chaingang
Well-known member
So I looked on here forever trying to decide what to do with the floor in the main part of my shop. I know we all go back and forth.....epoxy, tile, sealer, ground and polished etc..... This becomes an even more daunting decision for those who plan to really use and abuse the floor as a welding, fabricating and heavy mechanical shop. So I did my research on here, made some calls to vendors and talked to my friends who have plenty of opinions but none that had done much except use their floors as is.
I decided on the sealer and wax route and chose Legacy HD 6600 matte finish with their cherry wax matte as a topcoat. Some reasons for my decision. I like the look of bare concrete. I plan to weld and fabricate in this area. I will be building/restoring several cars over the next few years. I really only wanted to make the shop easier to sweep and clean out. I wanted something I wouldn't cry over if I scratched, scuffed or burnt up from weld or torch splatter. Cost was also a huge factor. I wanted to spend money on other stuff for the shop, not just the floor. Another big reason is that my floor and shop project has drawn on seems like forever. The floor has been used already, has stains including Georgia red clay, oil, outdoor wood stain and several other things that I wasn't sure about. It is about 7 years old or so and has a couple of cracks that I really didn't care to address either. No biggie, its gonna be a working floor. I did however make a couple of decisions because it is a "working floor" that I would change if I was doing it again. More on that as I post the pictures.
I had to acid wash the floors just to get the red clay stains out. Pressure washer, soap, scrub brush had no effect on it. Muratic Acid and a long handled stiff scrub brush did the trick.
After cleaning with the acid and rinsing several times I washed it with a strong detergent. It took a long time to rinse all the soap off but after drying it looked really clean and had a rough texture. The visible spots will be explained in a few more pictures.
Here is a picture of what I will call my executive decision. In the picture you can see spots on the floor. This is mostly wood stain from dripping off the soffit boards while building the shop. I decided not to grind these out, or for that matter, any other spots that just wouldn't come up from scrubbing.
And another.
The 1st coat going down.
First coat down but still wet.
3rd coat down but wet.
Next day, all 3 coats down and dry. In these pics the spots stand out like sore thumb.
I should have ground the spots out. After acid wash and dry they were dull and I thought ah what the hell, they'll be fine. Well they are plainly visible. I can live with it but if you are doing a floor and have any doubts, grind it out.
A couple of notes on the application. The material went much farther than expected, specially since I acid washed the floor. I had 800 sq/ft to do so I bought 6 gallons of sealer and 2 gallons of wax. The sealer I expected to get 2 good coats and have a little left. I got 3 full, heavy coats and still had 2 1/2 gallons left. My boss wants it so I made him a good deal. The sealer looks like **** when wet, as you are applying it. Every flaw just jumps out at you. The colors are horrible across the concrete even though it is just concrete. You can see this from the wet to dry pictures above. I thought I had made a horrible mistake when I saw this initial look. Allow it to dry and it all blends back into a uniform color. The third coat made a big difference in mine. I would recommend 3 coats minimum. Maybe it was better since I had to acid wash mine but it really looked better with 3 coats.
The wax I expected to get only 2 coats. I got 3 good coats down and it made big difference from 2nd to 3rd coat. I'll post the pictures with the wax down shortly.
I decided on the sealer and wax route and chose Legacy HD 6600 matte finish with their cherry wax matte as a topcoat. Some reasons for my decision. I like the look of bare concrete. I plan to weld and fabricate in this area. I will be building/restoring several cars over the next few years. I really only wanted to make the shop easier to sweep and clean out. I wanted something I wouldn't cry over if I scratched, scuffed or burnt up from weld or torch splatter. Cost was also a huge factor. I wanted to spend money on other stuff for the shop, not just the floor. Another big reason is that my floor and shop project has drawn on seems like forever. The floor has been used already, has stains including Georgia red clay, oil, outdoor wood stain and several other things that I wasn't sure about. It is about 7 years old or so and has a couple of cracks that I really didn't care to address either. No biggie, its gonna be a working floor. I did however make a couple of decisions because it is a "working floor" that I would change if I was doing it again. More on that as I post the pictures.
I had to acid wash the floors just to get the red clay stains out. Pressure washer, soap, scrub brush had no effect on it. Muratic Acid and a long handled stiff scrub brush did the trick.
After cleaning with the acid and rinsing several times I washed it with a strong detergent. It took a long time to rinse all the soap off but after drying it looked really clean and had a rough texture. The visible spots will be explained in a few more pictures.
Here is a picture of what I will call my executive decision. In the picture you can see spots on the floor. This is mostly wood stain from dripping off the soffit boards while building the shop. I decided not to grind these out, or for that matter, any other spots that just wouldn't come up from scrubbing.
And another.
The 1st coat going down.
First coat down but still wet.
3rd coat down but wet.
Next day, all 3 coats down and dry. In these pics the spots stand out like sore thumb.
I should have ground the spots out. After acid wash and dry they were dull and I thought ah what the hell, they'll be fine. Well they are plainly visible. I can live with it but if you are doing a floor and have any doubts, grind it out.
A couple of notes on the application. The material went much farther than expected, specially since I acid washed the floor. I had 800 sq/ft to do so I bought 6 gallons of sealer and 2 gallons of wax. The sealer I expected to get 2 good coats and have a little left. I got 3 full, heavy coats and still had 2 1/2 gallons left. My boss wants it so I made him a good deal. The sealer looks like **** when wet, as you are applying it. Every flaw just jumps out at you. The colors are horrible across the concrete even though it is just concrete. You can see this from the wet to dry pictures above. I thought I had made a horrible mistake when I saw this initial look. Allow it to dry and it all blends back into a uniform color. The third coat made a big difference in mine. I would recommend 3 coats minimum. Maybe it was better since I had to acid wash mine but it really looked better with 3 coats.
The wax I expected to get only 2 coats. I got 3 good coats down and it made big difference from 2nd to 3rd coat. I'll post the pictures with the wax down shortly.
