blog.bharper: the blog of brandon harper

I finally finished another project at the house– the painting of the garage is finally done! I was starting to wonder if I’d get it finished before it started snowing, and it looks like I’ve finished well ahead of that. Its still a mess though– I need a lot more shelving and general organization stuff, but I’ll purchase that as budget allows. Anyhow, I’ve gotten quite a few questions about how/what I used for the floor, so I decided to write a short post/FAQ about it.

Preface

Doing this is quite a time consuming process, because it takes a lot of steps, and things take a long time to dry. Although the epoxy is dry to the touch within an hour or two, it takes 7 days for the epoxy to dry, so be prepared for that. I think the results are worth it, though, if you can have at least 1/2 of your garage empty at a time. All prices listed are just estimates– if you’re on a tight budget, check the prices yourself before diving in.

My Estimated Total Cost (floor only.. including cement patching)

$220

Materials

All of these should be available at your local Home Depot unless otherwise noted. I have an oversized 2 car garage, and did the application in 3 different steps because I had stuff in the garage already, so your mileage may vary.

• 3 Gallons of Behr 1-Part Epoxy Acrylic Concrete & Garage Floor Paint ($22 per gallon)
• 2 Gallons of Behr No. 880 Concrete Bonding Primer ($16 per gallon)
• 1 Gallon of Behr No. 990 Concrete Cleaner & Degreaser ($8 per gallon)
• 1 Gallon of Behr No. 991 Concrete Etcher & Rust Remover($12 per gallon)
• 1 12″ Linzer Driveway & Deck Roller Set ($8.. the link shows a 9 inch set and not a 12 inch)
• 2 Linzer “Top Coater” Rollers per step ($6 each)
• 2 large paintbrushes ($6 each)
• 1 Metal Paint Tray ($6)
• 2 Paint Tray liners per step ($0.20)
• 1 pair of Heavy Duty Rubber gloves ($4)
• 1 Deck and Floor Brush ($12)
• 1 Plastic Bucket ($5)
• Cement Patch (optional). If you have any cracks (even hair line ones), you’ll want to patch them up before painting.
• A hose with a spray attachment
• Safety Goggles (if you don’t already have these, apparently you wouldn’t miss the ability of being able to see)
• A Wet/Dry Shopvac (par for the course as well– I suppose you only need one if you’re really anal like me)
• 1 garage broom & dustpan

Instructions

Please do not use only this guide as instructions for your project– I suggest reading through the Behr materials before attempting this. I’ve just added all of the little details that seemed to work well for me.

Surface Preperation

1. Using the broom, sweep out the garage
2. Use the Shopvac with a wide, flat attachment to vacuum the floor surface with
3. Use the blower part of the Shopvac with a small tapered attachment to blow out any other dirt which you didn’t pick up, especially in cracks
4. If you have any cracks in the cement, you’ll need to patch them up with the cement patch and allow them to dry for a few days before proceeding
5. Using the Degreaser, Floor Brush, hose, and bucket, prepare a bucket of degreaser, and scrub the garage floor with it. Rinse the garage and allow to dry. Using the blower part of the shopvac to blow out standing water accelerates the drying process
6. Once the garage has dried and you’ve cleaned up the bucket, prepare a bucket of the Etching & Rust Removal product– be sure to use the rubber gloves with this. Apply the product to the floor.. let it sit for 10 minutes or so, then go back and scrub it vigorously with the brush. Rinse the garage out and let dry.
7. Use the shop vac to repeat steps 1 and 2

Applying the Bonding Agent and Epoxy

1. Using the Bonding Primer, a Paint tray with a liner, and a paintbrush, paint around the edges of your garage, and inside of any cracks (cracks being whatever those lines put in for stress and expansion/contraction are called)
2. Apply the bonding primer with the roller
3. Allow the primer to dry for at least 24 hours, and try to avoid walking on it. It is clear when it dries, but its slightly adhesive and will pick-up dirt and whatever else your shoes are carrying.
4. Using the Garage Epoxy, repeat step 1 above
5. Repeat step 2 above, keeping in mind that the paint should be around 3/8″ thick when applying.
6. Wait for the paint to dry for an hour or two, then go repaint any areas that look too thin. If you don’t have non-stick shoes, I’d recommend waiting at least 3 hours (I use an old pair of Vans in the garage)
7. Allow to dry for 7 days in warm weather before putting anything on it, such as shelving, or parking on it. Foot traffic will be fine after a few hours though.
8. Enjoy!

Results

Here is a before and after picture, and here are the rest of the pictures of the process.

Overall, this stuff is a bit less stain resistant than I had hoped for, and my sticky motorcycle tires to seem to track a bit more than I’d like, but I’m still pretty happy with it thus far. The garage is currently under-lighted, so having a light colored surface has really helped. I haven’t done a ton of work on the new surface yet, but the temperature of the floor seems closer to room temperature, its much better on the skin than cement, and I can easily spot bolts when I drop them. We’ll have to see what I think about it long term I suppose.