Help me out!

[Demon]

Hey guys, I would like to coat my garage floor with epoxy. I live up in minnesota and you can get alot of road salt and sand tracked on the floor. How durable are these coatings under those conditions? I read alot of comments and look at the pictures you guys provide,but it sounds like most of you live in southern climates. I would like to hear from you guys that have done their floors and have to put up with these conditions. I dont want to spend a $1,000 bucks on a floor that will look like **** in 2-3 years. I need help deciding what to do on this one. Any comments will be apreciated,thanks.Demon

 

[dd564]

I'm in Minnesota as well. I'm not sure if anything stands up to salt and slush real well, but Epoxy seems to be one of the best choices for this (from what I've read).

 

[MSG C5]

I lived in Chicago before moving to Florida in 2005. Prior to moving, I had applied the big box residential floor epoxy in my garage. The first winter was very rough on it (i.e. slush, slop, sand, salt, etc.) and even though it looked better than the bare cement, the floor looked pretty bad the next spring even after pressure washing it.

Obviously, if you choose epoxy, you will need to prep or diamond chip the floor to accept the epoxy which adds to the cost.

If your floor has a drain or is pitched to allow rain run off out the door, you may want to consider the Race Deck Free-Flow tiles. That allows for the slush, sand, etc. to fall off the cars, through the tiles and onto the floor for run off.

 

[Wardrum]

I live in Wisconsin and we also get more than our share of road salt, gravel and sand to deal with. I have epoxy on our garage floor but I put rubber runners down in the winter for the tires to roll over. They protect the floor from the abrasive nature of the sand and gravel. The chemical(s) in the salt doesn't seem to affect the surface. I remove the runners in the spring, then wash the floor down with soap and water. After 4 winters, the surface still looks good.