Its been quite a while since I've given an update on the garage and that's because we haven't done anything with it. Oops! But we are finally back with the garage makeover part 2, the floors.
Most people don't even know about all the products for garage floors. Basically, with these kits, if you spill something, track in mud or if you have a mechanic husband like me who tracks oil everywhere, it all rinses right off, and with all the projects [both car and home] that
we do, we needed a way to protect the concrete, which is why we chose to do this and we decided on
this kit by Rustoleum.
The first thing we did isn't part of the kit and isn't really important but Zack wanted to do it so i thought Id mention it. We bought a concrete filler from Lowes and filled in the cracks in the concrete so that when we rinse it out we can squeegee it without the water falling into the cracks. To do this we mixed the powder with water [follow the directs on the back] and shoveled a little into the cracks and smoothed it over with a 4" putty knife. First off, it cracked really bad [which showed through the epoxy] and then we had to grind it down with our angle grinder to get it smooth, its a dusty and annoying job. If we had to do it again we wouldn't so there's that...
*We did try using the Rustoleum kit that's supposed to be made for this purpose but it was messy and expensive, to do the entire garage would have cost us over $100 where as the concrete patch was around $30 but the Rustoleum can be sanded with a regular sander and wouldn't have shown through under the epoxy so it would've been easier.*
Moving on.
Now, you can start with the kit. The first step is to rinse the concrete REALLY well, you want all the dust gone.
then you mix the concrete etch into water according to the directions [we used a watering can to make it easier] and you'll want to scrub the floors really well with this mixture. You'll hear it sizzling on the floor.
Rinse, rinse, rinse. You want all the etch off the concrete.
Push all the excess water out with a squeegee if you have one if not just use a clean broom. We did this a while back when we first moved in so we didn't feel it was necessary to do it again.
Wait until the concrete is completely dry before moving on.
Mix the paint according to the instructions. Start by painting the outside edges. Work in small sections.
Next, you'll want to pour the paint into a pan and use a roller. Again, work in small sections and throw down the chips as soon as you finish painting a section so they stick well. Don't try o do the whole floor at once before throwing down the chips because they will not stick.
*Zack and I have a bunch of stuff in the garage so when he did this project [I was out of town] he moved everything to one side of the garage and did that side, waited 3 days then moved everything to the painted side and did the other side. The only issue with doing this was when we overlapped a little on the edges, now that its dry the areas that overlapped are more shiny than the areas with one coat. [We aren't too concerned because Zack wants to add a shiny clear coat someday down the line but for
you I would recommend you do it all at once and avoid overlapping.] *
We waited 3 days before putting things back on it and 5 days before we drove on it.
We are okay with how they came out but honestly wouldn't use this product again. It says its an easy one coat application for a shiny show room quality floor but that's a lie. Its more of a matte finish and will show EVERY LITTLE imperfection through it. Next time we will look harder into the product before we use it. However, looking on the bright side, it doesn't look TOO bad. Check out our before and after.
---Jackie
