Epoxy Floors in the New Hill Garage

Posted by newhillgarage ⋅ July 27, 2015

So about 1 1/2 years ago (~2013), I treated myself and the floors in the New Hill Garage to an epoxy coating. This past weekend I did a wash job on the floor, which got me to thinking about these floors. Here are some random thoughts:

I decided at the time to not use the colored sprinkles on the floor. My thought was that I would get better light reflection from my array of overhead T4 fixtures. This was true. The room is very well lit and the floor helps in this regard.
That said, the pure white floor shows dirt pretty quickly. In contrast, the floor in the basement of my house is done in epoxy with the sprinkles. It has to be rather filthy before the dirt becomes objectionable.
If I had to do it again, I would go with the sprinkles! I think they also make it slightly less slippery when wet, although that hasn’t been a problem for me.
Durability- the floor has been very durable. I’m sorry, I don’t have the exact product that was laid down but it was a 2 part epoxy. I think surface prep is a key to durability. My contractor and I spent a lot of time (~8 hours) with a diamond blade concrete rotary grinder getting the surface down to raw concrete. I had previously applied a “sealer”, which “sucked”. Every time gasoline hit it is turned to goo. We partially ground down the top layer and tried the epoxy. It looked awful. So we ground down until the was no trace of the previous sealer. And of course, this also got rid of any grease or oil. Only a pure concrete surface would suffice for me. And with this prep, the durability of the epoxy has been excellent. It does stain and dropped paint will adhere. But no chipping or lifting from hot tires.
So we are left with the fact that it gets looking rather dirty due to day to day use but it will clean up very well. I use Dawn dishwashing detergent in general and a little Purple Stuff for the tough spots, along with a rotary brush machine.
Rinse with a hose. Then use a large pole mounted squeegee as the last step. This moves the remaining water and dirt off the floor and is an important step.