I want to give my garage floor a new look and I’m considering either painting or staining the concrete. What are the benefits of each method? I’m in California, so it doesn’t get too warm or cold.
Mark F. ~ San Diego, California
Painting or Staining Concrete for a Garage Floor?
Both options will provide a dramatic change for your garage floor. There are many color options for paint, but be sure to select a paint specifically designed for garage floors. In order for a paint to look good and adhere well to any concrete floor a significant amount of surface preparation is necessary.
Paint will wear and chip so also take this into consideration. Concrete stains are the result of a chemical reaction with the concrete and will be more permanent. There are water and acid based stains. There are fewer color options with the acid based stains, and they tend to be tricky to get consistent color results.
The water based stains have more color options and tend to be more forgiving during application and can be reapplied to adjust a color or pattern. Both paint and stain will make your floor much more slippery, so consider using final surface treatment with grip in it.
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I have had bad luck with epoxy paint made especially for garage floors. It looked good for a short while and then peeled and bubbled and now looks like heck. It was an old garage, so I am sure the moisture was out of the slab…any ideas why this product failed?
It’s all in the prep.Garage floor slabs, particularly old slabs, require proper preparation ie; bead blasting, grinding or at the very least acid etching.Genrally, homeowners will acid etch but don’t neutralize the acid salts properly resulting in a loss of bond. Also, never assume that a slab even an old one has no moisture problems. Even though there may be no evidence such as efflourescence (whitening) prior to the epoxy application, when the surface is blocked with a solid material, if there is an underslab moisture condition it will have no way to vent causing bubbling and loss of bond. Always perform at least a moisture mat test before beginning project.
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Sorry to seem spammy, but I bought some tiles from bigfloors and they rock. Google them. To me, the whole process seems much easier than putting down paint or epoxy.
Joshua – Yep, the tiles are made for garage floors. They’re plastic, not ceramic, so they won’t crack and are made to handle “50,000 lb. rolling loads.” I assume that means they’re strong!
Chevy…you tiled the garage? Unless they were industrial tiles, I would be afraid that the wait of a car would eventually crack them?
Thanks for the tip.
Joshua, The primary reason your epoxy paint failed… was not how you mixed it or how you put it down…it lies in the surface preparation. You need to grind the floor, sometime sanding is all you need..but it has to be to bare concrete.
Another good step…that the air force specifies for hanger floors, is a product called CMW, Crystalline Matrix Waterproofinging. this a water based chemical…that goes down on the bare concrete with water and is scrubbed into the surface 24 to 48 hours before coating. This material forms a gel barrier down in the concrete that stops ground moisture from coming up throught the slab and causing your epoxy to lose it bond. This believe it or not the considered the primary cause of floor failures… even for the Pro’s.
As a contractor & former owner of a decorative concrete supply store I may be biased, but I have seen nothing but problems from any garage coatings from Lowes/Home Depot. I would suggest finding a local decorative concrete supply store. They will have far superior epoxy coatings. Prep, however, is key even for the best products & a good supplier will be more knowledgable about their products than a big box store employee. They should be able to tell you everything you need to know from prep to future maintenance & everything in between. Good luck on your project.
My paint supplier is based out of Los Angeles and has developed a Chrome Paint System for Concrete. We think this will have many uses like garage & industrial flooring, building walls for advertising, and so many other uses. We have developed the system and now we need a partner to evaluate the Chrome Paint System on real concrete projects vs lab samples.
Do you have any references or ideas?
Thanks in advance for your time and thoughts!