Garage Floor In Rough Shape, Advice Needed

[Skelly]

Quick backstory. House was purchased 3 years ago. Told the wife if we find a house with a big family room and big garage we will buy it. Found a nice house in surburbia with a 2 car garage with an addition (now 2 wide, 2 deep).

Original garage pad is in less than ideal condition. The previous owners (and our family) only ever have 1 car in the garage, and that is the bay with the most damage.


I want to start fixing up the garage, but the floor will need work first. My FIL has concrete experience (building forms, finishing,etc) on a small scale, so that helps.

I have a truck and access to HD/Tool rental places. What are my options? I'm thinking my only option is to cut out all the damaged pieces and repour. I personally do not want to go the route of a complete tearout.

Any advice?

Thanks

Kevin

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Sawcut across the garage isolating the damaged area.
Jack it out. Tamp base, dowel into existing slab, add crushed stone, place vapor barrier and repour.

We have better masons on the board than me but this is a basic plan.
Hopefully, they will chime in.

Also...Once fully cured you can epoxy or other coating system to help make it all blend together.

 

[SunsetsAndFriends]

I have a truck and access to HD/Tool rental places. What are my options? I'm thinking my only option is to cut out all the damaged pieces and repour. I personally do not want to go the route of a complete tearout.

Any advice?

Thanks

Kevin

What Scotty of Legacy is saying is the way to cut out sections and pour. That's how the pros do it.

After looking at the photos, if this were my floor, I would remove everything from the garage. Expect to keep it empty for 2 weeks or longer. Then I would rent a professional grade 3500+ psi power washer and power wash/degrease/scrub the entire floor thoroughly. I would use the power washer to "cut into" all the cracks, crevices, pock marks, etc. I would go over this floor as thoroughly as possible and not just once, twice or thrice. I would be looking to pull up all the loose concrete.

Then I would evaluate at that point.

If after all that, the floor has areas that need to be cut out, then the balance of the floor is already deep cleaned. If it turns out that some of the cracking is spalding and surface is cleaned to solid concrete, then epoxy/polyurea fillers with sand can be used to fill in defects prior to coating with epoxy or the like.

 

[Skelly]

Sawcut across the garage isolating the damaged area.
Jack it out. Tamp base, dowel into existing slab, add crushed stone, place vapor barrier and repour.

We have better masons on the board than me but this is a basic plan.
Hopefully, they will chime in.

Also...Once fully cured you can epoxy or other coating system to help make it all blend together.

Thanks for the quick response. That is what I figured on path forward. Epoxy would be my deam, but i have a long way to go

What Scotty of Legacy is saying is the way to cut out sections and pour. That's how the pros do it.

After looking at the photos, if this were my floor, I would remove everything from the garage. Expect to keep it empty for 2 weeks or longer. Then I would rent a professional grade 3500+ psi power washer and power wash/degrease/scrub the entire floor thoroughly. I would use the power washer to "cut into" all the cracks, crevices, pock marks, etc. I would go over this floor as thoroughly as possible and not just once, twice or thrice. I would be looking to pull up all the loose concrete.

Then I would evaluate at that point.

If after all that, the floor has areas that need to be cut out, then the balance of the floor is already deep cleaned. If it turns out that some of the cracking is spalding and surface is cleaned to solid concrete, then epoxy/polyurea fillers with sand can be used to fill in defects prior to coating with epoxy or the like.

Great call on the pressure washer. Unfortunately when I looked at the house when it was for sale the sellers had a car in the garage and didnt see the full extent of the damage. It also is clear the previous owners patched some spots, further leading to more "loose" spots.

 

[Armorpoxy]

This floor could be fixed with our epoxy mortar, then epoxy the entire floor. Make sure to prime, seems to be required for this bad floor.

 

[EpoxyCoat2]

You can degrease, power wash, and grind. The grinder should remove any remaining loose concrete that the power washer did not already remove. You can remove and re-pour these areas as mentioned or you can patch them. Removing and pouring new concrete would, of course, be the more permanent guaranteed fix, but can become costly.

 

[Slowgsr]

My floor looked worse then that, I actually replaced 1/6 of my floor (10x12) as it was so bad

I did an inverted v groove with a quick cut where the crack was, chipped out the crack, blew out with air then filled with top and bond.

I rented a diamond grinder and it will smooth out the repaired areas nicely prior to coating.

It turned out nicely. For filling hairline cracks, I'd clean the crack out with an angle grinder with a diamond wheel then use an epoxy patch, same for any pits.

 

[maverick302]

Keep us updated with pics. I'm curious to see how it progresses.

 

[Skelly]

Took another picture to get an idea what I'm dealing with. It's going to look like Swiss cheese when Im done.