Treat Your Garage Floor With An Epoxy Coating
One of the best things you can do to improve the value of your garage is to apply a good quality garage floor coating. This makes the whole garage look better and it is also adds the safety feature of improved traction. An epoxy coating is easy to apply if you follow these simple steps.
For the prep work, the first thing you should do is take out everything inside the garage, sweep out all dirt and wash the floor. Scrub the floor with water and detergent. You can use a stiff floor broom for scrubbing because it can bear down pressure. Once the floor is clean, do a water bead test. You should spray a film of water on the entire floor area of the garage and wait to see what will happen. If water beads show up in particular areas, it means that there are oil stains at these areas. You should remove these stains by using a good quality degreaser so that the epoxy will have a good and totally clean surface for the bonding process. After you are done degreasing, rinse the floor again and perform another water bead test and check if the water soaks in the concrete floor. If it does, you can now proceed to the next step. If not, you will have to repeat the steps for removing oil stains.
If you realize that the whole floor is beading but it already appears clean, it is highly probable that your surface is coated with clear coat. You should clean the floor then with the help of a weak muriatic acid solution to etch the surface and make sure that it is ready for better bonding with epoxy. Although the solution is weak, you should still avoid your plants and animals from having contact with it when you rinse it off the garage.
After you are done with the prep work of the garage floor, you should let it completely dry. It will help you to have a heater running the whole night in the garage so that the floor dries faster. Do not expect that a garage floor coating will bond successfully if the floor is not absolutely clean and dry.
On the next day just follow the directions on the can for mixing and spreading the coating. I have learned to only mix enough for about a 6 foot by 6 foot area at a time so that I have time to work with the mixture before it starts to cure.
Tags: Tags: garage floor, garage floor coating, garage floor treatments
