In my previous garage I used a beige 100% solids epoxy + flakes from a forum vendor here. The floor turn out great and I enjoyed going into the garage each day and seeing that floor, rather than the typical gray concrete.
When I moved into my new house, I thought I'd try something different. I considered acid stain, racetrack, decals and some other stuff. In the end I decided on the Metallic Epoxy product. It's a bit more expensive than standard epoxy and a little more labor intensive, but if you're looking for something different, you should consider this product.
Here's the product after taking it off the shipping pallet.
Moved all my stuff out of the garage, swept and swept. I didn't bother taping off the stem walls (learned what a 'stem wall' was here on GJ, thanks!) as I'm going to paint them gray in the near future.
Acid etched the floor, neutralized and rinsed it all away.... or at least I thought I did. If I had to do it again, I'd use less baking soda to neutralize the acid, or wash it out better. I spent the better part of 4 hours getting all the BS off the floor the next day. Because of my incredibly short time frame to complete the work, I didn't have time to rinse and wait another day for it to dry.
Here's what the floor looked like after applying the primer. This would be a very respectable floor with just the addition of a clear coat to protect it.
Here's the basecoat + effects, I still have to lay down the clear coat tomorrow. Perfect? Not by a long shot, but respectable for a garage.
So what did I learn? Well aside from the baking soda mess I mentioned earlier, the biggest thing I learned was to allow the effects to 'drip' down from the brush. Don't try to 'fling' them, as you'll get droplets of the 'effect' on the non-basecoated floor. When you roll out the basecoat that has droplets of 'effect' in it, you'll get little bubbles, like when you paint and there's still solvent or grease on the surface.
Tomorrow the 'eggshell' clear goes on and I should be ready to move back into my garage next weekend.
When I moved into my new house, I thought I'd try something different. I considered acid stain, racetrack, decals and some other stuff. In the end I decided on the Metallic Epoxy product. It's a bit more expensive than standard epoxy and a little more labor intensive, but if you're looking for something different, you should consider this product.
Here's the product after taking it off the shipping pallet.
Moved all my stuff out of the garage, swept and swept. I didn't bother taping off the stem walls (learned what a 'stem wall' was here on GJ, thanks!) as I'm going to paint them gray in the near future.
Acid etched the floor, neutralized and rinsed it all away.... or at least I thought I did. If I had to do it again, I'd use less baking soda to neutralize the acid, or wash it out better. I spent the better part of 4 hours getting all the BS off the floor the next day. Because of my incredibly short time frame to complete the work, I didn't have time to rinse and wait another day for it to dry.
Here's what the floor looked like after applying the primer. This would be a very respectable floor with just the addition of a clear coat to protect it.
Here's the basecoat + effects, I still have to lay down the clear coat tomorrow. Perfect? Not by a long shot, but respectable for a garage.
So what did I learn? Well aside from the baking soda mess I mentioned earlier, the biggest thing I learned was to allow the effects to 'drip' down from the brush. Don't try to 'fling' them, as you'll get droplets of the 'effect' on the non-basecoated floor. When you roll out the basecoat that has droplets of 'effect' in it, you'll get little bubbles, like when you paint and there's still solvent or grease on the surface.
Tomorrow the 'eggshell' clear goes on and I should be ready to move back into my garage next weekend.
