Garagemahal floor

[chadwick02]

Hey guys - been a lurker here for about three years, figure its finally now time to post up, introduce myself, and ask a question!

First - the introduction.
3 years ago I bought my dream property with my nightmare of a house. 14 acres, perfect location, a nice view (now that we've cut a couple trees down..), and a run-down not maintained double wide trailer of a house...sweet! Its taken some time to get a handle on the layout of the land, but the best sitting for a new potential house is exactly where this existing double wide trailer is - best view and access. So, I've decided to build the garage before the house, with an apartment above the garage, that I can live in during house construction (which will be a few years+ down the road). I'm in my early thirties, single (well, more on that later...) have always wanted to build the ultimate man cave, so if I'm going to do it, now is the time - I'll let her help with the main house construction! 27x37 3 bay "attached" garage with 900square foot apartment above it. Started excavating about a year ago, we're now framed, roof, windows, doors are all in. Will pour the inside slab end of this week (we hope), get some garage doors on, and pound away at inside work over the winter. Im hiring some of the work out, but taking on a lot of it as evening/weekend work with buddies as we have time. No major rush, and it is a fun project!

Intended uses for the garage is a mix of everything from indoor parking overnight, moderate residential projects and hobby-service of my car and truck, tractors, toys..etc. Nothing too industrial, but more than a Sunday driver stable.

The question at hand: I'd like to have a polished or stained concrete floor. We're having fun with this project, and without blowing the entire budget, I like to put interesting or unique touches on things, and a concrete floor is no exception... My concrete guy has said he can come back and do some epoxy finishes later. I've done a bunch of research and talked to a couple other guys that specialize in floors, they recommend a high polish. I like the looks of both types of finishes, im not partial to one or the other based on looks, I want something that is durable.

I've researched the daylights out of epoxy vs polishing. Everyone has their own opinions - I'm open to anything that looks unique or "cool" AND that will hold up well/minimal maintenance. I dont want worry about the floor, I want to use it, and know its going to last a good long time under "normal" garage use, and wipe it up at the end of the day. This garage will serve as the main entrance to the apartment above (at least for now), so it will be where myself along with company enters and exits - the right bay will be used as a mudroom/entryway.

The floor is job that i'll hire out 100% to a local concrete contractor with a good reputation. 5" thick, 4000psi, fiber mesh and rewire. 2" of foam under with radiant tubes, no heat in an area where I'd potentially mount a lift, and in the back right corner under the stairs and utility room area.

So... I'm open to thoughts and recommendations about floor finishes, and particularly open to suggestions of anything that should be done now, to the concrete as its poured. Decorative aggregate mixed in that can be polished down too later? "seeding" the top? Or just pour a regular floor for now and polish/epoxy/figure it out later.

I have millions of other questions, but right now its just figuring out if we want to ad anything special into the concrete mix for this weekend.

Couple pictures attached.
Thanks!!
Chad

 

[pbon]

Looks Great!

 

[Steelerz1]

Awesome! Subscribed

 

[Abeo]

I'd go for a polished floor personally. I love the look of the exposed aggregate and the smooth/flat floor you get from the grinding process.

Are you in an area that gets snow? if so, the polished floor may be too slick.

You should make a build thread for this. The garage/apartment looks great so far!

 

[creativecars]

Welcome to GJ. Your garage looks great so far. I too like the looks of stained concrete, but I fear it would be really slick with rain or snow dripping. Nothing hurts like busting your *** on concrete!!!

 

[stm317]

I considered polished concrete as well. It seems pretty simple, but Doesn't polished concrete dull over time, eventually needing to be repolished? I think road salt can really take a toll on polished concrete too if it's used in your area. The other drawback to heavy aggregate in a polished floor would be finding small items that might be dropped on the floor. You run into the same issue with epoxy floors that have flecks in them. A solid color floor avoids that, and you can add anti-slip additives to prevent injury or embarrassment.

Can I ask why you chose the dimensions you did? 27 x 37 seems like an odd choice that will lead to extra work and material waste. It looks fantastic though!

 

[Armorpoxy]

Hi
We polish concrete via our Construction Division www.prep-crete.com and it's not an inexpensive process due to the many passes to achieve the results, and polished floors are not stain or salt proof. Also LOTS of grinding especially if you want to get down to aggregate. Normally polishing is not a DIY process, as it requires heavy power for 3 phase grinders to do it properly.

You can get the 'polish' look by using our SPGX, or use a standard 3 layer 100% solids epoxy system which thousands of GJ users have opted for.

 

[chadwick02]

Thanks guys!!

I'd go for a polished floor personally. I love the look of the exposed aggregate and the smooth/flat floor you get from the grinding process.

Are you in an area that gets snow? if so, the polished floor may be too slick.

You should make a build thread for this. The garage/apartment looks great so far!

Snow, yes, plenty! Slipery is a concern, as would salt damage - I didnt think it was that much of a concern with polished, but I'll need to look into those some more. Build thread will do! We've been taking tons of pictures!!

I considered polished concrete as well. It seems pretty simple, but Doesn't polished concrete dull over time, eventually needing to be repolished? I think road salt can really take a toll on polished concrete too if it's used in your area. The other drawback to heavy aggregate in a polished floor would be finding small items that might be dropped on the floor. You run into the same issue with epoxy floors that have flecks in them. A solid color floor avoids that, and you can add anti-slip additives to prevent injury or embarrassment.

Can I ask why you chose the dimensions you did? 27 x 37 seems like an odd choice that will lead to extra work and material waste. It looks fantastic though!

Wow - NEVER thought about finding small items on a busy floor. I'm forever dropping stuff and cant find it, even if its a black object on a white background...!! That, is a really good point, thanks!!

The building is actually 28x38. I had interior finished floor dimensions in mind when I stated the 27x37 dimension in the original thread. Would have loved to make it a couple feet bigger in either/both direction, now that were in the space and physically laying things out (for real, not just on paper) I'm really wishing I had an extra foot or two of depth, and width. Not much I can do about it now, am limited by the land/double wide / barn access road, so thats what it had to be.

Thanks Armorpoxy - I'll check it out.

I'm still really intrigued by the idea of mixing in a custom aggregate into the concrete for future polishing. One chance to do that, now... Freezing temperatures this weekend we have decided to hold off pouring the slab till early next week, so I've got a little more time to consider adding something to the concrete mix.

Anyone have experience with mixing in a custom aggregate to concrete? Easy and cheap to do now it seems. Can always expoxy over it later, or polish to expose it.

 

[SmokeyBC]

Where are you located?

 

[chadwick02]

First pic attached is polished with exposed (custom?) aggregate in the mix.
2nd/3rd pic is also a look I like - Looks to be an acid stained concrete with an epoxy over it? I do like that glossy/granite look!

Too many options!!

 

[chadwick02]

Where are you located?

Amherst Ma. Between Albany NY and Boston MA

 

[Ed Devinney]

We have colored and polished floors in the house and a plain hard troweled slab in the garage, here are some thoughts after living in the place for 9 months or so.

The polished floors look and feel great. They are much smoother than the smoothly troweled garage, which itself is pretty slick when it gets wet from vehicles. I don't know if I'd put polished in a garage for that reason alone.

The polished floors aren't maintenance-free. They absolutely require a sealer or they will stain. The concrete guys applied a sealer (H&G I think) that was not very effective. Fortunately the nice folks at Armorpoxy sent me a sample of the mop-down Ironstone finish they use commercially and I've been very happy with it. It's about time to recoat, come to think of it.

The troweled floor is maintenance free, thanks to an application of Ghostshield 8505. If I was going to do it again I'd use 8505 on the polished floors, too.

The stained floors that folks have done, covered with SPGX or buffed HD40 (?) look pretty good from pic and might be a good solution for a garage.

Side note - not sure if fiber additives are compatible with good polishing results.

 

[Toomanytools?]

Grinding down to show off the aggregate looks nice I like that look but the cost for a garage floor seems absurd. Prices for polished exposed aggregate around here are $6-$7/sqft. So your 1000sq is going to cost you say $3000 more than an Epoxy floor. Maybe that's not a problem for you but that money could do a lot more for the man cave. Plus you are grinding off the cream that the finishers worked so hard to smooth out.

It would look cool though. I went with HD40 on the vehicle side of my shop about 2000 sqft, cost was under $900. So far I like it, my concrete finisher wasn't the greatest so the slab isn't as smooth as it should be.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=370806

For the other 1000 sq I'm leaning towards a stained floor with SPGX.
Good luck on the project .

 

[b4z]

what are the dimensions on the building? front length first? I like how you did the steel beams front to back. its always better to make the floor joists shorter like you did.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Nice project.

 

[Eslader]

I've got full-broadcast epoxy on mine, and I wouldn't change it. If it's freezing where you are, then you're gonna be tracking road salt into it, and it's gonna start looking crappy as the salt attacks the concrete. That's what mine looked like before we had the epoxy done. Spalling all over the place, including some really big divots where the concrete ended at the door. And that's in a 14 year old house that we bought 4 years ago, and the previous owners didn't do anything in there but park the car.

Meanwhile I routinely roll heavy **** like engine cranes and loaded car dollies over mine all the time, and the floor never even scratches. Polished concrete looks cool, but I'd reserve that for somewhere that doesn't see salt or much abuse at all.

The other problem as someone above pointed out is that in the winter, polished concrete can get very slick as the snow drips off your cars.

 

[dynahoe]

I've been told no fiber in mix if polishing,leaves fibers exposed than you burn them off,,maybe i'm way wrong,,but worth looking into it

 

[Armorpoxy]

He states fiber mesh as opposed to fiber added. Correct, if you have a floor with fibers added, they need to be burned off prior to coating. If there was just a mesh under the pour, that should be fine.

 

[chadwick02]

This is an awesome comparison, thanks!! 8505 I'm looking that up!

We have colored and polished floors in the house and a plain hard troweled slab in the garage, here are some thoughts after living in the place for 9 months or so.

The polished floors look and feel great. They are much smoother than the smoothly troweled garage, which itself is pretty slick when it gets wet from vehicles. I don't know if I'd put polished in a garage for that reason alone.

The polished floors aren't maintenance-free. They absolutely require a sealer or they will stain. The concrete guys applied a sealer (H&G I think) that was not very effective. Fortunately the nice folks at Armorpoxy sent me a sample of the mop-down Ironstone finish they use commercially and I've been very happy with it. It's about time to recoat, come to think of it.

The troweled floor is maintenance free, thanks to an application of Ghostshield 8505. If I was going to do it again I'd use 8505 on the polished floors, too.

The stained floors that folks have done, covered with SPGX or buffed HD40 (?) look pretty good from pic and might be a good solution for a garage.

Side note - not sure if fiber additives are compatible with good polishing results.

Looks good just gave your thread a read!!
Just to clarify, HD40 is a stainguard, esentially a sealer that seeps into the concrete? And then you polished the top of it to shine it up some?

SPGX is a topical coating akin to epoxy?

Sorry... I'm researching all these now... so many names, terms, and ways to do this!

Grinding down to show off the aggregate looks nice I like that look but the cost for a garage floor seems absurd. Prices for polished exposed aggregate around here are $6-$7/sqft. So your 1000sq is going to cost you say $3000 more than an Epoxy floor. Maybe that's not a problem for you but that money could do a lot more for the man cave. Plus you are grinding off the cream that the finishers worked so hard to smooth out.

It would look cool though. I went with HD40 on the vehicle side of my shop about 2000 sqft, cost was under $900. So far I like it, my concrete finisher wasn't the greatest so the slab isn't as smooth as it should be.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=370806

For the other 1000 sq I'm leaning towards a stained floor with SPGX.
Good luck on the project .

38w (or long) x 28 deep.
Agreed on the steel and joists. I wasnt going to do it... But, the steel eliminated a bunch of expenses: lally clolumns and footings under, some LVL's above, and longer/beefier floor joists. At the end of the project the steel ended up costing just under 2 grand more than traditional columns, gave us a shorter building with more headroom in the garage, and a CLEARSPAN garage. I'd do that again in a second.

what are the dimensions on the building? front length first? I like how you did the steel beams front to back. its always better to make the floor joists shorter like you did.

True!!

I've got full-broadcast epoxy on mine, and I wouldn't change it. If it's freezing where you are, then you're gonna be tracking road salt into it, and it's gonna start looking crappy as the salt attacks the concrete. That's what mine looked like before we had the epoxy done. Spalling all over the place, including some really big divots where the concrete ended at the door. And that's in a 14 year old house that we bought 4 years ago, and the previous owners didn't do anything in there but park the car.

Meanwhile I routinely roll heavy **** like engine cranes and loaded car dollies over mine all the time, and the floor never even scratches. Polished concrete looks cool, but I'd reserve that for somewhere that doesn't see salt or much abuse at all.

The other problem as someone above pointed out is that in the winter, polished concrete can get very slick as the snow drips off your cars.

Well, both. Reinforcing wire and fibers added to the concrete mix.

He states fiber mesh as opposed to fiber added. Correct, if you have a floor with fibers added, they need to be burned off prior to coating. If there was just a mesh under the pour, that should be fine.

So, fibers added to the concrete mix. Sounds like thats a bad idea for polished concrete?

Thanks Guys!
Hope you all are having a good weekend!

 

[Cairo94507]

I love your garage layout. I am doing a small 3-car remodel now and will be installing porcelain tile on the floor. I have never seen an epoxy coated floor that did not have issues 5 years down the road. I just had my tile man out yesterday. I had already told him I was 100% doing a porcelain tile floor and would not consider epoxy or that type of coating. He agreed and said the coatings all fail and/or discolor over time.

I would have never considered porcelain tile before coming across Garage Journal and seeing all of the beautiful porcelain tiled floors and hearing how well they stand up to use and abuse.

Good luck with your build - enjoy.

 

[850xpeps]

What about a troweled in hardener? That is most likely what I will do. Any amount of something shiny and you’ll wish you didn’t have it even when your boots are wet.

Do you not need hangers on your roof joists? Also how do you plan to insulate and vent that roof?

Love the look and layout.

 

[Eslader]

He agreed and said the coatings all fail and/or discolor over time.

Not that porcelain is a bad choice, because it isn't. But it's not entirely surprising that a guy who makes his living installing tile wouldn't have good things to say about flooring that isn't tile.

 

[Toomanytools?]

Looks good just gave your thread a read!!
Just to clarify, HD40 is a stainguard, esentially a sealer that seeps into the concrete? And then you polished the top of it to shine it up some?

SPGX is a topical coating akin to epoxy?

Sorry... I'm researching all these now... so many names, terms, and ways to do this!



So, fibers added to the concrete mix. Sounds like thats a bad idea for polished concrete?

Thanks Guys!
Hope you all are having a good weekend!

Chadwick: Yes HD40 is a densifier, stain guard. I applied HD37 first as it is more concentrated Per Legacy, then HD40 about 4 coats over that , last was 3-4 of a wax sealer which helps protect the HD40. For me I wanted easy and low cost since I was doing 2000 square feet. I would have liked an all gray floor such as a Poly or Epoxy, but having just the concrete color with a gloss is fine. So far works great not slippery when wet or covered in sawdust.

Some guys spend a lot of money on the look and that's great but for me it's parking storage with some metal/auto repair area. I just didn't want stains from oil on the floor.
The choices are daunting, try to pick a budget, figured out what you are doing in the space (working garage or showroom) DIY or hire out the floor job.
After all my research it seems to me that the Poly floors (PolyUrea, Polyaspartic, are better than Epoxy. IMHO.
Good luck

 

[Cairo94507]

Eslader - Yeah, I totally understand that. But I, thanks to Garage Journal, have done my homework and happen to be a porcelain tile believer as well as believing any of the coatings applied to concrete will fail, sooner or later, depending upon prep. The latter being from seeing those failures personally over decades of seeing coated floors as well as having one at one point in my past.