Partially painted concrete garage floor

[improperyour]

Our concrete garage floor is 2/3 painted with some type of paint that isn't great ... or at least is very old. If I stick down some tape on the floor and leave it, a few days later if I pull it up it pulls up the paint with it (haphazardly however, not evenly and it *seems* to pull up some of the cement with it).

I want to get this all sorted out, but am unsure what to do. Eventually I'd either go with Epoxy or Poly (or both) as the final product. But I'm unsure how to go about removing the paint without destroying the concrete. Would grinding it do this? I don't think this is something I can DIY (at least not well) so what types of questions should I ask when I call out a... garage flooring company I guess?

Just not even sure where to start.

 

[Shiftless]

If I stick down some tape on the floor and leave it, a few days later if I pull it up it pulls up the paint with it (haphazardly however, not evenly and it *seems* to pull up some of the cement with it).

I’m no concrete expert, but it seems to me that if you can pull up chunks of your floor with tape, you have a bigger problem than just crappy paint.

 

[Gozo]

Been there, done that. If you’re going the DIY route, the most efficient way is to use a Diamabrush prep tool and Clarke floor machine. You can rent these. Cheaper, but takes a whole lot longer and is a real back breaker, is an angle grinder and a cup wheel. If you’re going to do a recoat; proper prep is essential.

Lots of great info in the Flooring section. Read around a bit. Fairly recent useful post: here

 

[improperyour]

I’m no concrete expert, but it seems to me that if you can pull up chunks of your floor with tape, you have a bigger problem than just crappy paint.

Not chunks, though I probably wrote it to sound like that. It's more like the paint comes up and along with it almost what might be considered concrete dust. But MAYBE a bit more then that. For all I know when the paint was put down they did a crummy job of cleaning off the concrete.

At least that's my impression. It is not degrading the concrete slab at all (that I can see).

 

[FJ4FUN]

Diamond grind the floor. The paint needs to come up and any underlying concrete issues (if any) need to be exposed, understood, and corrected if you're planning on coating the floor.

 

[Shiftless]

Diamond grind the floor. The paint needs to come up and any underlying concrete issues (if any) need to be exposed, understood, and corrected if you're planning on coating the floor.

This ^^^^^^^^^
Any paint job on any surface is only as good as what it’s on top of.
Surface prep is key to a satisfactory job.

 

[rsparks64]

We have a small concrete porch which the builder painted for some reason. It never stuck and it kept having to be touched up. Finally, we had it tiled with wood grain look light colored outdoor tile. The installers ground it first, did some touch ups/leveling of the concrete, and then laid the tile. As stated above, they said the only way to do it was to grind it first and having been reviewing this forum for multiple years I knew that would be required.

 

[mike93lx]

If you aren't going right back with a new coating, I would not grind now. I'd start with a pressure washer

If you are ready to recoat, definitely just grind it