I'm creating a workshop in my garage and need to address the dust coming from the concrete garage floor. The floor is five years old, never sealed before and is relatively clean. There are no major stains on the floor but I'm sure there are spots, even if not visable to the eye, where there is automobile oil and grease, road salt and dirt, blood and animal fat/grease. Does anyone have experience sealing a concrete floor and what product(s) do you suggest. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Return to Beginners Category Menu
There are specific selaers designed for conrete that you can use. It's a good idea to acid etch the floor first. All these things can be found at Home Depot. There is a sealer/stain put out by Behr and can be found at Home Depot, that is kinda like paint and can be tinted to whatever colour you like. Good for covering stains once they are properly prepared. I find that you have to recoat it more often than some other products tho - so there is a trade off. I add some white silica sand added to clear sealer for traction. You can also add powderred concrete pigment to the clear stuff if you want a solid colour to cover stains. The good hard clear stuff stinks - a LOT.. but holds up well. Just be ready to laave the house the day ya do it.
I did my garage studio the above way - My basement studio I tiled. Use self levelling concrete to fill any low areas then use tile adhesive and 12 inch tiles. I even put a cool pattern in the floor. I used composite tiles - about a dollar each US and can be cut with a stout knife - no tile cutters needed as for ceramic tiles. Avoid peel n stick tiles - they shift really easy especially with temperature changes. There are some thicker peel n sticks that you can use tile adhesive on tho - those seem to be ok and have cooler patterns and styles than composite tiles.
Spend a couple of hours at a Home Depot and you'll find tonnes of ideas =)
Could do like i do and watch the DIY channel. lol,lol, just messin.
A buddy of mine, saw this on tv, its a urethane maybe acrylic floor covering, you buy as a kit. You can get about any color you want, can even put vinyal flecks in it. Cost about $150 for a standard 10X20 garage. Guarented not to crack or peal. His floor look great.
Battery acid will not eat it either.
Home Depot or Lowes probely carries it.
Comes with roller, brushes everything.
I did some stuff with urethane coating not long ago and man oh man - the stuff is full of chemicals so be sure to wear a respirator - but WOW it's tough as nails! Once it cured we tested it by scratching a key hard against the surface... the paint remained unscratched but the coating on the key was rubbing off onto the paint! Yup - the urethane paint was tougher than than the metal plating on the key!
As long as ya prep the floor properly so it gets a good bond - I can see how that stuff would be incredible as a floor covering! Never even thought about that before - good one John!
Do you have any more information on this kit? I could not find it through google or at Lowes/Home Depot websites. Just doing my homework before venturing out. It's a half days trip to Lowes/Home Depot and I usually try to be prepared to buy, not just shop when I have to go that far. Any additional information would be helpful. Thank you.
http://image2000.com/
Look up 'coatings' in your yellow pages. Do a web search for 'urethane paint' to and that may yield some results for you. Short of that - look up fibreglass suppliers in the yellow pages (or contact a hottub or boat builder and they may be able to hook you up) and ask that supplier if they also carry urethane paints or coatings.
The stuff I used comes in the base component which is the emulsion. It has a reducer to thin it and also works as a solvent. It has a flatenning agent you may add as the base component is by default glossy. Then you add your chosen pigment.
Found a cool page on this topic... http://www.florock.net/products/cru.html
John - assuming you know where to get the kit (probably easier to use) do they have a website we could check out?
Ya must have been puttin that up at the same time I was writing my post.. sorry...
Found the site.