Garage floor... to paint or not to paint

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discomania

Well-Known Member
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Right, I have been building a new garage over the summer, it is largely finished now, but I have yet to decide on what to do with the floor.

Now for my reasons against not painting it: At my business premises I have an area I sort of incorporated a garage into and installed a 2post - this floor area was always painted and I have just kept painting it but the issue is that I have to paint it every 6 months, it's an ongoing project and it only looks good for about 10 minutes! I don't really like painted floors, they just need cleaned and painted all the time!

So on my garage I wondered if I should just seal it, and let it get dirty and greasy and oily and just give it a sweep every now and again and that is that. My worry is that once I paint it that is me committed to a lifetime of painting garage floors. At my business it is OK as there is nothing there, just a floor space with a 2-post, you can paint the area in 20 minutes but the garage will have usual garage stuff in it and I don't want to have to gut it every 6 months/year.

I have looked at the epoxy coatings but I am not overly keen because it seems once that is down you need to use that again and again and it won't just take a normal floor paint so I could be stuck with a floor needing £200 of expoxy a year!

So thoughts on a postcard please, what have you done...
 
I am having a similar dilemma, my garage floor is concrete and no matter how often I sweep it there is always more dust to sweep like the concrete produces dust! I am tempted to go the epoxy route as I think it will last quite a long time in a domestic garage that only gets a day or two's use each week.

Interested to see what others advise.
 
i painted my workshop floor years ago it wore off quite quick so i just leave it as a concrete floor, its a garage floor it doesnt need anything else
 
Even a decent clear sealer will need redoing periodically. Some good epoxy/methacrylate coatings out there now, but they will look tired inevitably.

Used to use Vulkem Quickcoat sysyems on balconies and walkways. It was very hardwearing and suitable for heavy foot traffic. Sika's Sikadur range is very good for vehicular. Used this on car parks, it's resistant to loads of nasty stuff as well.

Lay a good quality epoxy and just jet wash it out now and again. You want a multiple coats of a 3 coat sysyem ideally, a primer, a colour then either a colour or clear topcoat. Don't cast any kiln dried sand into it for non slip, you'll never get dirt out. We found puddles would form more readily on the non slip stuff funnily enough and cause a slip hazard in winter on the balconies :confused:


If you prep properly and remove all the 'fat' (laitance) from the surface and vacuum it clean before application it won't wear half as quickly or lift.

But if your not going to be opening engines or gearboxes up in the garage it probably isn't worth the effort to keep the dust down
If you don't paint or seal the floor, invest in a shop vacuum to avoid stirring up dust when you sweep
 
Last edited:
windy81 said:
proper concrete sealing can be done professionally with stuff that requires the use of hefty safety gear. That stuff doesn't wear off.
many dolla however...
Click to expand...

It's the prep that diyers struggle with. Not many have access to concrete planers or trackblast shot blast machines or blast pots lol
 
jamesmartin said:
i painted my workshop floor years ago it wore off quite quick so i just leave it as a concrete floor, its a garage floor it doesn't need anything else
Click to expand...

Yeah, I am thinking this too... I would like to seal it though to reduce the ability of hydrocarbons to penetrate the concrete as these are damaging to concrete.

I think I need to buy a 20 litre drum of sealer!
 
Certainly, in my view, you need to do something to seal the concrete dust. When we did @top-cat s garage we didn't and within a month it was a mess and not nice to work in, constantly sweeping, dusty, awful to breathe .. until we made Tim go out when he farted .. ;)

If I were doing it again I'd use some form of built-in sealant in the concrete mix that inhibits dust .. it wouldn't be an option to just top-coat it 'cos I reckon the dust would simply break up anything on the surface in short notice.
 
Paul D said:
Certainly, in my view, you need to do something to seal the concrete dust. When we did @top-cat s garage we didn't and within a month it was a mess and not nice to work in, constantly sweeping, dusty, awful to breathe .. until we made Tim go out when he farted .. ;)

If I were doing it again I'd use some form of built-in sealant in the concrete mix that inhibits dust .. it wouldn't be an option to just top-coat it 'cos I reckon the dust would simply break up anything on the surface in short notice.
Click to expand...

The dust has been taken care of - Tarmac added some admixes - can't remember the names, the regional manager came out to see me and with my spec and his lists we put together concrete fit for a bunker! But it is still porous and it's the usable finish I need to choose now.

I think I will seal it up and leave it.
 
I wish I painted mine, it's fecking annoying dropping a freshly greased part onto the floor which then requires cleaning and re-greasing because of all the concrete **** attached to it.
 
Painted mine twice now, you can bet your life that when its finished and looking good you will drop something on it and chip the nice new surface.
This year we lifted the heavy cushion floor in our kitchen an I cut a big section of it for the garage it seems to work fine.
 
You think youve got problems. Mines tarmac :eek:

Everything I spill on it melts the ruddy thing :(

I cant even self level it with an epoxy coz it'll crack as the asphalt moves. :mad:
 
Did ours a few years ago with Joton 2 pack stuff. 1 coat of primer and 1 top coat. Don’t mix to much at once or don’t do it in the hieght of summer,
It’s held up really well and sweeps shiny clean in no time.
It doesn’t like having welding crap drop on it so need to cover when welding, also becarful if you do spill fluids on it cos it gets slippery.
It works great for me:)
 
Why is it that if you knock over a tin of paint on concrete it's there for all time, but if you paint a concrete floor it wears off ? I painted my garage floor about ten years ago with red floor paint from B&Q. It's still OK on the areas that I don't walk on and where stuff is stacked on it, but quite a bit has worn off nearest the door where it's been scuffed by the tyres of my Harley when I push it backwards into the garage. I have a piece of old carpet in front of my work bench to stand on for when the weather is cold as I have no heating in the garage. It also cushions the impact if I drop something breakable, or something that would clatter, however a load of dust has penetrated it and coated the floor underneath it. The paint there is still good though. The floor looked great after painting it, but when it dried and I put all my bits and pieces back in; I thought it had darkened the floor area a lot. I wish I had bought the light grey paint, but I will next time I paint it.
I had emptied the garage and swept, then vacuumed it before painting. Tried to evict a large spider that lived in the corner by the door but he dashed into a hole so I had to leave him. Next morning when I opened up to check if the paint had dried, I found him stuck to the floor but still alive. Luckily for him he had stood still and not laid down so I got my Stanley knife and carefully cut the paint under each of his eight legs and off he trotted looking as if he was wearing red patent shoes.
 
I think there's a world of difference between a commercial workshop where there are multiple people working on multiple jobs with heavy equipment, and a garage at home where it's just one person maintaining one vehicle. The castors on engine cranes and big tool cabinets give floor coverings quite a hammering in my experience. Much more so than car tyres or people's boots. I haven't got a garage floor to paint just now, but when I do I'll probably paint it. Less dust, less contamination on dropped components (and more chance you'll actually find them again) and with just me and the occasional friend it'll probably last quite well.
 
I’ve often wondered how a vinyl safety floor would hold up in a garage. The concrete would have to be perfectly flat but it holds up well for donkeys years in hospitals and behind the bar in your local.
It could be worth the cost if it lasted.

I think most paints fail because the first couple of coats should be thinned enough to go into the surface rather than sit on top of it.
By building it up from that it becomes part of the concrete rather than just a covering.
 
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