Need something cheap

[tuner4life]

My garage floor is concrete and was painted by the previous owner several years ago. Needles to say it is starting to chip up. Plus somewhere along the way someone decided that it would be a great idea to spray paint parts on the floor with out any floor protection. So what I have is chipping grey paint, several colors of overspray, and places with bare concrete.

I would like to recoat the floor with something, but am not sure what. I am in no position to spend thousands on a new floor coating or racedeck type stuff. Just want a simple recoat/repaint/?? I will powerwash the floor with a power sprayer, and clean it the best I can. But can't have it blasted or anything like that (I am married here). I just want it to look a bit better for now since we will likely move in a few years.

I was wondering if anyone has used any type of driveway sealer in the garage? Or what else have you used that is cheap, but works decent?

Disregard the broken car, just the best picture I have showing the floor currently

thanks

 

[darkk]

I would say it isn't going to be an easy task. I think you will need to grind the surface first to get all the top coats off. Then you should be able to clean and re coat.

 

[ibedayank]

commercial floor tile...less than 50 cents square foot
think walmart floors and others

 

[suprvee]

See how well you can clean the concrete. Grab a power washer (2500psi+), some concrete cleaner, and have a go at it. For spray paint removal, I've had great luck with TSP and citric acid (don't mix them together though). If your concrete looks great after cleaning, you could epoxy it, clear seal it, or VCT it. Those are the cheapest options I could find when I did my floor. There are also concrete sealers, which are compatible with epoxies. Basically, if you choose to epoxy at a later time, you just scuff up the existing sealer, and epoxy over it. But you need to find the correct clear sealer for that.

I went with the epoxy method; Rustoleum professional epoxy from lowes to be specific. Very happy with it.

 

[Edger]

This is going to sound crazy because I am always talking about good prep, but if you give it a good power wash and overcoat with an acrylic light grey coating it will make a world of difference and last reasonably well.

Excellent prep is only necessary if you cannot stand any amount of coating failure. Make sure it is very dry before coating.

 

[munkey]

Can you afford to rent a grinder? Even a handheld one will do a much better job of prepping the surface than "cleaning" it with the best possible chemicals, and the rental fees are usually pretty cheap.

Of course, it could be costly in terms of your time (it might take you several hours to do) but the dollar figure is pretty low and your finished floor will look better and last longer no matter what product you use. If it comes time to move, your prospective buyers will appreciate the nice floor!

 

[Nighttrain]

I agree with Edger. Clean real well with something like simple green and just roll on a good floor paint. If you are only going to be there for a bit longer just get it one color. When I was in the military we would paint some of our shop floors with a grey oil based paint. Yes we had to do it every several years but they always looked pretty good. Would I do it now to my garage? No because I don't want to have to paint it ever again. Still up in the air on mine (2000sf) am leaning towards stain and a sealer but I see too many floors like this that show up all the dust.

just my .2

This is going to sound crazy because I am always talking about good prep, but if you give it a good power wash and overcoat with an acrylic light grey coating it will make a world of difference and last reasonably well.

Excellent prep is only necessary if you cannot stand any amount of coating failure. Make sure it is very dry before coating.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Darker colors show the dust. Just like cars, the white car doesn't look dirty until you get right next to it.

 

[tuner4life]

Thanks everyone, I am most likely going to go with Edger and Nighttrain's idea on this. I remember doing this in the shop at school several years ago. and it held up pretty good considering all the abuse it got. I Understand that it wont be perfect, or last forever, but it will look tons better than what is in there now. Plus I dont mind recovering in a couple years since it is pretty cheap. I just want something uniform that I can do the entire floor with before I add all the built in workbenches/cabinets/etc... I can recoat as needed down the road.

I will go with something better in my next garage.. I just need something go get me by for now where I'm at

Thanks again.

 

[Kevin54]

Check with your local rental place. Most will rent floor grinders to remove paint. The ones I looked at were about 12" in diameter and had carbide bits in them. He told me it will remove the paint but won't grind the concrete. It's a stand up unit so you don't have to bend over to run it. The one I looked at was $75 for 24 hours. I have the same problem with the house garage and will go that route this time.