Garage Floor Nightmare

[kcoy]

About a year ago, I finally got my garage built. However, the floor is a nightmare. To make a long story short, the concrete was poured, it started raining, they tarped it, a few of the bricks sank, and water pooled on top of the tarp. Here are a few pics...


...picture of the garage floor

...picture of the uneven floor

...picture of how the floor looks where the water pooled on top of the tarp

...picture of the holes where a few of the bricks sank

..picture of the scored line, obviously crooked

...another picture of the floor

Now, I'm in the process of fixing the floor. I priced out a grinder, which will be around $200. Would this be the best way to smooth everything out? I bought epoxy, but I wanted to smooth the floor first. Should I fill the holes before I grind the floor? Also, would it be better if I acid etched the concrete, as well as grind it before I apply the epoxy? Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[bmwpower]

Damn. That *****. I thought mine was bad.

You can give the grinder a try. Some of those marks are mighty deep. I would do the grinder, then use some sort of epoxy that you could pour over the floor. Something 100% solids that has a high build thickness.

Definitely fill the holes before coating.

You're gonna need a good deal of epoxy to fix that floor.

 

[thegarageguy]

What you really need is to shotblast it and use a resurfacer which is basically a polymerized cement that goes down around 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch thick. This would be your proper fix.

You can try the epoxy route but epoxy is not meant to be put on thick. It can turn brittle. From my experience, to build it higher than 1/8 inch you need to use aggregates and usually only up to 3/16 inch. This eventually will be much more costly than a resurfacer.

Either way you look at it its a costly fix. Definately not a DIY product.

 

[kcoy]

Thanks for the insight. The marks actually aren't as deep as they appear. That's why I was planning on grinding the concrete down. The hole is the deepest spot & it's maybe 1 1/2" deep.

 

[afx]

You wouldn't want to try and skim some concrete over it an inch or so thick?

 

[kcoy]

That's what a few people suggested. So, that's why I threw the question out there. Better to grind or skim coat? Also, since I'm new to the concrete projects, what's the difference (benefits) of shot blasting & grinding?

 

[rsanter]

if I was going to pour a layer of concrete over it, I would want to scarify the surface to make it very rough so the two will connect together very well

bob

 

[akdiesel]

Did you have a license and bonded company do the work? If so have them come back and fix the work, weather that be removing the concrete or doing as some have mentioned.
You could also look at www.concretenetwork.com. Anything and everything you want to know about concrete is on there.

 

[kcoy]

Thanks again for the insight. The concrete people are a whole other story. Friend of a friend of my dad (he's an electrical contractor). Anyway, the concrete guy didn't think he made enough off of this project to come back & fix it. Dumb on my part, b/c I didn't get a contract or anything to hold him on. I called the guy numerous times & he wouldn't return my calls. Sore subject.

Anyway, a buddy of mine brought up this idea... www.quikrete.com/PDFs/Projects/ResurfacingConcrete.pdf

Has anyone used this? Any comments?

 

[ron in sc]

Sorry to hear of your plight.

Whatever product you use make sure the manufactor recommends it for your application and make sure will stand behind their product if it does not work.

I was up at Wolverine Coatings last week to pick up an order and while there I saw a product they were testing. It is used to repair damaged concrete. It looked like cement but was an epoxy product. I think it is available thru forum member Fred at "alphagarage".

If you buy a Wolverine Coatings product they will stand behind their products with technical advise from Fred and with a web forum operated by the manufactor where the owner and/or lab people there will respond to your questions.

It may be worth your while to apply some sort of epoxy filler/repair product and then install an epoxy finish coat. Just remeber if you don't get the messed repaired correctly nothing else you do will work.

 

[akdiesel]

That Quikrete product looks like a simple floor leveling product which may be the best choice to patch the holes and fill in the goves as well. I am not sure of the psi that those products are rated for.
I would think you would be better off getting a profesional installer to lay down the product with atleast a 1/4" application hight if your driveway and vehicles can handle that increase.

 

[Floorguy]

That stinks. I had a similar problem with a customer floor. I went to quote him an epoxy coating and while I was there discovered that his concrete was in terrible shape. It rained when his was poured also. The issue has not been resolved yet but I turned it back over to the concrete guys. They ripped off the top coat and then used some sort of topcoat product. It looked good but there were areas that did not adhere well so you could hear hollow spots. They are now working on that and we will see where it ends up.

My thoughts are simlar to others. Grind off as many high spots as you reasonablly can. Fill as many voids (holes as you can) with a product that is compatible with the epoxy that you will use. Make sure that you are using a 100% solids epoxy as that will leave the thickest coating once it cures. I would also highly suggest that you do a full broadcast floor in order to hide as much of ugly concrete as possible. The multiple coats required to do such a floor will build and hide for you. The flake tends to play tricks with the eyes and hides alot of imperfections. If you do a solid color or use just a little flake you will see most of the repairs and will not be happy with the floor.

Just my $.02 worth.

Good Luck and let us know how it turns out.

floorguy

 

[kcoy]

Thanks a lot, floorguy. As it looks right now, I might go with the grinding, filling, & then epoxy. I have the epoxy kit, along with the flakes & anti-slip additive. The question is, though, I should fill first & then grind?

 

[Ramblur]

Might want to look into a broadcast system like...
http://www.precisionepoxy.com/
but I dunno on your situation,might be worth a call.

 

[Floorguy]

The way I do it is shotblast the floor (you will grind). Any crack that I feel I want to fill, then I grind it out with a crack Chaser (diamond wheel) to make it large enough to get a good amount of crack filler in. Let that cure, then grind it all even with the rest of the floor. Grinding may uncover other cracks so IMO best to fill, then hand grind the fill later.

Again, make sure you have enough flake to do a full broadcast so that all the imperfections will be hidden as much as possible.

If you have any further questions you can post them here, or PM me if you would like.

Good Luck

 

[ersatzs2]

It's tough to tell from the photos how deep and uneven your cracks really are. But using Epoxy-Coat in a very thick application, I completely filled most of my expansion joint cracks which were 1/2-5/8" deep at least. They look perfectly smooth. I used about 3X the recommended quantity of the materials, but it was well worth it. Given the time, equipment rentals and other costs of trying to fix what you have, I'd certainly give consideration to just coating your way out of it.
Someone said epoxy floors aren't meant to be laid on thick, but I haven't had a problem.

 

[SC-Eric]

I'm curious what kit you have. Based on alot of the suggestions I see here, I see a potential to apply products that may be chemically compatible but NOT physically. We are extremely heavy into the resurfacing market for USDA and FDA inspected facilites. Our system is called TrowelEase. Although contractors say that it is the most user friendly product, we would NOT sell those materials to a DIYer because it would be irresponsible. We also don't feel like it would be responsible to sell a broadcast system to a DIYer. There is just too much potential for an unexperienced person to drop too much aggregate in one spot and then you have a worse problem than you had before.
Just because a resurfacer is epoxy doesn't mean it will be compatible with your kit. It is also important that the 2 products move together during expansion and contraction which means that there has to be a balance of thier expansion/contraction ratios.

All of that said... and without getting too deep here...

Personally, I think that if you want this done once... and right... take the kits back and call a professional. Let them take care of it once and for all!

PS... Get a pro who has experience with quartz broadcast or 1/4" epoxy trowelable products...

Wolvie $0.02

 

[thegarageguy]

Now my final 2 cents

Since you have so many nooks and crannies, diamond grinding will not get into those areas like a shotblaster would. Those points might be your sure fire failures. Get a pro to shotblast it.

2nd, a resinous cement or what some may call a resurfacer, overlayment or microtopping seems like what you would need, by just looking at pics. Some you can chip or broadcast right into. Ive done these in 2 days.

Your other alternative would be like Wolverine said, a quartz trowel down or double broadcast quartz.

All of which are done by pro's. You may have to bite the bullet and pony up some cash to do it right.

Your only other alternative is to try to do it yourself and have a very high chance of not only failure but very awful looking floor that now not only looks like **** but is peeling all over. If this where the case, it would cost you more just to remove the mess.

Its not uncommon for me to see a DIY'r wing it himself and end up paying $1000 more just to remove his goof.

Good luck.

 

[JimsWife]

My concrete floor looks similar and I think I'm going to get an interlocking floor tile to cover the entire surface. I want to use the space for more than just parking our cars. It's more of a reck room, laundry room, etc. Any suggestions? I am leaning toward a colorful pattern using neutral tones. I found this picture at:

http://www.garagefloors.mobi/2008/08/garage-floor-blog-network.html#links

I like the gray and white checkered pattern instead of bare concrete. Has anyone used this type of flooring tiles?

 

[MrBeast]

You so need Mike Holmes...

He would make it right.