Epoxy paint on shop floor---Any good?

I am going to paint my shop (garage) floor with epoxy paint. Rustolium sells two grades, "Garage floor paint epoxy " and "Industrial epoxy" paint. I purchased the "Industrial" quality on the assumption that if it cost more and is more difficult to apply that it must be better. Does anyone have sugestions/precautions/advice on applying these products? How good are they?

Best

I have no experience with the particular product you bought, but I've used Pittsburgh epoxy floor paint a few times. Wonderful product, but very slippery when wet. If your shop/garage is where it's subject to any water, it's wise to stir in some fine sand before applying the paint to provide some tooth. I suggest something around 60 mesh. I've used 30 and it's a bit too coarse--makes it hard to do any cleaning aside from just a broom.

Make sure you have no oil spots on the concrete. If you do, they can be removed totally by soaking the spots in solvent (Stoddard, or mineral spirits) and then covering the spot completely with kitty litter (Oil-Dri), which should then be soaked with solvent. Let the entire mess dry naturally. The evaporation of the solvent liquefies the oil and draws it out as the solvent evaporates. You can clean even old, heavily soaked spots that way, although it may take two attempts. Works great, and no hard work.

Etching with HCL (muriatic acid, or hydrochloric acid) diluted in water is almost a must if you expect good adhesion. Dry well before painting------and make sure you concrete has aged long enough that it's not still quite alkaline. That, too, is a recipe for failure.

The only negative to painting a shop floor is if you weld there. The spatter burns the painted surface, leaving it rather ugly.

Good luck-

Harold

DO NOT BUY RUSTOLEUM!!!!! it peeled off my etched floor in minutes

ben moore industrial coatings they make a single and 2 part epoxy. the single is good, nothing will take it up gas, oil coolant. the 2 part is bulletproof, can't smash it with a hammer

floor paint a few times. Wonderful product, but very

actually I've read that it is best to sprinkle it on afterward, that way the paint is stuck to the floor, not the sand

Best benefit is increasing light in the shop. If you choose a light or white color, it will seem like the shop is twice as bright. Second benefit is ease of clean-up. When you are looking at sweeping chips and mopping spills, it works great.

The negative is that it WILL flake in areas over time. No matter how good the prep, there will be spots of reduced adherence. Generally, I see this in areas where water has leaked onto the floor and sat for a while. I have an auto shop in the adjacent bay and sometimes they use too much water to clean their floors...leaks under the wall on weekends and forms some puddles on my floor (yea, complained to the landlord and such but only superficial improvements).

Where you will probably see the most wear. however, is the traffic areas in front of machines. Any chips that get on the floor eventually grind the coating away under your feet. You can probably alleviate some of this as well as fatigue by using rubber horse stall mats or similar directly in front of machines.

I'd re-coat the place with white again in a second. It's getting a little scabby after 7 years but it's now too hard to work around the machines to do a proper prep. I might try spotting in the worst areas though. As others have said PREP PREP PREP is everything. Rent a floor buffer with a scratch pad if you need to. Etch WELL. Rinse acid WELL. Dry BEYOND WELL.

The floor itself isn't that slippery. However, when sawdust or (especially) plastic chips get under your feet, it changes from no problem to an ice rink. I suppose we should be sweeping before anything piles up anyway but just a warning in case you're the kind who puts off cleaning chores.

I used 1 part water based by the way, not the 2 part. I think I'd go with the 2 part in the next go-round.

Koz

How do you go about sprinkling sand on a large floor without standing on it? Could prove challenging for a large room, yes? Not only can you not reach all of it, but if it's epoxy on a warm day, the area first applied may already be set- so the sand doesn't stick, even if you could apply it. Nope----what you read sucks.

Paint stuck to the floor, not the sand? You're using WAY too much sand. It requires very little when done properly.

Putting the sand *in* the paint is simple, and works fine----been there--done that. Anything less is just creating more work and yielding poorer results. It may not sound right, but it works, and very well. You *want* it in the paint, so it stays put. The slight hump it creates is more than adequate for preventing falls, and makes cleaning the floor somewhat easier. Too much tooth isn't desirable. It shreds anything you use to do your cleaning, including your vacuum wand, if you use one.

Harold

Around here in S.E. MI my local retailers carry the Rust-oleum Epoxy-shield garage floor version and a Epoxy-shield basement floor version.

I have the prototype version of the Tan Rust-oleum garage Epoxy-coat(I bought the product at a flea market for $20 a gallon and needed to find more and was instructed to go to Lowes or H.D and look for the Rust-oleum brand.) and I have to say that it has stood up well to the abuse that I have put it through so far! The $50 a gallon price tag was a little hard to swallow when I needed to get more, but, I'm happy now. OH, and it didn't go as far as the instructions stated it would. I needed to apply 3 gallons fairly sparingly to cover an 18'x20' garage floor. If you want your floor to look some-what smooth without most of the texture of the concrete you may need more. And, YES, I found out the hard way that it can be and is slipery when wet! Call a sand blast supply house for the different types/textures of grits that can be applied during the installation of your epoxy floor(this is what the pro's use/do). The Epoxy coating that I bought, had a bag of what Rust-oleum calles terazzo flakes(dried multi-colored chips of the very same epoxy that is being applied) that is to help aid with the slippery-ness when wet, I didn't like the effect and did not apply it, because I felt that it made the floor to "busy" and if you dropped anything small(screw, spring) you would have a hard time finding it.

I had a couple of heavily oiled down spots that I had used Castrol super clean to help to try to disolve the oil spots, I scrubbed my ass off. So far the Epoxy hasn't peeled or flaked yet over those areas. The kits that I had bought had an instruction video that was supplied and had warned me not to pre-etch the floor with a muratic acid type solution, but I did anyways, and then neutralized it with baking soda, then applied the supplied formula. Did you buy a kit type form that includes an etching agent? IF you wish, I still have the instruction video from the rust-oleum Epoxy coat floor finish that came with the epoxy that I put down around here, if you pay for the shipping, I'll mail it to you, I'll even pitch in the flakes that I didn't use. Tracy

wrote:

Rustolium sells

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one would assume you do while painting

I wouldn't bother anyway, unless you have a polished floor

I work in an extremely large building, with one of the largest concrete floors in the world. There is a sealer of some kind on the concrete, but nothing more than that. If I could afford it, I'd rather go that route instead of painting something that I'm likely to tear up with hot slag, dragging metal, or whatever solvent I spill at the time. Does anyone know what that stuff might be and what the options are?

2 part epoxy is really really hard. unless you are welding full time nothing will touch it. I TIG weld over single part epoxy and have not 'noticed' any burn marks.

do not confuse any of the epoxies with 'garage floor paint' or any alklyd[sp?] enamel I put the single part on my old garage floor, 1987. brake fluid, gasoline oil, cutting fluid etc etc etc. nothing takes it up. it will abrade away.

the 2 part is just unreal.

the benjamin moore industrial coatings was IIRC less than 40 a gallon, 2 gallon sets.

Good point in the sealers. You don't get the "color" but it makes cleaning (sweeping) easy and spills don't stain. Gallons or 5s are available at any janitorial supply house. Usually, you need a buffer to get a good finish but it goes on like watered down "elmers" white glue. Easy to touch up and easy to strip off should one change their mind and want to go with other coatings.

Koz

carl mciver wrote:

Works very well but I save the sawdust from my tablesaw and beltsander. I found that this works as well as kitty litter and is free. :-)

Ted

Keep in mind that some sawdust is toxic. Black walnut, for instance, is bad for critters.

Also a fire hazard when soaked with oil.

Walnut will kill horses. It dissolves the hoof for some reason and the end is near.

Caution in giving friends shavings for the horses.

Martin