Moving into a new house in a few weeks and decided id like the garage floor to be epoxied and want to do it myself. Anyone else completed the task on their own?

I researched a few products last night and couldn't really tell the difference and not sure which route to go. Any help is appreciated!

I can tell you the Behr gray doesn't stick even cleaning the concrete with acid. The heat of the tires coming in hot melts the epoxy. It does look good elsewhere. I've placed small pieces of plywood where the tires sit now

Where are you located, I had a guy in DFW do mine for $1400 for polysparic and didnt acid wash, he actually ground the floor.

I'm a little south of Tyler

I highly tecommend paying to have it done - they will use better products, have more color and texture selections and do a better job than you will.

Sunflower Coatings is a great contractor. Did my barn and they did an absolutely awesome job.

They used a polyaspartic coating instead of epoxy. Better product for reaidential than epoxy, more flexible and durable andd less affected by UV.

From what I've heard, the prep work is what matters and is also a royal pain in the butt.

Probably one of the few jobs that really doesn't pay off to DIY

Can confirm. Did my last house with the kit from Home Depot. I did the acid wash and followed directions. Had some spots eventually bubble up and some other spots scraped off.

Moved into my current house in 2020 and paid a local business that does it. He charged $2.80/sqft, worked out to $1100 or $1300. Anyway, they came in the day before with a diamond bit pneumatic thing and really roughed up the concrete, then they pressure washed it.

Next day was application, that had to cure overnight. Then they did the clear coat.

Way better than the DIY stuff.

Be careful though, prices are all over. I had two companies quote over $5.50/ft

We just moved into a new house in March and the week before we moved in we did the garage floor ourselves using the Rustoleum Rock Solid Polycuramine kit. https://www.amazon.com/Rust-Oleum-293513-Polycuramine-Garage-Floor/dp/B06XJ17JVD

My wife and I pressure washed the floor and then did the etch on a Saturday, let it dry overnight and put down the coating on Sunday afternoon. We have been very happy with it so far and it is very durable. It wasn't hard at all to put down and cleanup is easy when you just throw the roller head they give you away when you are done. It was probably 3-4 hours tops split over two days and was fully hard in about 36 hours.

We just did my father in laws new storage building floor with the same stuff over the weekend and his turned out very well too.

You, or your contractor, MUST grind the floor. If you don't, don't even bother. The acid wash is barely more than power washing. Then, the product is very important. The company I've referenced below (or a similar one) is who you want to get your products from. Buying them from HD, or even Sherwin Williams, is a recipe for having your floor last from between weeks and a couple of years at most.

https://www.youtube.com/@ConcreteFloorSolutions

Watch the company's videos. You might be able to find their products or similar ones locally. Or, you might be able to find a contractor who uses those products if you don't want to do it yourself.

91AggieLawyer said:

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You, or your contractor, MUST grind the floor. If you don't, don't even bother. The acid wash is barely more than power washing.

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If you are starting with an old slab that has motor oil and paint and other crap sorbed into the surface, that is probably true. But if you are starting with a new house slab that was recently poured, I don't think grinding is an absolute requirement to get good adherence and a strong surface. The product does matter. I wouldn't bother with the products that can be cleaned up with water and soap. The Polycuramine stuff I listed above was immune to water, mineral spirits, and Varsol when my FIL was trying to clean a brush used to cut in the edges. The only thing that cleaned it up was denatured alcohol.

Did you have any issues with getting water on drywall? I was wanting to power wash the trim and floor but wasn't sure about messing up drywall

Not really. I am sure maybe a bit splashed up there while we were pressure washing but I tried to aim to minimize that. We had the garage door open to the west with sun shining in all afternoon after we finished washing and etching so I am sure it dried up quickly.

I use one of these attached to the end of my power-washer wand to clean concrete surfaces. It keeps the overspray down considerably and does a MUCH better job of cleaning consistently. The spray tips are on a spinning tube under the splash hood. The spinning action eliminates streaks and cleans very evenly. It basically hovers using the pressure of the water and you just move it around like a vacuum cleaner.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-Universal-18-in-Surface-Cleaner-for-Cold-Water-Pressure-Washers-Rated-up-to-3700-PSI-DXPA34SC/310460885

It seems a bit expensive, but if you need it clean, I highly recommend it. There are other cheaper brands (e.g. Ryobi) that typically are a little smaller that are cheaper and probably fine, but I haven't personally tried them.

Btw, my builder tried to paint the garage floor, but we are having to go back and do something like Epoxy, so thanks for starting the thread.

- Mr. agmom95

I used Wolverine epoxy from Alpha Garage in an 1800 square foot storage building, with a polyurethane top coat. That was 12 years ago, and it still looks practically new except for a few scratches from my stamped steel car ramps that slid before I learned to put them on plywood. There is also a little yellowing of the polyurethane where it got a lot of sun exposure from leaving the door open.

The concrete was 3 years old at the time, and I rented a grinder for a weekend to prepare the floor, followed by an etch with pool acid.

https://alpha-garage.com/
(Remove the dash in the link, apparently filters don't like p*h*a*g)

txags92 said:

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We just moved into a new house in March and the week before we moved in we did the garage floor ourselves using the Rustoleum Rock Solid Polycuramine kit. https://www.amazon.com/Rust-Oleum-293513-Polycuramine-Garage-Floor/dp/B06XJ17JVD

My wife and I pressure washed the floor and then did the etch on a Saturday, let it dry overnight and put down the coating on Sunday afternoon. We have been very happy with it so far and it is very durable. It wasn't hard at all to put down and cleanup is easy when you just throw the roller head they give you away when you are done. It was probably 3-4 hours tops split over two days and was fully hard in about 36 hours.

We just did my father in laws new storage building floor with the same stuff over the weekend and his turned out very well too.

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Can echo this one. Used it to cover our 1,200 square foot shop floor and it's held up to everything I've thrown at it. It was new concrete and just used the acid etch.

dahouse said:

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Can confirm. Did my last house with the kit from Home Depot. I did the acid wash and followed directions. Had some spots eventually bubble up and some other spots scraped off.

Moved into my current house in 2020 and paid a local business that does it. He charged $2.80/sqft, worked out to $1100 or $1300. Anyway, they came in the day before with a diamond bit pneumatic thing and really roughed up the concrete, then they pressure washed it.

Next day was application, that had to cure overnight. Then they did the clear coat.

Way better than the DIY stuff.

Be careful though, prices are all over. I had two companies quote over $5.50/ft

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Where are you located? I just got off the phone with lady that wouldn't give me a ballpark quote on $/sq ft. She said due to 3 different ways to work on floor, but the same materials. What product did you use for the $2.80 quote?

I'm in Katy. I used a local guy that was recommended by some neighbors. He used a three part Sherwin Williams product similar to what I have used in the midstream energy industry for coatings. Then he applied clear coat.

He ended up doing most of the cul de sac as we were the first house in the section

agmom95 said:

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I use one of these attached to the end of my power-washer wand to clean concrete surfaces. It keeps the overspray down considerably and does a MUCH better job of cleaning consistently. The spray tips are on a spinning tube under the splash hood. The spinning action eliminates streaks and cleans very evenly. It basically hovers using the pressure of the water and you just move it around like a vacuum cleaner.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-Universal-18-in-Surface-Cleaner-for-Cold-Water-Pressure-Washers-Rated-up-to-3700-PSI-DXPA34SC/310460885

It seems a bit expensive, but if you need it clean, I highly recommend it. There are other cheaper brands (e.g. Ryobi) that typically are a little smaller that are cheaper and probably fine, but I haven't personally tried them.

Btw, my builder tried to paint the garage floor, but we are having to go back and do something like Epoxy, so thanks for starting the thread.

- Mr. agmom95

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Bought my dad the ryobi for Christmas a few years ago. Saw it recommended on here. He loves it.

Thank You!

I've used Diamond cut garage floor on two different houses in DFW and highly recommend them. They grind and the floor holds up. Don't know if they go to East Texas or not but worth a call.

I would definitely agree that whatever product you use, you definitely want to profile the concrete first. Our company, Stampede Coatings, uses 700lb diamond grinders to prepare the concrete to receive the coating well.

For our product, we use a Polyurea base coat and a Polyaspartic top coat. We have put down nearly 4,000 floors and they are holding up great.

We would be happy to send someone out to give you a free quote on your floor if you like! We have offices in College Station, Temple, and Tyler, TX serving all of their surrounding areas.

Here is a link to where you can request a free quote if that would be helpful: FREE QUOTE

My BIL does this. Prep is key. Renting a concrete grinder and roughing up the surface is a must.

There are also other items you will need to make sure you do it right.

We did Swisstrax in lieu of epoxy and couldn't be happier.