Protecting epoxy floor..

[BellyUpFish]

So, I've got this epoxy down on my floor and I'm really happy with it so far.

So, now I've gotta think about protecting it from thinks like jack stands, trailer stands, motorcycle kick stands, and other things like this.

Are you guys throwing anything down under this sort of stuff or do you just let it rip?

I've been thinking about something like some of the plastic diamond plate sheet?

 

[Falcon67]

Why I used a renewable partial epoxy industrial coating with no clear coat. I just work right on it. If it's a "show" floor, then you'd probably want to use something but it'll get scuffed eventually. I paint my floor to cut down on dust and make for easy clean up of spills. It's not as pretty now as when it was first laid, but hey - I'm workin' here.

 

[SILVERPLATE]

I have a floor in my garage I consider for show. When is use Jack stands I put a small square of Masonite under it and roll the jack on a larger piece. I often put down a furniture pad cover when working to protect from dropped items or whatever. Works for me.

 

[racerex]

+1 for Masonite. I purchased three 4x8 sheets and cut them up into a few different sizes. I used them last weekend while building my new workbench. I used the Masonite a few week ago when I moved my Corvette around while it was sitting on four wheel dollies with beat up steel casters.

 

[barks]

Wait. One puts down an epoxy coating to protect the concrete and then has to put something down to protect the epoxy. This putting something down to protect the previous coating could go on forever.

 

[A_Pmech]

I just use the floor.

 

[vavet]

I thought the epoxy was supposed to be hard enough to protect itself. I've been disappointed.

 

[zmotorsports]

We had our shop floor at work epoxy coated back in the late 80's and although some areas have held up ok, most have not. Granted this is in an industrial maintenance shop and anything that creates sparks or dripping weld spatter will quickly destroy an epoxy floor coating.

When I built my home shop back in 1995 I merely laid down a good coat of polyurethane paint that I purchased from my local paint supply store. It is quite worn now after 21+ years of welding, grinding, dragging snowmobiles and about everything else around on but it did hold up fair for the first several years.

I don't know if I am going to put anything down on my new floor in my new shop because I haven't found anything that can hold up to the welding/fabricating environment.

Mike.

 

[joe_padavano]

i just use the floor.

^^^this!

 

[Grimpala]

The bees knees in the aircraft world is polished concrete now. But yeah, why coat the floor with a protective coating and then have to protect the protection?

 

[brownbagg]

you could pour a concrete level over it

 

[TMcCay]

I just use the floor, also! I painted it to make it easier to clean up spills and avoid stains in the concrete. I don't have a show place. If it were a show place then the only thing that would be in the shop would be show cars and that is the last thing that I own....
Not saying that I wouldn't own one if I could, just not in the cards for me!

 

[BellyUpFish]

Wait. One puts down an epoxy coating to protect the concrete and then has to put something down to protect the epoxy. This putting something down to protect the previous coating could go on forever.

Like a dog chasing his own tail!

I'm planning on just using it. I wound up with epoxy via the failure of another product.

I am not working with a show room floor but now that the epoxy is down I really like the look.

I might as well go out and carve a big scratch into it to get it over with.

 

[AandSC]

My epoxy floor looked great for the first ten years, but I do a fair amount of heavy maintenance, which eventually took a toll on it. Soooo, I put RaceDeck flooring over the half where I do the heavy maintenance and left the epoxy unprotected on the half where I just park and do oil changes. The two halves of my garage have very different looks, but they both look pretty good and they are functional. I don't have the time to throw down protection every time I want to do some work.

 

[8man]

I used a densifier over a smooth trowel finish and am very happy with it. You can clean up an oil spill within a couple of hours and welding slag doesn't hurt it.

 

[ArthurJGuy]

When I did my floors I finished them off with a clear epoxy. I stripped an entire car in that garage and didn't have a single stain, nick, chip, or anything. I noticed that the left over clear in the bucket dried almost like a baslitics gel, and I had a hard time stabbing a knife through it or cutting it out of the bucket. I'll be doing the same on my new garage.