry standard for the test. A vacuum recovery system removes any of the coating that is lost during the test.

This accumulated coating loss is then measured in milligrams (mgs). It is this mg loss that is expressed in the ratings. The lower the number the more durable the coating is.

Commercial quality epoxy can have an mg loss range of 20 to 45 mgs while some polyurethane coatings can have an mg loss of only 4 to 8 mgs. That is one of the many reasons why polyurethane makes for an excellent top coat.

Important to note is that each mg of loss is exponential. To give an example, a top coat with a 4 mg loss compared to a top coat with an 8 mg loss would last 3 times as long in terms of wear under the same conditions. Not twice as long as one would assume based on the numbers.

The particular polyurethane that you used is rated with a 63 mg loss. Now imagine the difference between that and a polyurethane rated with only an 8 mg loss. It's a huge difference. This pretty much explains why everything seems to be scratching your coating. For reference, the high solids epoxy you used is rated with a 100 mg loss where other commercial epoxy products are rated with much less loss.

I'm not trying to rain on your choice of product, I'm just trying to explain why you are experiencing a lot of the issues that you are having.

 

[RaskyR1]

I appreciate the feedback and technical info, Shea. It ***** having to redo it but this stuff isn't going to cut it, clearly.

Thanks,
Rasky

 

[_Stang_]

Racedeck freeflow was one of the best things we did in our new home this year. That along with hot water in the garage. LOVING this setup now that we're getting snow and ice. You just blow it out once in a while and then run the shopvac with floor attachment over it for loose dirt. I use my wife's shark steam mop on top about once a month.

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[SunsetsAndFriends]

I wonder whether you could go over the top, after screening it, with Rust Bullet Clear for Concrete? It has an anti skid in the mix.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Yep... Unfortunately that particular polyurethane has a poor rating for abrasion resistance, thus all the scratches. You can check their Tech Data Sheets for it. Creepers shouldn't be leaving scratches. There are high solids epoxy coatings with much better ratings for abrasion resistance than that. That is why I'm not a fan of Sherwin Williams polyurethane.



The following is a quote from a section of our article that explains how to read technical data sheets:







The particular polyurethane that you used is rated with a 63 mg loss. Now imagine the difference between that and a polyurethane rated with only an 8 mg loss. It's a huge difference. This pretty much explains why everything seems to be scratching your coating. For reference, the high solids epoxy you used is rated with a 100 mg loss where other commercial epoxy products are rated with much less loss.



I'm not trying to rain on your choice of product, I'm just trying to explain why you are experiencing a lot of the issues that you are having.

On the money.


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[rburke65]

I don't know....I'm still not a believer. A lot of work and money and then you end up with a floor looking like this.

 

[RaskyR1]

Thanks everyone! I really only went with the SW because they were local, in case I needed something last minute. :/

Racedeck freeflow was one of the best things we did in our new home this year. That along with hot water in the garage. LOVING this setup now that we're getting snow and ice. You just blow it out once in a while and then run the shopvac with floor attachment over it for loose dirt. I use my wife's shark steam mop on top about once a month.

Sent from my SM-T710 using Tapatalk

Maybe I'll have another look at it but it just seems like it would be a pain to clean up all the salt and sand dropping off the vehicles in the winter.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

I don't know....I'm still not a believer. A lot of work and money and then you end up with a floor looking like this.

Our install company puts these floors in everyday and nothing but happiness coming back to us. Same with the DIY customers too.

I run a similar seat and use a creeper on my own floor, no marks at all. My floor is finished with our Xtreme 66 Polyaspartic Clear.

It would not be hard to put a better clear on the OPs floor.

 

[RaskyR1]

Our install company puts these floors in everyday and nothing but happiness coming back to us. Same with the DIY customers too.

I run a similar seat and use a creeper on my own floor, no marks at all. My floor is finished with our Xtreme 66 Polyaspartic Clear.

It would not be hard to put a better clear on the OPs floor.

Just so it's clear. The scuffs I'm getting aren't from just rolling on the creeper. It's when I'm rolling and hit a piece of sand/debris. If the higher quality coatings can hold up to this use I will consider redoing it come spring time. I'd consider the Racedeck style flooring too but I'm wondering if they can be cut to size to fit flush with my lift pit opening. The porcelain tile option would look great but I wonder if it's bets for my use of the space. Wish I had done more research upfront.

 

[Garage Flooring]

Just so it's clear. The scuffs I'm getting aren't from just rolling on the creeper. It's when I'm rolling and hit a piece of sand/debris. If the higher quality coatings can hold up to this use I will consider redoing it come spring time. I'd consider the Racedeck style flooring too but I'm wondering if they can be cut to size to fit flush with my lift pit opening. The porcelain tile option would look great but I wonder if it's bets for my use of the space. Wish I had done more research upfront.

Abrasion resistance is definitely going to be a key here. I would also add an anti wear additive to the top coat. Any coating can be damaged with enough force or even a wheel in bad enough shape, but going with the right coating would minimize that.

Tiles are cut to size all the time. I would likely take a different approach with tile. I would put an edge piece up against the edge of the pit. Tile back to the wall and cut at the wall. That works real well for three of the four sides. The fourth side can be trickier because of the front door. There are a couple of tricks you can do with aluminum or diamond-plate there.

 

[Armorpoxy]

This floor could be lightly buffed and then a coat of our Armorclad Military grade pigmented urethane topcoat would bring it back to life easily.