I should'na done that...

[harricanfloyd]

LOL Just curious, who has paid for a beautiful garage floor, and meticulously applied it, and admired it(with a chubby) only to let it go by the wayside? I epoxied my floor, came out pretty nice, but I was a little impatient doing it the late fall. 4 years later it's peeling, stained from car projects gone wrong like the "The Stooges plumbing scene, scared from me dragging lawn mowers, cabinets, tools etc all over it. I can't believe I just did this to my floor! Damn, I shoulda just put a gloss over the cement....

 

[Angelfire]

Not going to happen here. Going with porcelain!

 

[antinym]

I painted my floor. Now it's stained and pretty bad looking. I guess I can just throw more paint on it, though. That's not too expensive.

 

[ddawg16]

All I can say is.....thank you to you and other posts like this.

When I first found GJ I spent days researching floors. I was so hot to trot to put epoxy on mine. Then after reading several posts like the above...I concluded that I could wait. I'll wait until I'm out of projects.....might be awhile.

 

[Delly]

Which company product did you use? I've been looking into epoxy-coat.com

 

[Garage Flooring]

Don't feel to bad. I was talking to a contractor yesterday who used a cheap Chinese knockoff of a product we sell and it has turned into a nightmare. He thought using some 'rubber cement' over the whole floor would fix his issues and now he has a bigger nightmare. Your not alone!

 

[rednotch]

its a floor, and does not make my toys faster so it can stay ugly lol. Painted mine with the cheap HD kit years ago, it lasted a few months.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Fellas, please remember that All the bad experiences end up here.
Very few of the success stories are reported.

In my career history the majority of issues are prep related.

My 2 cents.

 

[Steves32]

There are working garages & parking garages.
Mines a working garage.
I installed porcelain tile 9 months ago
I've welded on it, I grind over it, I've dropped every tool I own on it, I dropped a trans on it, I built a car on it, I've spilled oil on it, antifreeze on it, ****** fluid on it, brake fluid on it, you name it- I've spilled on it.
Mop it & it looks like the day it was installed.
No epoxy or Race Deck floor would have survived me working on it. Best decision I ever made.

 

[slickgt1]

There are working garages & parking garages.
Mines a working garage.
I installed porcelain tile 9 months ago
I've welded on it, I grind over it, I've dropped every tool I own on it, I dropped a trans on it, I built a car on it, I've spilled oil on it, antifreeze on it, ****** fluid on it, brake fluid on it, you name it- I've spilled on it.
Mop it & it looks like the day it was installed.
No epoxy or Race Deck floor would have survived me working on it. Best decision I ever made.

Yup, same here. My neighbor still cries about his peeling epoxy. I lol every time.

 

[Rainking]

There are working garages & parking garages.
Mines a working garage.
I installed porcelain tile 9 months ago
I've welded on it, I grind over it, I've dropped every tool I own on it, I dropped a trans on it, I built a car on it, I've spilled oil on it, antifreeze on it, ****** fluid on it, brake fluid on it, you name it- I've spilled on it.
Mop it & it looks like the day it was installed.
No epoxy or Race Deck floor would have survived me working on it. Best decision I ever made.

And this is why I want to go with porcelain tile. I hear nothing but good things about it.

Question, how big are you grout lines? I believe 12x12 requires a 1/4" but I want to go with 1/8th and keeping it level with the tile instead of the usual indent.

 

[JimVonBaden]

Not going to happen here. Going with porcelain!

Jim

 

[JimVonBaden]

And this is why I want to go with porcelain tile. I hear nothing but good things about it.

Question, how big are you grout lines? I believe 12x12 requires a 1/4" but I want to go with 1/8th and keeping it level with the tile instead of the usual indent.

I used 1/8" grout lines on my Porcelain tiles. Only down a few weeks, but I don't think you need bigger. I guess it depends on the quality of your tile.

Jim

 

[slickgt1]

I have 1/8th as well. You can pretty much close the gap if you go rectified edge. But that adds a whole different expense.

 

[bobscogin]

Not going to happen here. Going with porcelain!

Not going to happen in my new shop either. Going with bare densified concrete!

Bob

 

[bdamico]

I have 1/8th as well. You can pretty much close the gap if you go rectified edge. But that adds a whole different expense.

Did someone say grout lines?

 

[Steves32]

1/8" grout joints on my floor.

 

[A_Pmech]

It's just a floor...

I epoxied mine almost 10 years ago and I'm still happy with the result. It's a light gray color so it reflects light, there's no concrete dust and it's easy to clean with a floor scrubber. Mission accomplished!

 

[Scott K]

Personally, I've never understood spending money on a floor in a garage.

Concrete is all I need.

 

[slickgt1]

Personally, I've never understood spending money on a floor in a garage.

Concrete is all I need.

You would understand if you did half the stuff on your floor that I do.

I don't know about your fancy concrete, but my lopsided mess was just that. I couldn't roll anything, I couldn't hose it because the water went to all the wrong places. I couldn't sweep it, as the pores held everything in. I couldn't wipe it, for same reason. The dust in the garage was insane on top of that. Sealing the floor would accomplish only one of those things for me. Pouring a new slab was out of the question. Mud job and tile, the results are better than I expected. I will do this to any future garage I own.

I also need some sort of pride and showmanship. So that when someone does come by to talk to me, or pay me, meet up with me, they need to see some hint of what I have done. My garage is really my office, my shop, and hangout spot. I don't want to be in an area stained with oils, paints, saw dust, sand, concrete dust.

In the end, you have a nice floor in your living room. Well I spend more time in my garage than in my living room.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Not going to happen in my new shop either. Going with bare densified concrete!

Bob

 

[harricanfloyd]

You would understand if you did half the stuff on your floor that I do.

I don't know about your fancy concrete, but my lopsided mess was just that. I couldn't roll anything, I couldn't hose it because the water went to all the wrong places. I couldn't sweep it, as the pores held everything in. I couldn't wipe it, for same reason. The dust in the garage was insane on top of that. Sealing the floor would accomplish only one of those things for me. Pouring a new slab was out of the question. Mud job and tile, the results are better than I expected. I will do this to any future garage I own.

I also need some sort of pride and showmanship. So that when someone does come by to talk to me, or pay me, meet up with me, they need to see some hint of what I have done. My garage is really my office, my shop, and hangout spot. I don't want to be in an area stained with oils, paints, saw dust, sand, concrete dust.

In the end, you have a nice floor in your living room. Well I spend more time in my garage than in my living room.

U can come on by and lay some tile for me mang!!

 

[slickgt1]

Sure, at $13 a sqft for a copy of what I did at my place. lol. Cheaper if you learn to do it yourself.

 

[Lobaby]

Our floor was cracking and pitting from years of salt. We paid the money to have a LOCALLY derived product with our moisture levels/freeze cycles in mind. Have had it for 2 years. Scrubs up beautifully and keeps the dirt out of the house. Was only $1500 compared to having to replace the whole slab in a couple of years.

 

[Mech33]

I was going to go porcelain, but I've decided on going with polished and sealed concrete instead. Cheaper, and quite nice looking IMO.

 

[RedDirtRoad]

Fellas, please remember that All the bad experiences end up here.
Very few of the success stories are reported.

In my career history the majority of issues are prep related.

My 2 cents.

Scotty,
I will have a success story for you soon.
I love your products and just completed my 24x24 garage today
Photos to be posted soon!

 

[600SL]

Personally, I've never understood spending money on a floor in a garage.

Concrete is all I need.

I think you never laid on you back on an epoxy floor especially in cold weather.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Scotty,
I will have a success story for you soon.
I love your products and just completed my 24x24 garage today
Photos to be posted soon!

Awesome, cant wait to see!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[600SL]

About 8 years ago I had Rustoleum professionally installed by Home Depot. Fortunately I got the 3 year warrantee as it failed during its second winter. Occasionally I would drop something heavy and it might chip here and there but nothing serious. During the second winter every time temps dropped below about 32 the epoxy would start to lift. If you were in the garage you could hear it peal and watch it curl back. One morning I came in and a large 18" by 48" roll of epoxy was lying on the floor. I rolled it up and put it in a bag and brought it to HD. When I asked for a refund the lady told me she would have to send someone out to look at it. I told her I brought it with me and unrolled the piece on the desk. After her jaw dropped she said she will still have to send someone out. Well I got my money back but they didn't clean out the garage and remove the epoxy.

I cant say for sure if I can say Rustoleum makes a bad product but the problem did appear temperature related in that it would lift in both high traffic areas as well as under benches which to me indicates a poor product or bad prep. I don't think it was poorly prepped as it was ground very uniformly but who knows maybe they didn't wash and vacuum it out. The one thing I can say is that the guy who came down to evaluate the project should have told me he cant recommend that floor for my shop based on the equipment I have and the way it was to be used.

So two years ago I replaced that with Armorpoxy Ultra. I did it myself and it cost as much as the Rustoleum professionally installed but I am expecting more out of it. Unfortunately I sold the house so I don't know how well it is doing. I also applied that again to my new garage in NC just this last weekend.

I'm not expecting it to look like new forever and I don't expect to not drop paint or other things on it but if it doesn't lift I will be happy.

To me epoxy is very easy and cost effective to install with the exception of moving equipment out of the way for a week. I also like the feel of epoxy under my feet over any other solution. To address the problem of moving equipment out, if I need to do this again I will put a border down of porcelain tile or a Racedeck solution. Then I will be able to do a periodic easy maintenance on the epoxy in the open area. Also procaine tiles for edging wont need to be expensive rectified tile and I could easily get away with the $1/ft solution at HD. I also like the Racedeck solution because of the removable tapered edges that are both nice as a transition and can be removed to aid in redoing the epoxy. I have three walls in my machine shop that I might use as an experiment for Racedeck and Supratitle borders. Im also considering the Supratile in the welding area.

 

[kwfloors]

You guys use epoxy grout in those garages? Or are you sealing the grout every couple of years? Alot of tile failures comes from the grout joint.

 

[jives]

It was not our garage, but our house. We built our house with a slab and radiant heat. To save money the wife and I did the floors ourselves during the build. Kicked the construction guys out for a week while we stained the floors. A new concrete stain by R*** (sorry, don't want to mention the name). We did everything right. . . clean, scrub, acid etch, waited the right amount of time for concrete curing, temp was right, etc. Looked awesome! Dried, then the contractors covered it with cardboard to protect it. When all was done, we peeled the cardboard back and the problems started. Essentially, the product never cured, the sealer never infused into the product, and it was a mess. Water left on the floor will turn the product to jelly. It has been 4 years and the product still acts this way. The floor -- and this is my new house, not the garage -- is a scratched up marred mess. We cannot afford to strip, grind and remove, nor cover over.

Had mucho problems with R*** customer service, in which they gave the wrong advice on fixing then claimed they did not. Long story. In the end they refunded the product price (~$500) but not the time, labor, and frustration. My wife, bless her, calls it shabby chic.

I have not bought a R*** product since then, and never will.

 

[trance|ghost]

unless you have a new, newer straight none chipped or sparred garage floor... epoxy is a good choice if done correctly, for most people with older garage floors.. I would avoid epoxy completely... with all the prep work in the world, it will still fail.

I'm going with porcelain myself.

 

[cbracer]

I'm in the middle of my porcelain tile project and it's taking FOREVER..... yeah I'm a perfectionist but to lay my 400 sq feet I'm on day 7 with 3 more days to go. I have 12"x24" rectified tile. Ended up with some that look really nice but have too much slip. Should have spent more and gotten something with more grip, but it's going to look nice. I started thinking porcelain but couldn't find gray colored tile for under $2 sq ft and with thinset and labor I could have gone $5 sq ft tough tiles and saved a lot of time and money since they go together. Oh well at least it will look nice.