Garage Overhaul Using Rust Bullet for the Floor

[MajorLeeGassole]

I found a great tip online somewhere that really worked well. Can't find the link anymore so here's my summary.

I'll use my walls as an example to describe the process:

I painted the red wall last as it was a darker color next to an adjacent light color wall.
Once you've taped up the line (scotch blue tape), to form the boundary between the red and white, you take one more step before even openening the can of red.

At the point where the red paint is going to meet the edge of the tape you first paint a strip of paint along that border with the same color paint that is on the adjacent wall (white in my case).
This ensures that if any paint was going to leak/bleed under the tape, it would be the same color as the wall it is leaking onto.
It also essentially creates a seal at the same time so that when you start with the red, it cannot get under the tape ruining the line.

That is all that is required to ensure good lines.
Except don't forget that if you are using a darker primer under the red you should apply that after the white strip, to ensure uniformity.

Brilliant! Thanks for sharing the painting tip.

 

[G20-Budo]

EMC2, thanks for that tip.. whis I'd know that before we painted some of the walls in the house. Oh well, now I know how to fix it.

 

[redlinetoys]

Fantastic!!!

 

[EMC2]

Wow - what a show piece garage! Interesting product mix throughout. I actually have a fair bit of experience with various rust paints and now RustBullet, including an ongoing stress test (on metal) that will conclude in the spring. You can see it in my blog.

I absolutely love Behr paints. I have yet to find a thicker, easier to apply, paint for home application. We painted an interior wall red a few years back and used a pink primer. Even so it took 5 costs to get full coverage. Never again!

Enjoy your garage, but please, update us over the long term. I used Rustoleum's EpoxySheild and it lifted after 2 years from water sitting on it (from wet cars), so I wouldn't recommend that.

Cheers!

Thanks e-tek. I'll be sure to follow the update on your blog, and I'll post another update on mine after this summer. Just over one year in and I am very impressed with how the floor has held up.

Well done, on both the garage and the write up.

Thank you

I am really enjoying my Flex 3401. I love the GG's, too, but the Flex has cast its spell on me.

Also interesting to know Rick. Is it because of the extra cutting power?

 

[EMC2]

Brilliant! Thanks for sharing the painting tip.

EMC2, thanks for that tip.. whis I'd know that before we painted some of the walls in the house. Oh well, now I know how to fix it.

Fantastic!!!

Hope it helps someday

 

[69bigblok]

Thanks for the paint tip EMC2! I'll give that a try. Have some projects on the house and car for the next couple weekends but planning to tackle that red wall soon.

 

[chenthu]

Added 2 small items to the garage over Christmas and need to take some Pics, but unfortunately they weren't cars

Are we still waiting on pics?!

 

[EMC2]

Sorry for the delay.
Pics attached as promised.
Like I said; nothing major, but a discreet addition of storage space for some garage specific tools.

 

[55cadillacking]

You're a man of impeccable taste. Are we going to get a peek inside at some point?

 

[G20-Budo]

Very nice EMC2, so clean! And the style.. wow.

 

[EMC2]

You're a man of impeccable taste. Are we going to get a peek inside at some point?

Thanks Rick. Still moving a few items over, but will post some pics when done.

Very nice EMC2, so clean! And the style.. wow.

Thanks G20

 

[dubber]

Very cool. And that oh so subtle change putting them in side ways to make a new and unique look along with the decals were great touches.

 

[chenthu]

+1 on what dubber said! The decals make a big difference!

putting them in side ways to make a new and unique look along with the decals were great touches.

 

[EMC2]

Very cool. And that oh so subtle change putting them in side ways to make a new and unique look along with the decals were great touches.

+1 on what dubber said! The decals make a big difference!

Thanks Guys

 

[rmckee]

I've read your thread for quite a while now (infrequently checking back) and find it hard to believe I've never posted... but alas...

A truly exquisite space. And I have immense amounts of respect for both your ability to re-apply coats of red, and detailing black vehicles. My last Audi was BRG and unfortunately scratches were far too quick to show, so when I purchased my new one last month, I went with silver in hopes of it having better luck paint wise. Unfortunately no garage yet, so she's subject to New England winters, which I cringe at the thought of. Soon enough, I suppose!

Well done, sir. My hat goes off to you.

 

[metalhead140]

Great looking garage! How's the floor holding up?

 

[EMC2]

I've read your thread for quite a while now (infrequently checking back) and find it hard to believe I've never posted... but alas...

A truly exquisite space. And I have immense amounts of respect for both your ability to re-apply coats of red, and detailing black vehicles. My last Audi was BRG and unfortunately scratches were far too quick to show, so when I purchased my new one last month, I went with silver in hopes of it having better luck paint wise. Unfortunately no garage yet, so she's subject to New England winters, which I cringe at the thought of. Soon enough, I suppose!

Well done, sir. My hat goes off to you.

Thanks for the kind words.
I can sympathise regarding vehicle color choice.
Black cars are rewarding but also very frustrating to own if you're a perfectionist. That's why I've had a good number of silver cars in my past also. Every few years it starts to get to me

Great looking garage! How's the floor holding up?

Thanks. The floor is still looking excellent. No issues at all.

 

[cam07]

I've been following this thread for quite some time and I've decided to purchase Rust Bullet to coat my garage floor. I noticed that EMC2 stated in the first post that the product will give you a great looking floor if you have a really good finish. I rented a diamabrush tool and grinded my floor and have patched any cracks; however, there are still some rough areas that might be exaggerated with this product based on the original post. What are everyone's thoughts on purchasing flakes to use with Rust Bullet? Do you think they would work with this product? I feel like they would help conceal the imperfections. Thanks!

 

[EMC2]

I've been following this thread for quite some time and I've decided to purchase Rust Bullet to coat my garage floor. I noticed that EMC2 stated in the first post that the product will give you a great looking floor if you have a really good finish. I rented a diamabrush tool and grinded my floor and have patched any cracks; however, there are still some rough areas that might be exaggerated with this product based on the original post. What are everyone's thoughts on purchasing flakes to use with Rust Bullet? Do you think they would work with this product? I feel like they would help conceal the imperfections. Thanks!

That is a good question so I'll memtion a couple of things based on my exoerience and also what I came accross when researching:
Please excuse any typos. Using cell phone.

I personally would not suggest laying flakes onto wet rust bullet as it may mess with the DFT, or at least cause differences in thickness across the surface and ultimately compromise the strength of the finish. Rust Bullet seems to be a lot thinner than epoxy so i don't think this would be a safe approach.

If you are thinking about top coating Rust Bullet with a clear coat and laying the flakes into the first coat of clear then:
I will mention that I came accross a number of posts where people had a real problem getting various types of coatings to stick on top of Rust Bullet. (including Rust Bullet varieties of top coat.)
The other factor to consider is that if you do lay down flakes and then decide in 5 or 10 years time to freshen up the floor, you'll have to strip everything off. If you just use Rust Bullet, you could easily recoat again and would only need to scuff up the surface a little, and your floor will be like new again with minimal effort.
At least that is my theory

What could help is if you post some closeup pics of the floor now I could possibly tell you how it compares to mine before coating.

 

[gtr cook]

Lovely garage and i love the colour scheme. Its an inspiration!

 

[Grimly]

Oh, that's nice.
So clean and minimalist; stark, nothing wasted, nothing out of place. I love it. It's garages like that that give me leeway to be a slob, knowing there are neat and tidy places to balance it out.

 

[AndrewnTX]

Lovely garage and i love the colour scheme. Its an inspiration!

Agreed, wow such a great looking garage!!!!

 

[metalhead140]

Thanks. The floor is still looking excellent. No issues at all.

Good to know, thanks for your reply!

 

[quasi_accurate]

I love the combination of grey cabinets and red wall! Very clean build!

 

[EMC2]

Thanks guys. Glad summer is back - time for some more frequent detailing.

Oh, that's nice.
So clean and minimalist; stark, nothing wasted, nothing out of place. I love it. It's garages like that that give me leeway to be a slob, knowing there are neat and tidy places to balance it out.

Agreed, wow such a great looking garage!!!!

I love the combination of grey cabinets and red wall! Very clean build!

 

[rxbert]

Hey there, I'm checking in to say, "Subscribed. And to say thanks for the info for my concrete floors and for detailing vehicles". I think I might be trying the coating/paint on my suburban garage floor one of these days and I'm going to delve deeper into detailing my wife's Infiniti with some of the products mentioned. I like the idea of making her car "pop". Appreciate the info!

 

[rkstr]

Just checking to see how the floor is holding up? Enjoyed all the pics and comments. Getting ready to do my floor in September.

 

[sean Buick 76]

Very nice work on the garage!!!!

 

[maddog1949]

Great job on the garage.

 

[RonB001]

I went to Rust Bullet's web site to read up about their product, and what do I see? EMC2's garage as the first page of their "Featured Automotive Products".

Beautiful garage, and occupants!

Regards,
RonB

 

[Wuaname]

The Behr Porch and Floor paint for the walls was based on some previous experience I had with the paint.

Why would porch and floor paint be used on the walls?

 

[wagzilla]

Wow that looks really nice! I don't think I can ever get my garage to look that nice, I will work hard to make mine look nicer. thanks for the share

James

 

[Wuaname]

Quote:

The Behr Porch and Floor paint for the walls was based on some previous experience I had with the paint.

Why would porch and floor paint be used on the walls?

Can one of the paint pros chime in on this? I am confused

 

[EMC2]

Sorry for the delayed reply. Thanks for the posts.
The porch and floor paint was used on the walls because I wanted a washable and water resistant surface, and this approach was suggested to me by a few pro's, and I had used the paint before on some floor steps with good results.

Everything looks as good as it did on day one. I could not be happier with the choices for the floor and the walls. The Rust Bullet coating is extremely tough and is very easy to keep clean.

 

[EMC2]

Just checking to see how the floor is holding up? Enjoyed all the pics and comments. Getting ready to do my floor in September.

How is the project going?
I look forward to seeing some pics.

 

[rkstr]

Thanks for update, glad finish is holding up as expected. My shipment is due to arrive tomorrow.

 

[CT2012]

fantastic piece of advice regarding borders/taping, and committed to memory. paint bleed is a nightmare sometimes.

thanks for the tip!

(and you have a spectacular garage as well.)

I found a great tip online somewhere that really worked well. Can't find the link anymore so here's my summary.

I'll use my walls as an example to describe the process:

I painted the red wall last as it was a darker color next to an adjacent light color wall.
Once you've taped up the line (scotch blue tape), to form the boundary between the red and white, you take one more step before even openening the can of red.

At the point where the red paint is going to meet the edge of the tape you first paint a strip of paint along that border with the same color paint that is on the adjacent wall (white in my case).
This ensures that if any paint was going to leak/bleed under the tape, it would be the same color as the wall it is leaking onto.
It also essentially creates a seal at the same time so that when you start with the red, it cannot get under the tape ruining the line.

That is all that is required to ensure good lines.
Except don't forget that if you are using a darker primer under the red you should apply that after the white strip, to ensure uniformity.

 

[EMC2]

Thanks for update, glad finish is holding up as expected. My shipment is due to arrive tomorrow.

Excellent - keep us posted and feel free to PM me if you have any questions. I think I documented most key points but I'd be happy to help if anything is unclear (assuming my memory cooperates )

fantastic piece of advice regarding borders/taping, and committed to memory. paint bleed is a nightmare sometimes.

thanks for the tip!

(and you have a spectacular garage as well.)

Thank you.
Regarding the paint border; I wish I could find the original article, because the credit definitely goes to someone else. It's out there somewhere, and its a great tip worth sharing.

 

[AZWildcat]

Beautiful garage. I know there were several requests about the source of the Porsche lettering on the wall. Could you let us know more about that?

 

[hoho98925]

I have read this thread completely several times over the last year. Amazing job on this garage restoration.