It's time for our annual Epoxy-Coat contest!

[rugerlady]

Hi Guys and Gals,
Spring is here again, time to clean out the garage and get that floor coated! We here at Epoxy-Coat want to help, We are going to give away a free Premium kit for the funniest story again. Why do you deserve a free kit of Epoxy-Coat? As some of you may know from previous contests, I will give away 1 full Premium kit for first place, 1/2 Premium kit for second place. Some of you may also know, depending on the amount and quality of stories, I usually give away alot of extra kits!! So on with the details!!!
The story must be humorous, about why you should get a free Epoxy-Coat kit. It will start immediately and run until midnite EST April 26th. The winners will be announced by the following Tuesday. You can enter as many times as you like. If you are in another country, you can enter too (you just have to help cover the cost of shipping).
I expect great stories with lots of pictures.
Good Luck and enjoy writing your story, I know I always enjoy reading them!
Thanks, Christine

 

[Fredartic]

Because I'm unable to take a decision on what type of product I should use to finish my garage floor since the garage is built in 2003!!! Because I have changed my mind twice on the product I have choosen. First, I decided to use a sealer and I have bought all the stuff to do it. Few years later, I have bought Allure floor that I purchaed at Home Depot and I finally decided that I will use it in my basement and not in the garage because the color is too dark. Now, my wife doesn't want to hear anymore about my garage floor. But, if she knows that I win a kit of epoxy to do it... So, if is there any chance to save my marriage, it will be great for me to win your contest for sure!

 

[spotco2]

Last month I had tree's fall completely through my shop and we are about to build a new 30x30 with a concrete floor! My wife evicted me out of the garage a couple of years ago because she likes parking inside for some reason. My garage was my sanctuary for years before she moved in and now I get to work out in the dirt and gravel.

Not any more! The new shop is in the works and will have a beautiful, professionally finished floor unlike "her" garage that the floor is so wavy it looks like a bunch of drunken orangutangs did the finish work.

This new floor will be professionally finished by at least one sober man and his crew. There will be plenty of man toys rolling in and out dripping everything from mud, transmission fluid, hydraulic fluid, oil and lord only knows what else. It's going to need some sort of protection on it and I'm man enough to admit that the slab is not poured yet and I'm already out of money. I hate to imagine what it's going to look like in a few years if it stays unprotected.

There's no way that I could ever afford to purchase a full kit for a floor this size and still be able to buy dog food, Chili Cheese Frito's and beer. Sure I could skip the dog food, but she's been a good shop dog for years and has gotten kind of fond of eating daily all these years.

 

[rugerlady]

Keep em coming guys!

 

[AStrahota]

Why do I deserve a free Epoxy-Coat system?
Well, lets start from the beginning. I have a 1972 Chevrolet Chevelle that is all original, no bondo, factory paint. It was my dad’s and then it became mine because he juggles too many projects at one time and doesn’t finish majority of them.

I also have a 1950 Ford F-1 truck that I was building and decided to “borrow” some parts from it for the Chevelle for the summer of 2012. Those parts included some Crager SS wheels and a brand new crate engine pumping out a moderate 435hp/435tq mated to a B&M built TH400. So I put on my new Crager SS wheels and tires on the Chevelle and dropped in the motor/trans.

I didn’t like the stock stamped wheels, I traded them to a friend in Wisconsin for a set of wheels and tires for my daily driver.

After the swap was complete a few of my car-lovin’ buddies and I went to downtown St. Paul for a local meet. When we are on our way back home instead of turning left onto I35E south, we go straight. Mind you I am 4 cars back from the leader. Going straight wasn’t a big deal until the car in front of me did not pay attention to the car in front of him and hits the center divider ahead and he hopped part of the curb. As a result, I didn’t have the time to swerve out of the way of the center boulevard and I too hit wicked hard.
The result of this little bump was two badly blown tires and two mangled rims. Best part was that I no longer had the factory wheels. So as a result I had it towed home.

I then bought 2 replacement wheels and tires and had them mounted quickly so I could get back to enjoying my summer. My wife was not pleased.
After putting about 600 miles on my fully broken in engine I was driving home from work which is only a few miles away. Suddenly my HOT light comes on and I notice a dramatic loss in power. I thought to myself “great, blew off or blew up the radiator hose.” When I pulled over I opened up the hood and low and behold my crankshaft main seal went out and I lost all of the oil over the last 500-1000 feet. I spun a bearing and the motor was pretty much toast. It needed a complete rebuild. So I sold it instead of rebuilding it because I decided to go the route of an LS2 swap. Meanwhile, summer was almost over but I still had my stock engine, so I put it back in the Chevelle and continued cruisin’.

And then it happened…

Coming home from a corporate meeting I was taking the 494 Eastbound exit on to 77 South. This little two lane curve can get a little tricky I found out. I was in the right lane of a right turning curve. Some genius next to me decided they did not want to be in the left lane headed to the Mall of America, they wanted to go south. So in mid-corner they signal and move in front of me and decide to brake. I had no choice but to slow down. When I did my back end lifted slightly and continued to make the turn without my front end. I went just barely between the guard rail by the Waterpark of America and a lamp post, hopped the curb and luckily my wheels dug into the soft, muddy ground before I hit anything. When I got out, all but 1 of my wheels were bent up and the front suspension needed to be replaced. So, it was towed home again.

So many bad things happened that summer. Thankfully the year was over.

But a new year began…

Enter 2013. The following events took place last weekend:

I found an engine/transmission out of a 2006 Pontiac GTO. 17k miles on it before it had been rear ended and the owner was selling the powerplant I would use to make the Chevelle much more streetable.

So I hop in the truck and drive to Grand Rapids, MI to pick up my new heart.
After 10.5 hours of driving (rests included since I am alone) I finally get there Sunday morning. I brought my compression tester and optics with me to inspect the engine before loading it up and taking it home.

After inspection it was only compression testing on 5 out of 8 cylinders within spec. I was not pleased that I drove all this way for nothing. Determined to find something I kept searching in the area or on the drive back to Minnesota what I could find.

I didn’t come home with an engine. But I did make another purchase my wife doesn’t know about until I fly out in 2 months to drive it home. I drove it, it runs great and just needs some love. But it will be a cool party bus when it is all finished.

To sum it all up, we could really use a coated floor.
My dad agreed to pay for the 2-post lift for the garage in my new home that we move into on May 16th. He is doing that so he can help me do a full suspension and swap on the Chevelle. So, being a car guy with tragically stained concrete floors in my current home as well as my dad’s home, I need to coat my new garage so I can kick-start my good fortune and end my bad luck with this car.

Here is a pic of the new “toy” my wife has yet to learn about. I'll probably flip it quick since I got such a good price on it.

*cross your fingers she doesn’t kill me*

 

[sclancy]

I have had epoxy-coat bookmarked in IE for quite a few years now (going on 9-10 I think). I have carefully moved that bookmark from computer to computer every 2 years (at least 3 or 4moves now). Now, in addition to saving the bookmark, I have been fortunate (or unfortunate depending on how one looks at packing and moving) enough to move no less than 4 times during this same period.

And while I have known about epoxy-coat and had it bookmarked this entire time, I have made the mistake three times now of using other products to coat my garage floors....sigh yes, I have screwed up three times.

House #1 with a garage. I did not really know anything so I went to a big box store - and walked out 20 mins later with a water based "epoxy" garage flooring from a well known paint manufacturer. I followed the directions and washed the 2 car garage with muriatic acid before painting what was a very smooth almost slick concrete pad. The muriatic roughened it up a bit but the "epoxy" product started lifting under the tires within weeks of it being put down...sigh....Fortunately we moved in less than 2 yrs before it looked too awful and it became someone else's problem.

On to house #2. Again a 2 car garage and I was determined to do it better this time (and again I had epoxy-coat bookmarked). So what did I do? Tried to save a little money and purchased a better 2 part epoxy paint (not waterbased this time) from one of the big industrial supply places. Again, proper prep of the slab included degreasing and muriatic etching. This 2 part epoxy went down and looked promising. It cured pretty well, didnt lift and seemed like the answer. Until the first time I walked on it when it was wet and I landed on my back in a split second.....to say it was slick would be a gross understatement....Living in the midatlantic with rain, snow, ice, the floor was treacherous for the next 2 years. I fell at least 4 or 5 times. My wife would not park in the garage whenever it was wet out....Apart from having an ice skating rink in the garage, the coating scratched pretty easily and the light grey color showed dirt. Fortunately we moved in less than 2 yrs before it looked too awful and it became someone else's problem.

House #3. 2 car garage that had been previously coated and said coating was failing horribly....yes karma kicked in. I was destined to inherit someone's else coating mistake given that I passed on two mistakes to others....So I rented the shot blast machine and went to town removing the old coating. Of course I failed to factor in the hours on my knees with a diamond blade on the hand grinder cleaning up the edges. I also failed to appreciate that the diamond blade cuts grooves in the concrete really easily....but since I planned to use epoxy-coat I figured these would be filled in by the high build. Prep otherwise well done, the floor was clean and ready for a new coating. I had epoxy-coat bookmarked and was ready to pull the trigger. Did I? no. Again I convinved myself that I could save some money and I went back to the same 2 part epoxy that I used the previous time and determined tthat I would add sand to make it nonskid and I would choose a darker solid color so it would not show dirt. Well the end result looked great..at least from a distance. Since it was not a high build, high solids epoxy, the gouges I made with the grinder never filled in and of course now were more obvious once coated in high gloss...sigh...I put down a total of 3 coats hoping to fill them in....Yes now I spent as much as I would have for epoxy-coat...sigh....oh and let's not forget the rust marks all over my asphalt driveway that appeared over the next few weeks. Rust marks? yup, the metal shot rolled out the door and when I tried to vacuum and blower it away it spread it across my drive in the nooks and crevicesss where it quickly rusted in the rain....sigh....The good news is the floor looked great....at least for a few months....then the sand really started to trap the dirt. sweeping it was hard but at least it was not slick when wet and I managed to stay on my feet for close to 2 yrs....then guess what happened? We moved in a little over 2 yrs and it became someone else's problem.

This time, the last time (?), we built a house. So here we are. I now have a 3 car garage with a virgin slab. High 10' ceilings allowed a huge storage loft and a future lift if I need it. I ran a natural gas line for a heater, upgraded the insulated doors and added huge fluorescent lights. And I even planned to abandon epoxy altogether this time and priced out the flow through race style tiles in a cool design and colors. I was ready to pull the trigger. No prep. no slipping. but wait how would I clean the floor?? the thought of pulling up tiles 1-2x per year to sweep totally turned me off....

So here I am 9 months in the new garage (err..make that house) with what should be my perfect garage with a perfect flooring system....I have epoxy-coat bookmarked. So why not order it this time. The 4th time is always the charm. Isnt it? Well I honestly think it would be (or will be) but not yet. My better half has put a spending freeze on anything happening in the garage until she gets blinds/shades/shutters on all of the windows. Apparently 9 months in the house with temporay paper blinds on the windows is embarassing....even I have to admit that it is a bit....but my thought process would to distract guests by inviting them out to the garage to see my epoxy-coat floor....my wife doesnt agree. So at the moment with blinds on about 1/2 the house and the hope that we get them all ordered over the next 6 months or so, I have to wait.

And so my clean virgin slab sits naked....waiting.....not for tiles. not for water based epoxy. not for some "decent" 2 part epoxy. no it is waiting this time, the 4th time, for epoxy-coat. Hopefully when the wife gives me the greenlight, I will make the correct choice. Maybe this weekend I will go ahead and drive some screws through an old pair of sneakers and get them ready for laying down some real 100% solids epoxy from epoxy-coat. If I have the sneakers I wont even be tempted to order those tiles. A funny story? Maybe....but a little sad too. and frustrating. I think I will be able to laugh once I can tell the story standing on my epoxy-coat, 100% solids, custom flaked floor.....so many flake colors so little time.....

 

[ljd]

Wow, Talk about timing! I was just in the garage starting to scrape the two layers of some kind of grey acrylic type paint from the floor.

My search this evening is to try do get some ideas on the best way to remove the 2 coats of this nightmare from this cracked floor and get ready to patch and repair for a new coat of something..

This is the house was built in the mid 1960's and I moved into it on my first day of first grade. The parents are older now and bounce between Florida and another house they built when the garage floor here appeared to be a nightmare to get looking good again. Their answer was a new house.

Now. I've been here for 7 years now with the flaking paint. This Garage has been a workshop for many projects for my Father and 3 of us boys (Grease Monkeys as mom called us) growing up. This garage also housed a few classics so far in it's life. My mom had a 64 1/2 Mustang conv., 77 Cutlas Supreme, couple Cattys,

Usually there was a ski boat or ski boat project on the other side, Dirt bikes squeezed in somewhere. 71 super bee sat there till my brother moved to his place, I was into the VW's back when I was 16 you could buy beetles for $50 just for the motor out of the rust and put in a $50 beetle with a good body and sell it for a very small profit of usually about $25. Younger Brother swaped out engines and trannys in the RX7s. This Garage has been through Hell to say the least.

Now I use it to park a 2011 TDI jettta and a 2006 MX-5 limited. The projects have moved on to bigger and better places so, I am going to tackle the floor this spring and was looking at something that I found on sale but this looked like a much better option. Good luck to all the people that are trying to win this and if I would be lucky enough to win my paint money will go into a concrete grinder rental.

 

[donnie]

My Weekend

Saturday morning started as a normal day, got up at 5:30 am, after all I would not want to sleep in.
Had a couple(many) cups of coffee cooked some eggs for breakfast, ate breakfast. Decided it was time to do some work around the house.
Went outside saw that the grass was dry I thought, I can mow.
I started mowing went down the hill turned around and slip and fell on top of the mower, scratched my arm up better good, hit the one nut sticking out on the mower handle.

Once the lawn was done, I but a coat of polyurethane on the front entry way door, the wind only blew a few of the grass clippings on the door. :shocking
Got the ladder out and cleaned the gutters out, only stepped on 2 flowers my wife planted the day before. Finally decided to remove a gutter nail because it was bent down and the leaves was catching on it, removed my wallet from my pocket put a pair of pliers in my pocket, threw my wallet in the tool box. Changed the Nail out with a screw, it went very well, no issues

Started cleaning the garage out a little bit, my son came out his truck has been puking the antifreeze out of the radiator cap, I told him to get a new radiator cap and radiator hoses. He said Oh yeah Dad the oil pressure gauge is bouncing around a little bit I asked him how many miles do you have on this oil, he said 3 months, I gave out a big sigh and said you know that you need to go by miles also, get oil and filter also.
Told him to take my car, he backed into his truck with my car, scraped my bumper on my car.
While he was gone I run over to pick up a door sweep and Mulch I get to the store and realize I had taken my wallet out of my pocket and never put my wallet back in my pocket.
I Drive back home son is there, I give him some instructions on how to get the radiator hoses off without breaking anything.....I go back and get the door sweep and mulch, come home and spread the mulch. In between telling my son what else to do.
I go in and take a nap while he is changing the oil.
When he gets done he takes it for a ride comes back and says the oil pressure is pretty high...I said yeah new oil has higher viscosity...you know this.
He says it making a funny noise, I said start it up, it sounds fine, he says well its only when you go over 35. I said lets go for a ride, we went for a ride not one unusual noise...I asked him where is the noise he said I dunno...

I go back and while he is cleaning up I replaced screens in two screen windows. After that I decide to blow all of the pollen out of the garage with my leaf blower, Until you live in North Carolina you have no idea how thick pollen can be. I have lived here 4 years and it still amazes me that you can see the pollen blowing down the street and rolling off of cars, did I mention the oil drain pan was still there and full of oil? I blow out the garage and of course I decide to move something while running the blower and go over top of the oil drain pan, blew about a quart of oil over me the tool box the wall and the floor. Used up all the oil dry I had, the floor is still stained.
which is why I need a epoxy floor.

Oh yeah on Sunday I washed and waxed both cars, after they were done and sitting in the garage they were both covered with pollen after an hour.
And also I Replaced the door sweep.

 

[AStrahota]

Re: My Weekend

When he gets done he takes it for a ride comes back and says the oil pressure is pretty high...I said yeah new oil has higher viscosity...you know this.

New oil does not have higher viscosity. Unless he bought a different grade of oil.

Oil itself does not "break down" only the additives in the oil break down after recommended service intervals. Viscosity only changes with temperature.


Sorry, intention to hijack thread. PM me with questions.

 

[Omphaloskeptic]

"The story must be humorous, about why you should get a free Epoxy-Coat kit."


I truly wish I had a humorous story worthy enough to get me a FREE Epoxy-Coat kit, but alas, I just have a sad tale to tell....

It all began many years ago when I was born a 'poor white boy' in the hills of western Pennsylvania to a loving mother who named me Omphaloskeptic in the hope that the unusual name would bring me fame and fortune. Unfortunately, my older brothers, Rasputin and Conjunctivitis made fun of my name and gave me a severe inferiority complex which caused me to hang my head in shame, which in turn, caused me to actually take notice of my navel for days on end, thus living up to my name which has one meaning of 'navel gazer'. Now, as a fully grown adult, I still find myself going around my shop with my head hanging low, and my eyes focused on my bare concrete floor (when I'm not engaged gazing at my navel) and wistfully wondering if there might be some hope for me to rid myself of this low self-esteem and become what my dear, departed Mother had hoped I would become - famous and fortuned! I've come to realize after spending hour after hour staring down at my plain, gray, boring, concrete shop floor that if I could only give it a new, shiny, beautiful finish using a free Epoxy-Coat kit, it could change my life. With a new floor finish to gaze down upon as I shuffle through my shop, I might dwell on its beauty and realize that I too, can change! I could stop walking around with my head hung low, lost in the mysteries of my navel and begin a new, proud life and perhaps with the proper floor finish and attitude, I might become as famous as my well-to-do cousin, 'Hugh-Jhardon', who is a star in the 'adult' film business. If only I could win this contest, it might change me into 'that guy who won the Epoxy-Coat kit contest' which would bring me fame amongst my GJ brethren and fortune in that I would be 'fortunate' to receive this generous prize! Ah well, a person can dream, can't they?

 

[got2boostit2]

Because 10 years ago after being in this house for two and a half years I bought your competitors flooring and guess what? It is still in the can, why you ask? Because every summer since purchase I have said I was going to move the items in my packed garage out into the driveway to coat the floor. But I spend so much time reading about all the great products available on the internet I barely have time to clean out the garage!

I spend so many hours viewing everyone else's fine garages and workshops I don't have time to complete my own. I'm not lazy, I take care of the wifey (brain injury) fix all my lazy relatives raggedy vehicles and dream about the perfect garage. Help me get it will you?

Humor is in the eye of the beholder and behold it is "I".

 

[pauloman]

another example of vendor abuse on a consumer forum. Is this forum nothing but an advertising tool for folks wanting to get to your wallet?

 

[lisiecki1]

I'm afraid I don't have a long drawn out story about why I deserve to win a free epoxy-coat floor. Does anyone really "deserve" that? Who knows.

All I can tell you is that as of last weekend, I put the roof on the garage that I've been working on for the last five months.

Apparently this was a signal to my dogs that it is an enclosed bathroom.

I would love to have an epoxy-coat floor in my 26 x 36 before my dogs doo (see what I did there?) everything they can to make sure they remain a part of the garage until the end of time.

 

[neonnblack]

another example of vendor abuse on a consumer forum. Is this forum nothing but an advertising tool for folks wanting to get to your wallet?

Thus guy should win. That's hilarious. Ruger has been here a long time, never pushes products on people but offers all the advice she can. Also they are on the discount list for "premium"members. No abuse here.

 

[Fredartic]

Dream Dream Dream...

Yesterday evening I've passed a few hours on Garage Journal forum. I've discovered many tips and learned a lot. I've seen in the Gallery so many dream garages that are spacious, organized, clean and whith finish floor! I went to bed with full images in my head... and than the light in the end of the road took my attention. What was that? Oh! a big store with full of great things for the garage! I came in. It was amazing! I was like a kid in a big big toys store! I didn't know what and where to look. I stopped by a full rack of Epoxy Coat kit. Wow! Their colors are very nice, bright and cool. A salesman asked me "which one do you want?" After looking at all the samples, I said "I'm not sure... and anyway for now I'm just looking!" He said "Pick one! It will be the good one! I hesitated between the light gray, the safety yellow or the basic color gray. I chose the light gray with three colors of standard flakes: red, charcoal and white. "Wow! It will be very nice!" I said "I've been dreaming of it for a long time!" As I was leaving the store, the salesman handed me a ticket to participate in a draw for a free epoxy kit, saying "I feel that it's your lucky day!" As I was filling it I heard a Buzz... and was taking back into reality. Oh! I was just dreaming... or was I? Am I the winner?

 

[brittmer]

Hi Christine,
I have been lurking on this site for a few weeks researching all of the different flooring types and have settled on Epoxy-Coat. I am building a new house in a golf club community and it will be ready in a couple of months which means virgin concrete!

I know when the floor is completed with Epoxy-Coat that I will have the best garage floor in the hood. It will be great to open my garage door and have my neighbors drool all over the floor because it looks so great….at least it will be easy to clean the drool up! Plus their walkers won’t leave any scuff marks behind….even if they don’t have tennis balls on the feet!

I am torn between the slip resistant additives. On one hand I won't have to yell "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up!" but on the other hand it will be harder to do a burn-out with my golf cart. 

Either way, I know it will be a beautiful floor that will hold up to all the fox trot dancing, golf cart driving, walking canes, etc. that will abuse my garage floor.

Bruce

 

[rugerlady]

Thus guy should win. That's hilarious. Ruger has been here a long time, never pushes products on people but offers all the advice she can. Also they are on the discount list for "premium"members. No abuse here.

Thanks neon, I really do not push, I try to give advice when I can. I guess some people are bitter because they have no sense of humor and unfortunately haven't got a chance to win
I have been doing this contest for what 3 or 4 years, sometimes multiple times a year. I, and alot of other GJ members have gotten alot of amusement out of these stories (not to mention a few free floors)!

 

[Crank]

I work for the Air Force and we really have some........characters.

I once worked with a guys who always went o. How his garage was the best, his care ran better etc
So he buys this bucket of bolts to drive to work, but he has to re ring the engine and do some carby work.......so every day he tells us how well it runs for the few miles etc that he drives.......And the mileage is great he says and on it goes.

So we start to top up his fuel a little while he is at work each day, this was going swimingly......that car was doing 50+ miles to the gallon, that car was making fuel, it was great for three weeks.

Then we started to take it back out.........now that was really funny, he was getting 5-6 miles per gallon, even rebuilt the carb, thought the brakes were dragging, even thought about re doing the engine.

Yep, wanted to kill all of us when we told him.

 

[pauloman]

#14 is right. I should win because many of you have purchased epoxy coat because of the technical info on their site about cyclo epoxies. This info was copied from my my web site - epoxyproducts.com/cyclo.html without my permission. The do link to another of my web pages on their site as well. www.epoxyproducts.com/25points.html - an intro page to epoxies. So, I seem to be the goto technical person / web site for epoxy coat. No telling how many units of epoxy coat my technical info has sold for them

 

[jeepjunky]

Ok maby not funny...you decide.
I love working on my jeeps, my wife doesn't mind but hates that I work in the 2 car garage. You see I grew up in the city and you work on your projects in the garage, she grew up on the farm, you park in the garage and work in the machine shed (Barn).
So she decides that we need to sell the house and buy a new one with a bigger garage. So we do, but after ours sells, the one we were buying fell through, and we ended up homeless! So after a frantic search we found a rental with a 1 car garage (I know she wanted a bigger garage) now neither one of us can park in the garage, or work on a jeep...
We started building a new house, yes with a 3 car garage, and we are near complete. At the current time we are 1 week post drywall, and moving in in 2 more weeks...We have no Septic, no well, no counter tops. We also need to finish painting, staining, and installing tile this week so the reset of the floors can be installed next week and we can start moving in the week after, cuz we are out of the lease on the rental on the 1st.
Now the really sad...funny...no sad part, she still believes that garages are for parking in and isn't really happy that I plan on not parking in my bay, but instead finishing the jeep that I started a couple of years ago...So the parking status will be wife's car, kids car and a 47 cj2a project. Oh yah me and my DD in the dog house, that we didn't build yet...so any help you can provide would be awesome!

 

[BSE1956]

My garage floor is sinking. It was undermined from the scouring action of the floodwaters from super-storm Sandy. I live on the south shore of Long Island and we had flooding all around (and in) the house.
Nothing funny about that for sure, but you need to have a good sense of humor in crazy situations like this and the irony of the process to get it fixed has been comical.

We had an independent engineer come by to look at our entire house about 2 weeks after the storm. His ($500.00) report seemed boilerplate with a few exceptions. One of the unique things about the aftermath was a large hole next to and under the foundation skirt of the house, adjacent to the garage. The hole was the size of a file cabinet and there was water in it for days. As it was not covered by insurance, I filled myself with about 15 wheel barrels full of sand.

A few months later, I noticed that my garage floor was “bouncing” when I walked on it. Apparently there was no support under part of the slab (the part where I park my car) and nearest the hole I’d filled outside. The slab support had been washed away to the point where the slab has slipped down the wall at least 3 inches.

So…I call my engineer back, he sent his associates to re-examine the area. They concluded on the spot that the floor heaved and undermined from the water pressure and scouring. When I called for the results a few weeks later, the engineer tells me that he sent me another additional bill for $500.00 “for his time”.
When asked why he did not spot this issue the first time, considering there was a huge hole on the other side of the wall, he responded, “YOU DID NOT POINT IT OUT TO ME”.
At first, I could not stop laughing. He was actually serious in his response.
Then I asked him WHO is the engineer here?
He actually tried to argue that is was not his fault that he did not spot this on his first visit and that he assumed that we did not want a “full” inspection the first time he came. I’ll leave out the expletives, but at the end of the day, he rescinded the additional bill and sent me a proper addendum to his incomplete report.

My flood insurance company then insisted on sending their own engineer when I made the supplemental claim:
The engineer they sent measured everything in my house. He concluded in his 15-page report that the garage floor had settled due to the scouring action of the water from the flood.
CLAIM DENIED – flood insurance does not pay for “settling”. Very clever wording.
Took me many hours worth of e mails and phone calls to turn this around and convince the insurance company that the floor FELL, it did not SETTLE.
I finally got the claim approval last week.
Now, I will hire the right cement guy; get the old, cracked the slab removed, underlayment put in, and the slab replaced so I can park my car(s) in the garage again.

It's been nearly 6 months since Sandy, and although it's been a nightmare in some ways, I'm thankful that I was able to repair most of the damaged areas of my house already.
It would be great to have the Epoxy-coat finish on this final step when it when completed.

 

[Fredartic]

Let your imagination go on! The fact is I prefer to win with honour!

Seriously, I like reading your stories. Good luck everyone!

Thanks to Epoxy Coat for that contest; it's a generous idea that give us hope, make some very very happy... and let the others dream!

 

[AStrahota]

It really is Fredartic.

I have been trolling this forum for a while now and there is a fortune of knowledge here, there is so much here I never thought would be so useful in my lifetime. But I realize now, since I spend more time in my garage than my own house, that I still have a lot to learn.

Garage Journal is the "college" to attend for a Masters in Garage Logic with magnet classes at 1500AM ESPN Twin Cities.

 

[bbmach]

A sad tale of G.E. (Garage Envy):

After a few moves in a few years where all I was able to do was set up the garage (and the home theater) before having to move again, I finally bought a house of my very own. Yay, right?

The interior of the house was freshly painted, including the two-car garage and small shop off the back. Even the garage floor was a nice shade of battleship grey. Another yay, right?

I moved my ’69 Mustang project in, set up shop equipment like the compressor, bead blast cabinet, workbenches and toolboxes. Hung lights from the ceiling, built GarageWorks cabinets for the walls and floor and generally made the garage a home. Triple yay, am I still right?

Sigh. I was so wrong.

See, what had happened was… I was innocently minding my own business on the interwebz (I think that’s what the kids call it), when all of a sudden I stumble across one of the Greatest Time ***** known to man: the Garage Journal Forum Boards.

All of a sudden, my freshly painted floor no longer looked crisp. In fact, after each Taj-Ma-Garage photo I saw posted by other forum members, somehow my painted floor lifted and peeled a little more. It was almost as if each of my teardrops caused another spot to blemish.

The embarrassment and quite honestly, the disgrace has gotten to the point where I not only cannot work in the garage, but can only pull the car in and out in the dark so the neighbors can’t see. Heaven forbid I take a picture!

Sigh.

So, in light of therapy - the natural (and quite frankly, only) solution would be a smooth garage floor as flaky as the owner!

No matter the outcome - thank you Christine, for doing this for the forum!



Dave

 

[AStrahota]

Pics of the new space! This will look amazing with a new floor and some added lighting.

 

[Consaka]

Lol I have heard that one before but its been a while. Still hilarious!!

I work for the Air Force and we really have some........characters.

I once worked with a guys who always went o. How his garage was the best, his care ran better etc
So he buys this bucket of bolts to drive to work, but he has to re ring the engine and do some carby work.......so every day he tells us how well it runs for the few miles etc that he drives.......And the mileage is great he says and on it goes.

So we start to top up his fuel a little while he is at work each day, this was going swimingly......that car was doing 50+ miles to the gallon, that car was making fuel, it was great for three weeks.

Then we started to take it back out.........now that was really funny, he was getting 5-6 miles per gallon, even rebuilt the carb, thought the brakes were dragging, even thought about re doing the engine.

Yep, wanted to kill all of us when we told him.

 

[Consaka]

Irony, and typical of the **** you have to put up with as "professional" people try to take advantage of you. lol You got my vote if that means anything.
Cheers mate.

My garage floor is sinking. It was undermined from the scouring action of the floodwaters from super-storm Sandy. I live on the south shore of Long Island and we had flooding all around (and in) the house.
Nothing funny about that for sure, but you need to have a good sense of humor in crazy situations like this and the irony of the process to get it fixed has been comical.

We had an independent engineer come by to look at our entire house about 2 weeks after the storm. His ($500.00) report seemed boilerplate with a few exceptions. One of the unique things about the aftermath was a large hole next to and under the foundation skirt of the house, adjacent to the garage. The hole was the size of a file cabinet and there was water in it for days. As it was not covered by insurance, I filled myself with about 15 wheel barrels full of sand.

A few months later, I noticed that my garage floor was “bouncing” when I walked on it. Apparently there was no support under part of the slab (the part where I park my car) and nearest the hole I’d filled outside. The slab support had been washed away to the point where the slab has slipped down the wall at least 3 inches.

So…I call my engineer back, he sent his associates to re-examine the area. They concluded on the spot that the floor heaved and undermined from the water pressure and scouring. When I called for the results a few weeks later, the engineer tells me that he sent me another additional bill for $500.00 “for his time”.
When asked why he did not spot this issue the first time, considering there was a huge hole on the other side of the wall, he responded, “YOU DID NOT POINT IT OUT TO ME”.
At first, I could not stop laughing. He was actually serious in his response.
Then I asked him WHO is the engineer here?
He actually tried to argue that is was not his fault that he did not spot this on his first visit and that he assumed that we did not want a “full” inspection the first time he came. I’ll leave out the expletives, but at the end of the day, he rescinded the additional bill and sent me a proper addendum to his incomplete report.

My flood insurance company then insisted on sending their own engineer when I made the supplemental claim:
The engineer they sent measured everything in my house. He concluded in his 15-page report that the garage floor had settled due to the scouring action of the water from the flood.
CLAIM DENIED – flood insurance does not pay for “settling”. Very clever wording.
Took me many hours worth of e mails and phone calls to turn this around and convince the insurance company that the floor FELL, it did not SETTLE.
I finally got the claim approval last week.
Now, I will hire the right cement guy; get the old, cracked the slab removed, underlayment put in, and the slab replaced so I can park my car(s) in the garage again.

It's been nearly 6 months since Sandy, and although it's been a nightmare in some ways, I'm thankful that I was able to repair most of the damaged areas of my house already.
It would be great to have the Epoxy-coat finish on this final step when it when completed.

 

[Consaka]

Wow that looks familiar. lol Only hours is heavily textured with what I call tree branch texturing. Meant to hide all the sins of the lazy sheetrock installer.

Pics of the new space! This will look amazing with a new floor and some added lighting.

 

[Consaka]

Ok time for my story. It's not funny to me but my dad thinks its hilarious.
Backstory: Back in the day my grandfather built houses for his mother and sister for free or maybe cost of materials and the land. As these dear folks passed away the properties were rented out. Till my grandmother died, putting them all in jeopardy. Thankfully my sister and her husband came to the rescue and formed an LLC to keep the properties in the family and pay off the members that wanted "their money yesterday". As a minor member of the LLC my job is to take care of the properties and find renters etc.

Now I have a great wife from workaholic German descent who is indeed a helpmeet in all sense of the word. However, bless her, she doesn't know when to quit. It started with one of the two lights in the living room. The gold color was looking rusty so I told her if she didn't like it to go ahead and pick out another. So she goes and finds a nice modern rendition of something old like brushed bronze that looked pretty darn good. Well the other light needs to match she said, so she bought two. Then the bedroom lights looked like **** in comparison, and could be a safety hazard as a kid could accidently hit them and break them 1970 style square glass plate fixtures. So she got 3 new lights for me to install with LLC monies.
"Hmm darn if the lights in the bathrooms don't look shabby now". (sigh) "yes dear, I say". Man those new bathroom lights look great. But that sink and cabinet look like ****. Two new bathrooms later (installed by me) my live in contractor/interior designer declares them, "absolutely gorgeous!"
However some of these doors have been abused and patched by numerous renters since 1976. Obviously you can't have shabby plain hollow core doors half full of whatever kind of putty was used to patch them, with brand new lights and new paint throughout the house.

Now I know all you guys are thinking that replacing doors is no big deal. Its not when they are all standard sized and straight. That is another story however and all I can say about it is the new doors look really nice. And my router and chisel are now wore out from working them overtime instead of tearing the jambs out and starting over. I now really have a distaste for everything doors.

The nice thing about my "live in contractor" is that she loves to paint. As she is painting the last bathroom door she says, "you know what would look nice?" I reply "Yeah I do, me sitting in a hammock with a soda!". She says, "There is no window in the front door and besides the front door just looks blah". (sigh) So I distract her with the beat up walls in the garage. She picked out some nice "manly" colors for the garage with a corvette yellow racing stripe down the walls.
So I'm replacing weatherstriping on the garage doors and fixing(removing) some nasty trim the vinyl siding guys put around the door. She walks in and says, "you are never going to rent this place with that floor looking like that!"
Doh........................................................................

Addendum:
The LLC ran out of money 3 weeks ago, which means we get to come up with the tax money at the end of this month.
I need a new renter so bad it isn't even funny. I will never have a moments rest till we get one in there.

 

[ljd]

COLONOSCOPY! I Have a question for Some of the older readers with experience on stripping old paint (3 layers) from a floor and if you may have Colonoscopy Experience.

I posted earlier to enter this contest that started with WOW! talk about timing.

Since then I've been working countless hours on the concrete floor.
First thing I tried on the floor was a paint stripper that was recommended to me by the guy at a paint store. It kind of worked on the first 2 coats. I would need about 15 gallons to do what I need to do based on the gallon I used.

Then I worked on it with my 1200 psi pressure washer. Kind of worked on the top coat.

I went and bought a 3800 psi pressure washer knowing I needed a concrete grinder but wasn't able to find one. 3800 psi worked Ok on the top 2 coats and most of the original coat that was put on the floor first. The paint that is left on the floor is bonded really well.

Now, I need to start drinking the potion needed to clear out my Colon for the Procedure on Friday morning. The Question is; Is The Colonoscopy pre op going to be as much pain as it was to get the paint off the floor? Or, am I only at the beginning of the floor cleaning based on my pictures?

I guess what I'm getting at is that neither of these two issues are anything that I want to go through anytime soon. So, I need to make sure I get a really good coating on the floor that will last.

P.S. Please pray to the anti polyp gods for me as well as the beautiful floor gods. I will only post the Garage floor pictures in this post.

 

[wondermoose]

So my wife and I are recently married youngsters. Full of love, pep and excitement. We are going through the closing process on our first home and couldn’t be more excited. As most of you know, furnishing and decorating your first home can be a daunting task so we decided to set up a spreadsheet to list all kinds of fun things. Some manly things, some lady like things and some for both of us. I’ve always wanted a shop floor for my tinkering projects and I gleefully added that to the list and settled on Epoxy-Coat after reading reviews as a lurker on this forum for a few weeks.

All was well until I had the bright idea to add a “priority” column to rank each of the proposed expenditures.

A priority column.

Would you believe that drapes, bath mats, dishes topped the list and my beloved garage floor fell to the bottom?! What had I done? A newly married man’s rookie mistake. So now it may be at least a year until my opportunity comes and I feel like the installation before we move in is the best way to go. Ol’ girl may concede if I continue to ask nicely, but right now Miss Christine is my best hope. Here's a picture of me with my two cars that will go in the new garage, one of them is a little smaller than the other. And a picture of me with my beautiful wife on our wedding day!


https://sphotos-a.**.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/165287_10100490319118434_3980874_n.jpg

https://sphotos-b.**.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/294911_10100809473086337_779902489_n.jpg

 

[snorvet]

COLONOSCOPY! I Have a question for Some of the older readers with experience on stripping old paint (3 layers) from a floor and if you may have Colonoscopy Experience.

I posted earlier to enter this contest that started with WOW! talk about timing.

Since then I've been working countless hours on the concrete floor.
First thing I tried on the floor was a paint stripper that was recommended to me by the guy at a paint store. It kind of worked on the first 2 coats. I would need about 15 gallons to do what I need to do based on the gallon I used.

Then I worked on it with my 1200 psi pressure washer. Kind of worked on the top coat.

I went and bought a 3800 psi pressure washer knowing I needed a concrete grinder but wasn't able to find one. 3800 psi worked Ok on the top 2 coats and most of the original coat that was put on the floor first. The paint that is left on the floor is bonded really well.

Now, I need to start drinking the potion needed to clear out my Colon for the Procedure on Friday morning. The Question is; Is The Colonoscopy pre op going to be as much pain as it was to get the paint off the floor? Or, am I only at the beginning of the floor cleaning based on my pictures?

I guess what I'm getting at is that neither of these two issues are anything that I want to go through anytime soon. So, I need to make sure I get a really good coating on the floor that will last.

P.S. Please pray to the anti polyp gods for me as well as the beautiful floor gods. I will only post the Garage floor pictures in this post.

2 things.

You're probably going to need a concrete grinder. I used one with rotating concrete disks and it worked fine.

I also have had 2 colonoscopies. The prep isn't painful, just a little uncomfortable and very messy.

I would classify the floor as more of a problem than the colonoscopy prep

Good luck on both!

 

[Fredartic]

....Good luck ljd for the colonoscopy and for your floor too!

 

[Moose02]

ok

I'm at the local breakfast spot sitting at the counter and talking to the waitress and a guy next to me hears me talking about coating my brand new 44x33 garage. I just left one of the big box stores and was looking at some coating products. I got up and went to the mens room and came back and this old man was sitting in my place at the counter eating my breakfast he was in the booth right behind me. So I figure what the hell life is too short to get upset So I go to his booth and order another breakfast and I notice he has left a bag so I figure I ate my breakfast paid my bill and left with his bag which I had no idea of what was in it. So I got home and opened the bag and what I found is the it was full of sh** just like the rest of the story.

so when do you want my address of where to ship

 

[Fredartic]

ok

I'm at the local breakfast spot sitting at the counter and talking to the waitress and a guy next to me hears me talking about coating my brand new 44x33 garage. I just left one of the big box stores and was looking at some coating products. I got up and went to the mens room and came back and this old man was sitting in my place at the counter eating my breakfast he was in the booth right behind me. So I figure what the hell life is too short to get upset So I go to his booth and order another breakfast and I notice he has left a bag so I figure I ate my breakfast paid my bill and left with his bag which I had no idea of what was in it. So I got home and opened the bag and what I found is the it was full of sh** just like the rest of the story.

so when do you want my address of where to ship

Moose,I like your story! You have talent as a writer! Good luck!

 

[barelfly]

Recently my wife and I purchased a camaro. We are thrilled and it has me reading about cars and modifications, which is something I've never done. I've never been a work on the car person, just never been around it.

Prior to the car purchase I started looking into designing a work area in the garage and always wanted to finish the floors as well. Now that we have a car parked in the garage, I really want to finish the area. My wife asked why I have the interest all of the sudden in both areas and I said I want to change out a few things on the car, intake, exhaust. She laughed at me thinking I was joking since she knows I have no experience doing such things. When I told her I wasn't, she laughed again and said how on earth do you plan on doing that!

So with a newly finished floor, I can lift up the camaro and install that American muscle car sound with a new exhaust and a few other DIY projects!

 

[c7fx]

This is a story for my brother who has been a great help to me since my accident and I would love to pay him back with a great product like epoxy coat.

He had his house built a few years ago with a 3 1/2 car garage. So he was concerned about drainage with the large space and wondered about having an extra drain installed. The builder assured him that two drains would be enough and that pooling water would not be a problem.
Fast forward to the pour of the concrete. Before they poured the concrete, the plumber had installed the plumbing for the two drains with the PVC sticking up from the ground. Well the concrete guys poured the cement and leveled it off to the opening of each pipe.
This was a problem that I still can't believe they didn't notice. The plumber had left more pipe sticking up than was needed so that he could come back after the cement was poured cut the pipe and be level with the floor. Well now the floor slopes away from the drains and water pools along the walls.

So the best part of the story. The builder doesn't say anything and my brother moves in. Only after washing the floor does he notice the issue and contacts the builder. Their solution.....not replace the floor but to cut a 4x4 square around each drain and re-slope the floor to each drain. The best part after making a huge mess with the saw was that the cement worker applied a brush finish to an otherwise smooth garage floor.

I would love to regrind his floor with a nice slope to each drain and cover with epoxy-coat.

 

[Theo911]

I've owned a 1980 Porsche 911 for going on 18 years this May. Its the longest Ive owned anything and now I'm forever tied to it. If I added up my receipts over the years no doubt I'd have enough money to buy a spankin new one. I was 26 when I bought it and there are too many memories to let it go. I'll probably be buried in it.

Anyway, for years my neighbors had a son that would come over frequently to see my car and checkout what I was working on. When he got to be 15 I thought it would be appropriate to take him out for a spin (after getting mom's permission of course).

We sat in the car and I discussed with him the driving position, guages, proper shifting, and some other basics. He looked at me intently and impatiently waited for me to start the car and drive off.

After a brief, spirited drive we pulled back in the driveway and I looked over at him and asked him if he had a good time and what kind of car he was going to get when he got older. He thought about it for a minute and looked at me and said...... "A Corvette!".

I was devastated....

Fast forward a few years...my wife and I both recently bought a house with a large detached garage that I would love to dress up with epoxy floor and other goodies. As many other married guys will attest its the only area of our house I have 100% control over

 

[ljd]

....Good luck ljd for the colonoscopy and for your floor too!

Thank you very much for the colonoscopy Luck Fredartic,

I went this morning and had the Colonoscopy and made it out alive.

The doc found 7 . 4 of the polyps he burned out and 3 needed to be sent out for biopsy. The insurance will pay for it 100% if they don't have to biopsy any of the polyps. So, now I get to pay the high deductible for the what is now called a surgery instead of the 100% paid screening.

The relationship between garage floors and Colonoscopy are now in a close race but one thing is for sure. The doctors will be getting the money for the garage floor.

That's why doctors have nice garages.

 

[Jim Johnstone]

I need a new coating for my scummy old bare concrete floor to cover up my chipped, oil stained, pitted concrete. I need it to keep my floor safe from my garage menagerie and the menagerie from the floor.

The first set of creatures in my menagerie is of the species Machinus toolus. Drills presses, lathe, mill, surface grinder, cylindrical grinder. These incredible monsters weigh tons, straining the concrete, they literally consume massive chunks of metal, barfing chips, coolant, and lubricants everywhere. I need to have a nice easy to clean floor finish to keep things looking good.

The second creature that spends time in my garage is of the species Canis familiaris. Affectionately known as “Gus”. He is an 85 pound furry beast, that wanders around drooling and dribbling water all over the floor, chewing things to bits and leaving scraps on the floor. He also has a habit of shaking his whole body resulting in an eruption of fur all over the place. It would be nice to have an easy sweep up floor.

There is another member of the menagerie that spends time in the garage. He is of the species Homo sapiens albeit in a juvenile form. He goes by the moniker of “Jake”. At 13 months old, he usually is being confined to a small pen like cage in the garage, but will soon be free to roam the garage under his own power. As anyone who has had extensive contact with juveniles of this species can attest, they have a few ingrained habits. They like to pick up anything in sight, taste it, and proceed to the next item. They also have a habit of randomly expelling fluids from one or more orifices, often at the same time. All this means I need an easy to clean flooring surface, that preferably looks good too!

And of course finally, I also do regular garage things. Like many of the guys here, I have a show car I am proud of and want to keep clean and protected. I was a little unsure of bragging about my car on here, as I don’t want to let the other guys on here feel inadequate. But I will go ahead and say it. The rumours are true ladies and gentlemen. Please don’t get jealous, but I do in fact own an all original numbers matching 2008 Suzuki Swift. Nearly mint condition, with only a few dents, broken cup holder, and an odometer that comes and goes. I need a quality floor to truly show off the car when I have it all shined up from a drive through carwash.

I hope you will take my special circumstances under consideration and grant me a floor kit to make my life so much better!