Thougts on re-doing the floor

[Mack V]

How to re-coat my garage floor

I am thinking about re-painting my garage floor. I am unsure of what was applied on the floor before but I have a can or quickcrete multi-purpose garage sealer (oil based) that the previous owner left behind but the color doesn't look like the same color on the floor now. It might have another coat of water based epoxy(?) on it now. I did spill some race gas on the floor while fixing a fuel leak and didn't wipe it up for ten minutes plus before I noticed it starting to bubble a small amount and looked as if I could of pulled a sheet of paint up in one pull. I quickly washed it with cleaner. About a year later the spot is still holding up well where the gas was spilled.
I am wanting to do a slightly different color with flakes and wanted to get some opinions.
I do work on cars from time to time but mainly the garage is used for parking the cars.
I will have to fill some small cracks and want to use the flakes and a clear sealer to give it a good shine. Any input is greatly appreciated.

 

[LegacyIndustrial]

Re: How to re-coat my garage floor

Grind it back to raw concrete and the world is your oyster.
Try to put something over the bubbly garage sealer and you will be rolling the dice.

 

[Edger]

Don't go over it Mack if you want a good job, it will end up a disaster.

The bubbling indicates that it is not epoxy or urethane, probably an oil based sealer. You have to take it all off to do a half decent job, so use that Soy coating remover stuff and then acid etch. Diamond grinding is better, but taking off the old might be a big problem with slow progress and clogging of the diamonds from the melting paint, plus you might have millions of air holes too that need to be filled.

Hire a water jet, at least 2,000 psi and find a soy gel paint remover on google to take it off, blast it clean, acid etch, blast it really well again and that will be the cheapest way to prepare for another coat.

You can just paint over it with another oil based sealer, but it will only look good for a short while, it will not be much better than what you have now and definitely no more protection, also the softened areas are likely to peel up when you roll over it as the thinners soften it again.

I cannot comment on the wide range of sealers available out there except to say that urethane with flakes is a pretty good option because the flakes look good, hide imperfections, provide some anti slip and it is relatively easy to apply.

Some background info is available at http://www.situp.com.au/Concrete garage floor coating.html

 

[Mack V]

Looks like this could get expensive and time consuming. I was hoping to get by with under 150.00 and several days work.