Epoxy Floor Maintenance

Homeowners greatly appreciate the look of their epoxy floor and consider it a valued addition to their home rather than having a dirty, cracked and gray floor to come home to each day.

Realtors regularly mention "epoxy garage floor" in their listings right alongside of the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. An epoxy floor adds appeal and value to the equity in your home.

Maintaining the "like-new" look of your garage floor for many years is probably less difficult than vacuuming your carpets in your home.

Assuming that your epoxy floor has a clear sealer on it, you can clean up spills and drips from the car by just wiping them off with a paper towel or rag. If the spot was particularly oily, use a brush and some water with a little Dawn or Palmolive dish washing detergent and rinse it off. That will remove any oily residue.

If your epoxy floor has no sealer, oil or auto fluid stains may permanently discolor the surface. Be sure to wipe the spiills up up immediately. If you do have some old stains, select a degreaser that is orange oil based. The orange oil will emulsify the old oily residue and the powder in it will suck the oily residue to the surface within a day. Then all you have to do is sweep off the dirty powder.

These orange oil based products are the most eco-friendly type, will not harm your floor or your body and are your best bet to remove the stain. (Just make sure that the product is not designated as a 'paint/urethane/epoxy remover'. Most of these harsh removal products contain an extremely aggressive solvent called Methylene Chloride which WILL harm your epoxy floor. Read the label and avoid them.)

If this recommended cleaning process does not work well, click on: Repairing an epoxy garage floor.

The sealed non-porous surface leaves little for dirt to stick to. Just sweep it down with a broom, mop it or wash it off with your garden hose. You will be surprised at how much easier and faster it is to clean than the old bare concrete surface.

If a puddle of dirty water dried on the floor, you may need to brush it with a little Simple Green, Dawn, Palmolive or any liquid dish washing detergent and water and then rinse.

These whitish stains can usually be removed with common household white vinegar. (It costs about $3/gallon at your local grocery store.) Apply the vinegar and give it several minutes to work. Brushing with a stiff brush will help the vinegar work better and faster.

If the vinegar doesn't remove the stain, use a diluted Calcium/Lime/Rust remover product. You can find several different brands at your grocery or hardware store, usually in the cleaning products section. (One brand is "CLR".) Follow the manufacturer's instructions.

Rinse the cleaners off thoroughly with water and allow the surface to dry before inspecting the result.

Vinegar or these CLR removal products will not hurt your sealed epoxy floor. If your floor was not sealed, test a small inconspicuous area first and let it dry to see if there were any adverse effects.

Virtually no household chemical or automotive fluid will harm a properly sealed epoxy floor. Clorox, Windex, battery acid, Draino, gasoline, oil, radiator fluid, brake fluid, ammonia or just about anything else won't hurt it.

Just wipe up the spill with a rag or paper towel. The surface will not be harmed.

If your floor wasn't sealed, many household chemicals and auto chemicals will create a stain or eat into the epoxy surface. Make sure that you clean them off ASAP with lots of detergent and water.

Your epoxy garage floor may eventually acquire a few black tire marks. These are also easy to clean. Using a stiff bristle brush, scrub the marks with a 5 or 10 to 1 solution of Simple Green or other citrus cleaner with a stiff brush and rinse. The marks should come out quickly and easily.

As with other types of stains, tire marks will be more difficult to remove if your epoxy floor has not been sealed with a clear sealer.

Depending on how it was installed, an epoxy floor might be a bit slippery when wet.

A 100% broadcast of 1/4" or larger decorative chips will normally provide an adequate slip-resistant surface. Additives can be incorporated in the sealer to create a more sandpaper-like texture which will enhance wet traction. However, the additional texture will make the surface somewhat harder to clean. It is a trade-off.

Do not use any cleaner or paint stripper that contains Methylene Chloride (read the label). This is a very harsh solvent that is used almost exclusively in products designed specifically to remove epoxies and urethanes. This chemical will harm your floor. It is not something that you would normally think to use to clean your floor or even have in your home.

This is about the only chemical that will damage a properly sealed epoxy floor.

A clear resin sealer applied during the installation of your epoxy floor is by far the best way to go to ensure maximum durability and clean-ability.

If your floor didn't include a sealer and you don't want to invest in one, here is Plan B:

1.) Clean the floor thoroughly with a stiff brush and Simple Green or some other mild cleaner.
2.) Rinse completely and allow to dry or blow dry with a leaf blower.
3.) Put down a coat of an acrylic floor wax. Several brands are available at your grocery or hardware store. MAKE SURE that the product says that it is non-yellowing (hopefully that means UV resistant) AND that it gives you an easy way to strip it off. Most of the acrylic floor waxes specify using a diluted ammonia solution with a stiff brush and rinsing for their removal. (It may take more than one pass.)

These acrylic waxes are a second best solution to protecting your epoxy floor but they will need to be stripped and renewed every year or two or as needed.

We recommend 3750 Gloss Floor Wax from www.garagecoatings.com. Use the search box at that site to search for "3750 Gloss Floor Wax".

California Concrete Restoration, Inc.
Laguna Hills, CA
(949) 939-4088
Click here to email us at: calconcrete@cox.net

If you need on-site assistance and are outside our normal operating area of Orange County, CA., email us with your contact information and what you want to accomplish. We should be able to get you get in touch with a local professional who can help solve your problem.

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