The Complete Guide to Epoxy Floors For a Garage and What You Need to Know
Introduction: the Benefits of an Epoxy Flooring in Your Garage
An epoxy floor for your garage will not only beautify the space.
Making is useable and easy to clean
It also will make your garage floor and concrete protected from the elements such as ice and snow.
Using an epoxy coating you can add flakes to create an almost limitless design.
Epoxy is very durable, easy to clean, anti-microbial, making your garage one that now can be used for almost any purpose.
Clients have used their garage spaced after epoxy was installed as a work area, man cave, family room, play area and cigar lounge to just name a few ideas.
Pre-work you need to do before installing your new epoxy floor
Preparing your floor for an epoxy floor
Preparing your floor takes an expert in concrete coatings.
Without the proper preparation, epoxy can fail, peel off, crack and more.
Proper prep generally is cleaning and degreasing the floor.
If their is an existing epoxy floor installed in most cases it will be removed by diamond grinding the concrete.
This is to remove the coating and make the concrete floor a little rough for the application of your new epoxy floor.
Once grinded, patching will occur if requested or needed, hairline cracks, divots and rougher surfaces will be patched. using a special patching material that can be grinded almost right away.
After patching, the floor patches will be grinded smooth and now it is time for the real work to begin.
Areas where epoxy will not be applied will be covered and protected.
After that it is time to mix the epoxy , epoxy usually comes in a two part mix.
The proper time and speed of mixing is important to reduce any bubbles that may occur in the coating.
It still may happen but they are easily corrected the next day.
Another way to reduce bubbles is to spray the floor with alcohol or use a special spiked roller.
Once the epoxy is mixed the correct time , it will be applied by pouring it out of the bucket, it is imperative to get it out of the bucket as soon as possible.
When epoxy is left in a bucket it will cure a lot faster than when poured out on the floor.
Once poured out an epoxy floor installer will typically use a squeegee to spread the material out while another person back rolls it to evenly spread out the epoxy.
Once rolled out evenly, they will throw flakes into the epoxy in either a random, partial manner or a full flake floor.
Full flake means you will not see any epoxy color, only the flake.
A partial flake epoxy floor means you will see the epoxy, with flake “peppered” around the floor
Some also opt for a solid epoxy color without flake.
Once your epoxy is applied and flake added, they floor needs to cure, this can be between 4-24 hours.
After this time a durable clear protective coating is added.
Once this is rolled on, you can typically go back on your garage floor in 24 hours.
How much is an epoxy garage floor
The cost of an epoxy floor can vary greatly
This is due to the amount of prep needed, how much patching and grinding
Also the cost of materials are always rising it seems.
To have a durable , long lasting floor you want to use high quality epoxy products.
These typically will not be available at your local paint store and available only to contractors.
Your basic epoxy floor with only a solid color can start at $1800m for a two car garage and go up from there depending on the prep needed and amount of floor space to be coated.
A two car flaked floor can start around $2500 and go up to $7500 or more depending on the size of the project.
As you can see, when getting pricing for your potential epoxy floor, price is not the sole factor.
An experienced crew who has the years of training, knows what to do when something goes wrong and can prescribe the right application for your floor is most important.
Some benefits of having an epoxied concrete surface in your garage.
Super easy to clean, for most garage floors a leaf blower will work.
Clean up road salt asap, grease and other chemicals should be wiped off and not let to sit.
Any other dirt can easily be cleaned with a mop and dish detergent.
No heavy chemicals will be needed.
As long as you maintain your clear top coat, your floor will last for years to come.
Conclusion
In conclusion, epoxy can be a great choice for your garage when installed by professionals using top quality epoxy
