Painted floor ----> epoxy floor...suggestions?

[Tyson]

Alright....#1 I'm on a budget (hence the Datsun....Racing cheap)

I've got a house that was built with a 3 car garage back in 99....somewhere between 1999 and when I bought it in 2004 the previous owner had painted the garage floor grey....I'm not sure what type of paint it was, and like a ******* I threw out the almost empty can that was left with all the original paint cans that were left in the house.

Fast forward to Friday, August 11th 2006. The floor is ugly and shows major signs of wear
See picture below.
http://www.zcarchat.com/garage/6.JPG


I want to epoxy coat 2/3 of it this weekend (I have a big joint between the two for an easy transition), and every review that has been good comes from people who do the prepwork....I don't mind prep work.

I started off tonight pouring paint stripper on the floor and then hitting it with the nice 2500psi gas pressure washer, that has gotten most of it off but not all of it. See pictures below
http://www.zcarchat.com/garage/2.JPG
http://www.zcarchat.com/garage/3.JPG
http://www.zcarchat.com/garage/5.JPG
http://www.zcarchat.com/garage/7.JPG


Do I need to bring this floor down to bare concrete before I epoxy it? I know after stripping it I have to wash the living daylights out of it, then etch and coat.

Also, do I need to fill the hairline cracks, or just the ones that I can easily get a fingernail in?


FYI, here's a picture of the said Datsun with all my stuff crammed into the 3rd stall
http://www.zcarchat.com/garage/9.JPG

And a picture after the last rallycross
http://www.zcarchat.com/rally/side.JPG

And a 9.5 meg video of it at the last rallycross
http://www.zcarchat.com/rally/rallycross.wmv

Thanks for your help!

 

[bmwpower]

I would grind, shotblast, or sand the upper layer of concrete. Then etch and wash. If there are oily stains, you will have to degrease them as well.

Fill any cracks that you see. More than likely they will show up if you do not fill them first.

 

[Tyson]

I would grind, shotblast, or sand the upper layer of concrete. Then etch and wash. If there are oily stains, you will have to degrease them as well.

Fill any cracks that you see. More than likely they will show up if you do not fill them first.

Thanks for the reply.

I can't afford to rent a blaster, nor do I have the time.....So I have decided to take more effort into the initial prep work.

Stripped the garage floor twice, and now I'm down to that glass weave....I'm going to do one more strip.

I've got some good 60 grit 3M sandpaper, I've been wetsanding the floor and to my surprise it has actually made somewhat of a difference.

Soap and rinse twice
degrease twice
rinse like I've never rinsed before.
patch the cracks....I've also used the pressure washer to open up some loose spots in the concrete, and I'll have to patch them as well.
Etch twice.

I'll probably lay down the first coat tomorrow morning.....Geeze this project (like most) is taking a lot longer than first expected.

 

[bmwpower]

Sounds like it should work. Just give extra attention to any oily spots.

And make sure the floor is dry before starting.

Good luck...

...and post followup picts when done.

 

[Tyson]

Jesus christ doing this halfway right involves an awful lot of effort.

I last washed the garage at 3pm this afternoon, and now at midnight the floor was completely dry except for 2 ~3/4" holes that still had some water, so I won't be able to begin painting until about 5PM Sunday as the repair epoxy requires 8 hours to dry and I won't be able to fill those 2 holes until Sunday morning.

That repair epoxy really is a ***** to work with...It sets up a little too quick.

I've been taking pictures too.

 

[mike944]

Seems like it always takes forever to do things right. It'll be worth it, when your floor DOESN'T start peeling in a couple of years.