DP

Epoxy floor improves the appearance of your garage. Also, if you spill any oil, grease, or other common materials that are in garages, they just wipe up. Maintenance is non existent once your epoxy the floor.

Have you had any problems with hot tires ripping up the epoxy flooring? Seems like that was my parents biggest gripe. I want to do my garage and love the look, just worry about it peeling up.

Make sure you have a vapor barrier under your garage slab or don't bother with a coating.

Thanks for the reply.

Aggietaco said:

---

Make sure you have a vapor barrier under your garage slab or don't bother with a coating.

---

Elaborate please.

I think aggietaco is referring to the fact that moisture retained in the slab will never allow the coating to adhere or cure correctly. I've heard this as well.

I see...well then the obvious next question, assuming I wanted to epoxy my garage, is what would be a suitable moisture barrier?

That I do not know. Hopefully one of the experts on here will weigh in

I mounted a shelving high - like above head level in front of workbench and along one side wall. The idea is only tools & yard stuff needs to be in garage. Everything else goes in attic space - which we are blessed with.

I wanted the ability to park my truck inside if necessary, but now I can't do that with the workbench & gun safe on the front wall. Oh well. I'd really like to stick it to these homebuilders who keep building tinyass garages that can't fit modern 1/2 ton trucks.

Wife's car is to the right. Middle bay is riding mower and bikes, left bay is about 2' longer and fits my truck with 5' to spare.

This rack is awesome. Full power rack with squat, bench, pull ups, etc and it folds up to 3" off the wall


Shop is a disaster. Currently working on an 8x10 shed in the backyard. Power washer, generator, mowers, spare lumber, anything that fits is going out there.

Would like to turn this side of the shop into a motorcycle repair station. A bike lift would be super handy.

Aggietaco said:

---

Make sure you have a vapor barrier under your garage slab or don't bother with a coating.

---

Slight correction - make sure your slab moisture level is within tolerances of the epoxy manufacturer prior to coating, or don't bother coating.

Biggest failure for epoxy coating is too high of a moisture content in the slab, which inhibits bonding of the epoxy to the concrete surface, which promotes failure points. You get the substrate clean, etched and dry and the epoxy is going to bond to it.

That has been my experience so far. My wife's car was leaking a little transmission fluid, I got it fixed, and wiped the fluid up with a paper towel. It was that easy.

Wanted to bump this thread rather than start a new one.

We are moving into a new house in Dec, and were talking to a guy who does the polyurethane garage floor coatings, and he was saying how its much better than epoxy.

Obviously he's gonna push his product, but a lot of the stuff I'm seeing online seems to agree with what he said.

Anybody have any experience with it?

The way I understand it is that there's specific instances where one may perform, better than other and vice versa. In a new home, I wouldn't have any reservation going with poly or epoxy (I have epoxy). In an older home with cracks, etc., I'd choose epoxy.

If the guy does good work with his product, I don't think you can go wrong.

Really interested in this ... I have a 40 year old home in Katy with a detached garage. It has a few cracks, but nothing substantial. More of an eye sore than anything else.

I was just starting to look into putting down an epoxy when I saw this thread. I'm now worried about the moisture as it sits in one of the lowest parts of the yard. Typically rain collects and pools directly behind the building by at least an inch or two. Should I just stain the concrete instead?

Also - I'm looking to do this completely DIY.

I'd do some research on the amount of moisture that you can get by with.

I'd highly recommend filling those cracks after doing your prep and letting that cure before you put down the final finish, otherwise, the final finish will soak into them and you'll still be able to see them prominently.

It's definitely not a single weekend project due to the amount of time for the prep work, drying and crack filling. Also, buy at least double to triple of the final product you'll need (trust me on this). You can always take back what you don't need, but if you're stuck needing more, you're kinda screwed, especially if you're using confetti.

Thanks for the heads up. Unfortunately, it seems as if all of my projects around the house end up taking more than one weekend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since this is a garage thread, I'll go ahead and start including pictures as I go along.

As mentioned in a previous post, we purchased this home a few months ago. It's 40 years old and got hit by Harvey bad. It backs up to Buffalo Bayou, but allows us to have an acre of land in the heart of South Katy. My boys love it, so I'll just have to deal with potential flood threats and make the best of it. At the end of the day, no mater what happens to the house, I'm blessed to live in a country and state that can bounce back from these type of natural disasters.

Back to the garage ... My end goal isn't to build this out to anything super nice. It's an old garage that had 4.5' of water in it at one point, a little unlevel, and has fire damage from the previous owners. I'm going to upgrade here and there, but I'm currently saving for a complete knockdown and rebuild of a much bigger setup maybe next fall.

It took me about four (4) days last month to really clean out the garage. I pulled all the junk out and pressured washed EVERYTHING inside. I bought gloves, masks, and even a set of eye wear to protect my face from all the dirt, feces (attic space), and debris left over from the flood. It was an absolute disaster, but it's now light years ahead of where it was a few months ago.

Here's a picture of it after it was cleaned, as I prepped for a potential flood event in early September.


Since then I've removed the old fluorescent lamps and replaced with seven (7) 100w LED bulbs, while also re-wiring the whole garage from surplus materials. I've also included a new squat rack and bench set up with more along the way. Even had some left over time to include two (2) can-free LED lights to the exterior of the garage which REALLY helps at night.


My next project was to address the flooring, and that's where this thread comes into play. My original thought and preference is epoxy, but I'm now considering a stain or something a little cheaper.

Check out this thread. A fellow Ag has a business that does this work (Epoxy Solutions):

https://texags.com/forums/25/topics/2619276/replies/42820117