Garage Floor Preparation

The importance of having a clean, well prepared surface before applying an epoxy resin flake floor coating system is crucial. If a substrate is left unprepared, hot tire pick-up and peeling can become a common problem. The concrete surface must be free of dust, dirt, oil, grease, drywall mud/texture, paints, glues, sealers, curing agents, stamp tool releases, efflorescence, chemical contaminants, rust, algae, mildew, and other foreign matter that may prevent proper adhesion and the coating will not be able to penetrate the pores of the concrete.

Directions

NOTE: Painted concrete floors or any type of coating MUST have it completely removed and be mechanically ground clean in order to accept the epoxy flake floor system!

Clean the Floor: Thoroughly clean (sweep and vacuum) the concrete garage floor. Clean the floor with our Concrete Cleaner Degreaser & Etcher. Be sure to wash all residue away and let dry overnight.

Fill Cracks and Holes: Cracks, holes and hairline cracks should be opened up with an angle grinder about 1/8" deep and all holes should be filled in with our Concrete Floor Crack and Patch Filler Paste. Cures after 8 hours and is ready to grind level. Do this before grinding the entire floor.

Floor Resurfacing: The first priority for every job involving concrete should be to strip off whatever coating was there previously and eliminate all stains by mechanical means. By grinding any contaminants off the surface and providing a scratch or tooth to the surface, this is your insurance policy for a good epoxy bond to the substrate. 

TIP: A simple rule of thumb to test if your concrete surface is capable of an epoxy coating, is to drip a drop of water onto it. Do this in multpile areas around the room. If the water absorbs into the concrete, so will our water-based floor epoxy.

For a proper bond, the surface of concrete must be opened up or roughed up to feel like 80 – 180 grit sandpaper. Resurfacing the floor can be accomplished with a walk-behind or handheld concrete floor grinder with a 7-inch diamond cup wheel – easily rented at a local hardware store. Self-leveling concrete may be needed to level low spots. This resurfacing profile is best accomplished through diamond grinding or shot blasting.

ALWAYS WEAR APPROPRIATE PPE!

Hand-held Angle Grinder: A small angle grinder and diamond cup wheel works well for grinding flush any garage floor patchwork or crack repairs, as well as grinding the areas and edges near the wall. 

A dust shroud for the angle grinder is highly recommended as the small grinder will create a decent dust storm. It will need to be attached to a shop vacuum as well. Concrete dust is very fine and will clog up the filtration system of a standard shop vacuum fairly quickly, requiring frequent stops to clean them out.

Although working with a hand-held grinder to resurface the entire garage floor can be tedious, it can save you money verses renting larger commercial equipment. Make sure to work all the way up against the walls of the garage floor.

Commercial Walk-Behind Floor Grinder: A commercial sized grinder will make fast work of grinding any concrete floor. If you have high spots to take down, multiple concrete repairs that need to be ground flush, broom finished concrete, or some other type of rough surface, then a heavier duty grinder will need to be used. Make sure to work the machine all the way up against the walls of the garage floor.

Commercial grade grinders are fairly common and can be found at many Home Depot, Lowes, hardware stores as well as equipment rental centers. These grinders can be plugged into a standard 110V outlet and have a vacuum attachment to keep down the dust. The rental costs vary from $150 – $175 per day. Be sure to check if there is an additional charge for the 10” diamond disc.

Control Joints: Control Joints made during the installation of the original concrete floor need special attention. Control joints should be cleaned out from dirt and debris as well as chipped edges patched with our crack filler. Repaired edges should be ground straight in-line with the control joint using an angle grinder for joint width uniformity.

Epoxy floor installation allows for the base-coat epoxy, color flake chips, and clear coating to flow over the edges of the control joint - and possibly into the bottom of the joint. How neatly this is done is dependent upon the actual joint and the installer.

Once the flakes have been broadcasted and cured, the control joint should be cleaned and over laying flakes removed. Use a floor scraper or putty knife to cut into the joint and cleanly remove flakes over the joint. Once all excess flakes have been removed, the garage flake floor top-coat can be applied.

READ MORE ABOUT CONTROL JOINTS HERE:

For a completely smooth concrete floor, whereas the control joints are to be hidden, we do not recommend it. However, filling and leveling the control joint with our 100% solids Crack Filler will create a smooth surface over the control joint.

Garage Door Round Over: Where the garage door comes down to the floor where the garage floor meets the driveway, typically there is a round over. This round over needs ground as well and cleaned up to accept the epoxy. Use painters' tape to mask off the driveway concrete when applying epoxy and flakes. 

Clean Up: Make sure to vacuum the entire floor with a good shop vac thoroughly after grinding. You should be able to run your fingers over the concrete without the finger tips getting very white. One tip is to wipe the surface down with denatured alcohol or acetone on a microfiber pad if you think there may be too much dust.

TIP: Once your floor is clean, treat it as a “clean room”. Keep away dirty or greasy power cords, dirty shoes, or anything else that is potentially dirty that may contact and contaminate the floor. Any small amount of greasy or oily contaminants can create “fish eyes” in the coating.

How much moisture does your concrete have? This is an important question that needs to be addressed before you decide to apply epoxy or to your garage floor.

How to test for moisture: The easiest way to determine if you have moisture that transmits through your concrete is to simply cut a 2 ft. x 2 ft. piece of plastic sheeting (a thick garbage bag) and taping down the perimeter with duct tape to the surface of your garage floor. You may want to do this in a few areas around the garage.

After letting it sit for 24 hours, pull up the plastic sheet and look for any condensation on the underside of the plastic or look for a dark spot on the surface of the concrete. Water on the underside of the plastic or a dark spot on the concrete is created from moisture. If no moisture exists, then you should be fine to apply your flake floor epoxy kit.

If you do have moisture then you will want to do a calcium chloride test to see how much moisture you have.

A calcium chloride test is used to determine exactly how much moisture you have emitting from your concrete. This is done by placing a pre-weighed petri dish of calcium chloride on the slab an then covering it with a sealed plastic container. After a predetermined amount of time, you remove the petri dish and re-weigh it. Once you determine the weight difference, you generally can enter the results on the manufacture’s website or look it up in an included pamphlet.

Calcium chloride moisture test kits can easily be found on Amazon. You will also need to purchase an inexpensive digital gram scale if you do not already have one. You can find them on Amazon as well.

As long as your results are less than 12 lbs of moisture flow per 1000 square feet per 24 hours, then you will be safe to apply your garage floor flake epoxy kit.

If your results show moisture above 12 lbs. per 1000 sq. ft. or multiple spots, then you will need to consider applying our Concrete Floor Moisture/Vapor Barrier sold sperately here. 

Note: these observations and measurements may be inherently flawed as they are “snapshots in time”. These tests serve only as guidelines.

One important factor you need to be aware of is that a moisture test many times is only indicative of the current conditions. In other words, you may not have any moisture at all if you are testing during a period when there has been little rain in your area of the country. It is best to test during the wetter part of the year when possible moisture issues would be most prevalent.

Of course, if your concrete slab is above grade, doesn’t show any signs of moisture, and you live in a fairly arid part of the country, then doing a moisture test is most likely not necessary.

Just remember, of all the things that need to be considered before you decide on an epoxy coating for your garage, determining if you have a moisture issue is the first step. It’s easy and fairly quick to do and can save you from the disappointment and anguish of a failed floor coating.

Concrete Moisture/Vapor Barrier: Now if needed due to moisture, you can seal it to protect from vapors and moisture which may leech out of the ground under your garage concrete. 

If a moisture barrier is needed, apply our Moisture Barrier & Vapor Blocker prior to the epoxy base-coat. Pour moisture vapor barrier onto the floor in 4”-6” wide ribbons running perpendicular across the floor. Roll out the product with a 1⁄4” nap 18” paint roller across the entire floor. Allow material to harden +/- 16hrs but not more than 24hrs prior to applying the water-based epoxy.

Coatings such as epoxy are impermeable and do not breathe, water vapor and moisture can’t pass through the coating. A concrete moisture vapor barrier blocker helps stop “bubbling” due to gasses or moisture escaping from the concrete surfaces, slow vapor transmission, and protect garage concrete flake floors. The build up of this moisture under the epoxy coating can cause it to peel or delaminate.

Muriatic Acid Etching: We do not recommend muriatic acid etching as this method does not guaranty a deep enough tooth for the epoxy to bond to. It may be inexpensive but it is a dangerous chemical that can damage almost anything it comes in contact with. It will eat through clothes, metal, skin, and creates a noxious vapor that can cause surrounding metals to rust as well as burn the lining in your nose and lungs.

In fact, contrary to what many people think, acid will not clean grease and oil spots. If these areas have not been cleaned and degreased properly, the acid solution will just sit on top and not react with the concrete.

We suggest cleaning, degreasing and etching with our Concrete Cleaner Degreaser & Etcher located at this link. 

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