My Rustoleum Professional Experience

[MTC_WKU]

I have been eye balling these message boards for nearly a year. Last summer into the fall, I remodeled my garage to aesthetically look better and to almost function as a screened in porch/man cave, but to also still serve as garage for our cars.

I tore down wire rack shelving, threw away a ton of junk that had sat on those for 10 years, and mounted 3 large cabinets. I insulated and dry walled my exterior wall (why it never was done, I have no idea), mounted two ceiling fans, painted and mounted a 55 inch tv and soundbar.
I then prepared to epoxy my floor. I etched and prepped my floor and what was to be the perfect fall weekend to lay the epoxy down, became the opposite. The temps dropped below 55 degrees and between my day job schedule and having time to do this project, I lost my chance, and the temps never recovered.

Last month, I finally got the job done. For a newbie, I was very nervous. However, overall, this was an easy job. I prepped my floor tremendously with Degreaser and Muratic Acid, moisture test, then layed down two coats of Rust-oleum Professional, heavy flake, and a clear coat.

I made a couple of cosmetic mistakes with the Rust-oleum metallic flake (not sticking 100% to the floor in spots and then not having flake on me as I clear coated to lay down and hope it would stick with the clear coat) but this are so minor in spots that I will not point them out. The clear coat definitely did not live up to the potential 500 sq. ft of coverage on finished concrete. I think the heavy flake may have absorbed more than anticipated. I had to run out and buy another gallon to complete the job. And at that point, I was out of time and money for this project.

Obviously I am concerned about the longevity of the product, but for my project budget, so far, I am really pleased.

The metallic flake in spots rises up through the clear coat and can be a little rough on the bare foot, but overall the floor is tremendous!

 

[SolarColumbia]

Sounds like you cleaned house on that garage! Looks good and helps motivate me to figure out what to do with mine.

 

[MTC_WKU]

Sounds like you cleaned house on that garage! Looks good and helps motivate me to figure out what to do with mine.

Thank you....From the Before and After photo, I am blown away at how awful my "old" garage looked.

I am so happy with the completed project. You can not see the full size fridge that I have in there full of craft beer. We spend alot of nice Tennessee evenings in the garage!

 

[ford33]

Looks nice. Enjoy your clean garage.

Post pictures a year from now. People are very interested in learning how these products survive in a real garage.

 

[MTC_WKU]

Looks nice. Enjoy your clean garage.

Post pictures a year from now. People are very interested in learning how these products survive in a real garage.

Thank you! Will do.

I am curious as well!

 

[user521]

You're just down the road from me; I'm up by the airport in Donelson. Looking at doing a floor in late August/early September when the new house is done; did you see any of these floors local or just went for it based on online pictures? I'm pretty sure I'm going to do epoxy but online pictures are hard to tell how good it will look.

 

[MTC_WKU]

You're just down the road from me; I'm up by the airport in Donelson. Looking at doing a floor in late August/early September when the new house is done; did you see any of these floors local or just went for it based on online pictures? I'm pretty sure I'm going to do epoxy but online pictures are hard to tell how good it will look.

Congrats on the new home...if that is a new pour of concrete, do your research if you are going to do this DIY.

I kept reviewing these boards and watching YouTube videos to see what I wanted to do. They help a ton!

I received a quote from Guardian Garage Floors in Nashville and another flooring company. My garage is small, it fits our Accord and Civic snuggly at around 350 sq ft. Both companies wanted over $3,000 to lay down their product.

The only thing I never could find was a photo of what the Rust-oleum Metallic Flake looked like on a finished job. So you can use mine as a reference. I only knew the color scheme I wanted.

If I can be of help, let me know.

 

[Armorpoxy]

Great job!

Quick hint for newbies...Often the flecks sit on the epoxy unevenly and edges can stick up which are not comfortable to walk on in bare feet, so its not a bad idea to run a flat scraper over them, and then a quick vacuuming before topcoating. This problem can be worse if your coating starts to thicken up a bit so the flecks don't float in as well as they should.

If doing a full broadcast of flecks this step is mandatory otherwise the floor will have millions of sharp fleck edges.

Last comment is that when using the brand mentioned, there are many reports on this Forum about not having enough material to complete the job a the mfgr does not list the actual qty of liquids in the packages so when comparing what you are 'getting' it is often less gallonage than you may think, so this experience of running out is not uncommon, so when using products always check to see how much you are actually getting.

 

[user521]

Congrats on the new home...if that is a new pour of concrete, do your research if you are going to do this DIY.

I kept reviewing these boards and watching YouTube videos to see what I wanted to do. They help a ton!

I received a quote from Guardian Garage Floors in Nashville and another flooring company. My garage is small, it fits our Accord and Civic snuggly at around 350 sq ft. Both companies wanted over $3,000 to lay down their product.

The only thing I never could find was a photo of what the Rust-oleum Metallic Flake looked like on a finished job. So you can use mine as a reference. I only knew the color scheme I wanted.

If I can be of help, let me know.

Yeah, it's new concrete. I've been reading here a good bit, the local HD has either a diamabrush with the floor maintainer, or an edco grinder, not sure if those will be overkill for a brand new slab, maybe I can get away with acid etch only.

I've been looking at Armorpoxy and Legacy Industrial epoxies, but I did see the rustoleum at HD the other day too though. The metallic looks interesting. How many of their kits did you use? Seemed like they varied in claims from 100 sq ft per kit to like 250 sq ft per kit.

I got a couple of ballpark quotes in Nashville (since the house isn't done yet), I think Guardian was one of them, they wanted $5+ per square foot and one of the others wanted $3 per sq ft to prep, that's what's got me leaning the DIY angle.

I'll keep the offer of PM in mind as I get closer to trying this myself, nothing like tips from a voice of experience.

 

[MTC_WKU]

Yeah, it's new concrete. I've been reading here a good bit, the local HD has either a diamabrush with the floor maintainer, or an edco grinder, not sure if those will be overkill for a brand new slab, maybe I can get away with acid etch only.

I've been looking at Armorpoxy and Legacy Industrial epoxies, but I did see the rustoleum at HD the other day too though. The metallic looks interesting. How many of their kits did you use? Seemed like they varied in claims from 100 sq ft per kit to like 250 sq ft per kit.

I got a couple of ballpark quotes in Nashville (since the house isn't done yet), I think Guardian was one of them, they wanted $5+ per square foot and one of the others wanted $3 per sq ft to prep, that's what's got me leaning the DIY angle.

I'll keep the offer of PM in mind as I get closer to trying this myself, nothing like tips from a voice of experience.

I would stay away from the Water Based Rust-Oleum product that Home Depot and Lowe's sell. I purchased the Rust-Oleum Professional on Amazon.

Also make sure you purchase the mixer drill bit if you DIY. That was a huge help with mixing.

I used 3 gallon containers of acid etch. It was probably overkill, but I wanted to make sure I had a good surface for the epoxy to stick to.

I purchased 2 of the Rust-oleum Epoxyshield Professional kits. Day one was coat one, let it sit for 24 hours, then coat 2. After coat one, I had a small amount of product leftover. After the second coat, there was even more left over. So I had no issues in terms of getting the epoxy to cover the garage floor.

I was amazed at how far the flake went. I purchased every bag of metallic flake that Home Depot had, because I wanted a heavy flake look. I had around a dozen bags and returned around 6 of them.

The clear coat is where I had issues with square footage coverage. Not sure if the flake soaked up a lot of product, but I ended up using two gallons of clear coat when based on the box, it should have been one gallon.

And purchase the epoxy spikes. I didn't, it messed my flake up in some spots, its minimal, but with those spikes, my floor lookswise, would be 100% perfect.

 

[user521]

Awesome! Thanks for all the tips! Hopefully mine comes out as well as yours did!

 

[MTC_WKU]

This week, a year ago I laid down my Rustoleum Professional Epoxyshield.

After a year, some of the flake has come up. Its not awful, but I notice it. I would say from my experience, I wish I had put down even more clearcoat than I did. I only did one coat. I think a second would have helped.

I get some heavy late in the day sunlight on my garage. I have not had any yellowing at this point. No peeling anywhere.

Overall, I still love my floor. It looks good for the most part. I get tons of compliments.

My garage is normally a little cleaner. However with Safer At Home, and the nice weather, it has become to place to hang out for our family, which I love!

 

[s14kev]

Nice floor. Hello from a fellow Franklin resident!

 

[haneyrm]

Looks great. When I had my new garage built, I had epoxy done but skipped the flake. Regret that decision and should of had it flaked.

I too own property in Franklin. Have places on both 2nd and 3rd Ave just off the square. Small world.

 

[Bananahands]

The floor looks great. Do you park cars on it regularly? We’re building a house and I’m trying to decide what to use to cover 900ish sq feet. My wife pretty much blew through most of our budget on upgrades to the house so I’m definitely going to have to DIY something if I do anything at all.
I’m glad you posted an update. I’m just curious if you’ve had any peel up from tires or anything.

 

[MTC_WKU]

Thank you for the compliments. And hello to the fellow Franklinites. I am on the east side of 65.

I was parking one car in here regularly until COVID. Then this became my office. Which, this garage project has been worth its weight in gold for. However, when we were parking the car in here, I was being careful and made a rule, let the car cool off a bit before we pull it in.

No peeling at this point.

 

[boley]

Great looking floor.