Epoxy Garage Floors

Properly coating a concrete floor for maximum durability and beauty has many more considerations than painting a wall, laying carpet in your living room, tile in your bathroom or vinyl flooring in your kitchen.

This web page and associated page links will assist you in understanding what you are dealing with and help point you to an appropriate solution.

Big box hardware chains like Home Depot, Lowe's, Menards or Sears will sell you an epoxy garage floor coating kit for a two car garage for about $99.

a.) There is NO warranty with these products other than returning the unopened product for a refund.

b.) The surface preparation product usually included is a mild citric acid which must be scrubbed in manually with a stiff brush and then washed off thoroughly. Acid washing will NOT remove previously applied curing agents, sealers, mastics or paints so the epoxy surface will peel off sooner or later.

Also there is no provision in the kit for oil stain removal or crack repair. (Not correcting these problems will lead to early peeling of the surface and ugly crack lines and holes remaining.)

c.) The epoxy density (a measure of its durability) with these kits is normally about 30-40% solids. The rest is water or solvents which evaporate during the application or drying process. The manufacturers dilute the density of the resins in the coating material to cut down on the costs of the $99 kit.

d.) Usually the only colors available in these kits are tan and gray.

e.) These kits only contain a small 2 lb. plastic baggie of 1/16" decorative chips for a 400 square foot 2-car garage. IF you can spread the chips evenly, that means only about 1 tiny chip every half inch or so.

f.) There is NO sealer supplied in the kit to protect the surface, seal down the decorative chips and provide a durable and high gloss finish. The store personnel usually can't even suggest an appropriate sealer product to use with these kits.

g.) When using these kits, the manufacturer usually recommends that you not drive on the surface for 5 - 7 days after application to avoid "hot tire pickup".

h.) If you do the job yourself with the kit, don't plan on the surface looking very good after a year or so.

a.) Most of the big box hardware stores can refer you to contractors who use the same basic homeowner-grade materials. They usually do include more decorative chips and some sort of sealer and charge about $3.25/square foot. You will also be charged extra for surface preparation, crack repair and coverage of the stem wall (the short concrete wall at the bottom of your garage walls). With the additions, your cost will be in the $4.00+ / square foot range. Their limited warranty is for no more than 1 to 3 years.

b.) These systems have the same prohibition of not driving on the floor for 5 - 7 days, like homeowner-applied big box store materials, since they use the same products.

a.) Professional installers carefully evaluate the surface of your garage floor. They may use degreasers to remove oil stains, soy-based products to remove old paint or carpet mastic and/or grind off the surface with a diamond grinding wheel to achieve maximum porosity. These techniques will allow the epoxy system to sink deeply into the concrete and adhere aggressively. (Professional installers have an incentive to take such care since they will be supplying you with a much longer warranty.)

b.) Cracks, holes and eroded areas of the concrete will be ground out with a diamond grinding wheel, filled with a 2-part epoxy "crack welding" system and ground smooth as soon as the epoxy is cured. This procedure will provide a secure and smooth floor surface.

c.) Professional installers use a 2-part epoxy binder which contain 95 - 100% solids. This epoxy is self-priming, grabs deeply down into the properly prepared surface and provides excellent adhesion and durability. Because of the higher solids content, it creates a much thicker and more durable coating than the watered down hardware store or department store kits.

d.) Commercial epoxy coatings usually come in 15-20 different colors. White, black, deep green, chocolate, mocha, light or dark tan, light or dark gray etc. If the installer applies a 100% coating of decorative chips you probably won't even see the underlying colored epoxy. It will just be a subtle background color. Its main function is to penetrate and seal the concrete surface and to provide a "glue" to hold down the decorative chips.

e.) Professional installers will normally apply about 50 pounds of ¼" or 1" decorative chips to a 2-car garage. This provides for a much richer granite-like look and makes the surface much easier to repair to its original appearance should something extra-ordinarily bad happen to the floor. Since the chip coverage is nearly 100%, any minor defects in the floor will disappear in the original installation and with any later needed repairs.

f.) Professional installers will coat the surface with any of several tough, easy-to-clean and glossy clear sealers. These are selected specifically for your garage situation and will comply with your local Air Quality Control District regulations which strictly limit harmful chemical vapor emissions. They will also be highly UV resistant so that your floor will not yellow or turn blush white from sun exposure.

g.) The professional materials will cure within 24 hours after installation of the sealer which will allow you to drive into your garage the next day. (No "hot tire pickup".) Full chemical resistance will develop in 5-7 days.

h.) You should expect a 7-10 year limited warranty from professional installers for your new garage floor. Your warranty should include protection from color loss, yellowing and peeling or flaking of the coatings. (The floor will probably last for the life time of your home.) Exclusions will be unexpected damage from earthquakes, tree roots and earth settling. (Your installer should have already corrected for water intrusion problems.)

Cracks in concrete can be repaired and sealed off prior to the installation of a decorative coating but they are not a Star Wars force field. Concrete will crack if the base was not compacted properly, if the original cement contractor did not put in rebar or metal reinforcing mesh, did not install steel tension cables or did not install tension-relief cuts or expansion joints every 10 feet in the slab.

Your garage floor may have a notice stamped into it indicating that it was 'post-tensioned' and to not cut or drill into the slab. This means that steel cables were placed in the slab when it was poured. After the slab cured, tension was placed on the cables to make them taut. This allows the slab to 'float' evenly under stress and to not flex. This method is perhaps the best protection against cracks but few builders do it because of the added cost.

Earth quakes, tree root invasion and soil settling will make additional cracks in the slab particularly if it wasn't properly reinforced originally.

Bottom line: The existing cracks in your garage floor can be patched and hidden. Future cracks may appear but a professional installer can quickly and easily fix those at a minimal cost and without the appearance of a patch.

a.) You could do it yourself with the $99 big box store kit but it takes some work and won't look very good after a year or so. When it starts looking bad you will have to rent a diamond wheel grinder with attached vacuum or hire a contractor to grind off the old peeling homeowner-grade epoxy and re-coat the floor yet again.

b.) Hire a big-box store contractor to install essentially the same inferior homeowner grade products at $3.25/square foot . . . plus upgrade costs for surface prep, stem walls, etc. Your costs from them can easily exceed $4.00/square foot. (You still get only a limited 1 to 3 year warranty.)

In either case, plan on not using the garage floor for 5 days after the installation.

Or (c.) you could . . .
Hire a professional installer who uses surface preparation techniques appropriate for your garage floor and uses professional-grade coating materials which have a far longer life and warranty. The professionally installed system will have a minimum 7-10 year warranty against peeling, color loss, yellowing or staining.

You should expect to pay about $3.25 to $3.50 per square foot for a long-lasting, professionally installed system: about $1295 - $1395 for typical 400 sq ft 2-car garage and about $1795 - $1895 for a typical 600 sq ft 3-car garage. That's a very small premium (if any) to pay for a floor that will look much richer and last far longer than the alternatives.

Plan on parking your car in your garage in 24 hours after the installation of the final sealer. There will be no "hot-tire pickup."

Since they have no sealer, homeowner applied systems tend to be difficult to clean and maintain.

Big box hardware contractor systems have a sealer which makes them easier to clean but their materials fail much earlier than professionally installed systems.

Professionally installed garage floor systems use a heavy-duty epoxy and sealer. They are virtually impervious to automotive fluids, household chemicals, the sun and abrasion. You can wipe up spills with a paper towel or an old rag. If there is any oily residue left, you can easily remove it with a liquid dish washing detergent like Dawn or Palmolive, a little water and a sponge.

If you are also thinking about adding cabinets to your garage, have the floor coating done first.

Most cabinets are placed about 4-6" above the floor and are usually 18" - 24" deep. It is difficult to uniformly coat your garage floor under the cabinets with such limited clearance.

Have the floor done first. The floor coverage will be much more even and the cabinet installers won't be able to hurt the new surface after a day or so.

California Concrete Restoration, Inc. provides installation of premium quality garage coatings in the Southern California area. Call or email us for an appointment for a free estimate. If you are in another area, contact us to give you a reference to a local professional installer in your area.

We also do pressure washing, sealing of brick, stone and decking plus cement overlays to make old, gray driveways, walkways and patios look like stone, brick, flagstone or a custom surface.

California Concrete Restoration, Inc.
Laguna Hills, CA
calconcrete@cox.net
Phone: (949) 939-4088

Note: We are also retained by Versatile Building Products to train their new installers on the proper techniques to install epoxy garage floors.